Sidamo and Yirgacheffe

Sidamo and Yirgacheffe are the coffees that made southern Ethiopia famous. They grow high, at about 1,500–2,200 metres, and are known for berry and citrus flavours and a bright, crisp acidity. Both names are Ethiopian trademarks, at the centre of the country’s long fight with Starbucks in 2006 and 2007. And in the 2025/26 harvest, farmers here were paid record prices for their cherries.

The short version

• High-grown arabica, about 1,500–2,200 m.
• Berries and lemon, with bright, crisp acidity.
• Sidama region: about 13% of Ethiopia’s coffee.
• Record cherry prices: up to 250 birr a kilo in Yirgacheffe in December 2025.
• Trademarked names, registered in dozens of countries.

What does Sidamo coffee taste like?

Bright and fruity. Wikipedia describes Sidamo as well balanced, with notes of berries and citrus, especially lemon, and a bright, crisp, complex acidity. It credits the altitude: at 1,500 to 2,200 metres, the coffee grows slowly, enough to be graded “strictly high grown”, and develops more flavour.

Are Sidamo and Yirgacheffe the same?

Not quite, and the sources draw the line differently:

View	Source
Sidamo coffee includes Yirgacheffe and Guji coffee	Wikipedia
Buyers often need help “uncoupling numerous distinct Sidamo origins from Yirgacheffe”	Kew’s Coffee Atlas of Ethiopia team, in 25 Magazine
Sidamo and Yirgacheffe are separate trademarks	WIPO
The Sidama region is counted separately from the South Ethiopia region	Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, via USDA

In short: Sidama is today a region of its own, Yirgacheffe sits in the same southern coffee belt, USDA says, and whether its coffee counts as Sidamo depends on whom you ask.

How much coffee does it grow?

The Sidama region grew 12.9% of Ethiopia’s coffee on average over the last three years, and South Ethiopia another 7.1%, according to the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA). In 2025/26 the southern belt, including Sidama, Yirgacheffe, Guji and West Arsi, had a smaller crop, USDA reports: an expected dip after several strong years, and late rains that delayed the harvest by up to three weeks, especially high up. But the quality was strong: according to ECTA’s Sidama office, 97% of the coffee the region sent to market that year was Grade 1 or Grade 2.

Farmers are renewing old trees. By 2025/26, 13% of Sidama’s harvested coffee area had been stumped, cut back to regrow, and studies in Sidama and South Ethiopia found stumped trees can triple their yield within four years, USDA says.

What are farmers paid?

Record prices, at least in birr. When the 2025/26 harvest began, cherry prices tripled or quadrupled on the year before, USDA says, and co-operatives in Yirgacheffe district paid 220–250 birr a kilo (about US$1.42–1.62) for red cherry in December 2025. Costs climbed with them: picking wages in Sidama doubled from 5 to 10 birr a kilo. Many washing stations bought less, and more farmers dried their coffee as naturals at home, so washed coffee was harder to find, USDA reports.

When is it harvested?

During Ethiopia’s main harvest, from October to December, USDA says. In 2025/26, late rains delayed it by up to three weeks.

The trademarks

In 2004, Ethiopia set out to earn more of the retail price of its best-known coffees, of which, WIPO says, only 5–10% came back to the country. It registered Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Harrar as trademarks and licensed them free to roasters. By mid-2007 it had applied in 34 countries and won 28 registrations, including in Canada, the EU and Japan. The United States approved Yirgacheffe, but refused Sidamo in August 2006, after an objection from the US National Coffee Association. Oxfam accused Starbucks of being behind the objection; in June 2007 Ethiopia and Starbucks announced a licensing agreement, Wikipedia records.

Sidamo and other Ethiopian origins

• Coffee in Ethiopia: the whole country, its harvest and its history.
• Kaffa: the wild coffee forests of the south-west.
• Jebena buna: how Ethiopians brew it at home.