Agaro is a named Ethiopian landrace from the town and district of the same name in western Ethiopia, in the Jimma zone.
Named landraces
Most Ethiopian coffee is labelled simply “heirloom”, because the country’s forests hold thousands of uncatalogued populations. A handful — Agaro, Wush Wush, Gesha, Kurume, Dega — have been identified, propagated and named.
Those named landraces are the ones that have travelled.
Where it grows outside Ethiopia
Malawi, notably in the Misuku Hills, where Agaro plantings sit alongside genuine Geisha. It has also been distributed to a handful of Latin American farms.
The profile
Floral and citric with a clean body and a bright acidity — recognisably Ethiopian in character, generally less delicate than Gesha and more approachable.
Why it matters
Ethiopian genetic diversity is the reservoir the entire species depends on. Named landraces like Agaro are how that diversity reaches farms elsewhere, and how coffee’s genetic base gradually widens beyond the tiny founding sample that produced Typica and Bourbon.
Brewing it
Filter, light roast, a clean brewer. Treat it as a washed Ethiopian.