Guji

Guji coffee comes from the Guji zones of Oromia in the south of the country. Smallholders grow local heirloom arabica high in the hills, around districts such as Hambela, Uraga, Kercha and Shakiso, and its best lots score in the 90s with Coffee Review and the Cup of Excellence.

The short version

• Southern Ethiopia, in Oromia’s Guji zones.
• Around 1,900–2,100 metres, from local heirloom varieties.
• Washed: peach, bergamot, jasmine. Natural: blueberry, strawberry, chocolate.
• A 95-point washed Guji at Coffee Review in 2026.
• About 116,000 hectares of coffee in West Guji alone.

What does Guji coffee taste like?

Floral when washed, berry-sweet when natural. Coffee Review’s blind assessments of recent Guji coffees, all from smallholders growing local landrace varieties:

Coffee	Process	Score	Notes
Guji Hambela (Benti Nenka station)	Washed	95	White peach, bergamot, jasmine, lemon verbena, cocoa nib; bright, crystalline acidity
Guji Hambella Halaka G1	Natural	94	Blueberry, ripe strawberry, mango, honeysuckle, baking chocolate; gently winey
Guji Hambella Buku Valley G1	Natural	93	Blueberry, raspberry, hibiscus, baking chocolate, orange zest
Guji Hambela (Benti Nenka station)	Natural	92	Blueberry, black cherry, dried apricot, lavender, baking chocolate

Source: Coffee Review, 2026. The 95-point washed coffee was a finalist in the traditional washed category of the first Kenneth Davids Cup.

Guji also did well in the 2021 Cup of Excellence, whose results the Alliance for Coffee Excellence lists by zone and district:

Place	Producer	Zone and district	Process	Score
3	Tade GG Highland Forest Coffee Producer	East Guji, Odo Shakisso	Natural	90.37
10	Tatek Alemayehu	Guji, Uraga	Natural	88.40
13	Boledu Industrial	Guji, Hambela Wamena	Natural	88.37
24	Feysel Abdosh	Guji, Odo Shakiso	Anaerobic	87.59
27	Asmamaw Abebayehu	Guji, Uraga	Honey	87.50

Source: Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Ethiopia 2021.

Where is it grown?

In the Guji zones of Oromia, in southern Ethiopia. Some examples of what the farms look like:

Place	Detail	Source
Guracho washing station, Kercha	1,900–2,100 m; about 2,300 farmers; about 4,000 ha; harvest October–January	Atlas Coffee Importers
Guji Highland, Shakiso district	A 250-hectare plantation that also processes coffee from smallholders on another 400 ha	Sustainable Harvest
Benti Nenka station, Hambela	Smallholders’ local landrace varieties, washed and natural	Coffee Review

Where Guji belongs is not settled. Wikipedia says Sidamo coffee includes Guji coffee, and one Coffee Review listing gives a Guji coffee’s origin as the Sidamo growing region; most of its recent reviews, and the Cup of Excellence, put Guji in Oromia, separate from the Sidama region.

How much coffee does Guji grow?

There is no official production figure for all of Guji. For West Guji, the zone’s coffee, tea and spices office counted about 116,000 hectares under coffee, with an average yield of 7.36 quintals (736 kg) a hectare, according to a 2023 market study by researchers at Bule Hora University. Their study found that coffee markets in three districts were strongly oligopolistic, by the usual test that the four largest buyers handle more than half the trade.

The southern coffee belt, including Guji, Sidama, Yirgacheffe and West Arsi, had a smaller crop in 2025/26, USDA reports: a cyclical dip in yields, and late rains that delayed the harvest by up to three weeks, though quality was reported to be strong.

Guji and other Ethiopian origins

• Coffee in Ethiopia: the whole country, its harvest and its trade.
• Sidamo and Yirgacheffe: the neighbouring southern coffees.
• Harar: the natural coffee of the eastern highlands.