Sidama to Sidamo to Sidama
posted by Luke Tiny changes are sometimes the most significant. The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange recently renamed one of that country’s most iconic products: Sidamo Coffee, long one of the best-recognized coffee brands in the world, will now be officially traded as Sidama Coffee. The switcharoo has passed with little fanfare, and many American roasters continue to offer their customers Sidamo—though this trend does seem to be changing. What’s the story here? Ethiopia’s Sidama zone (also formerly Sidamo) occupies the southwestern corner of that country, spreading out across a landscape of green hills from the great Rift Valley lakes of Abaya and Awasa. Coffee originated not far from here—the details are debated , but the northern Rift Valley and the Horn of Africa are generally recognized as the ancestral, wild homeland of arabica coffee. The Sidama people have lived here for longer than any tradition can recall, part of the Kushitic cultural patchwork that exten