Abyssinia

Ethiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia, or a coffee cultivar: Ethiopia, or more specifically the Empire under Haile Selassie,  was known as Abyssinia. The name is Latin, derived from Arabic “Ha bash”, but is a term Ethiopians were referred to from the outside, not in their own language. Habash is also th origin of the term Habesha, which refers to peoples of the Northern part of Ethiopia, such as the Amharic people. 2.

Abyssinia  can refer a coffee plant variety: Abyssinia variety was a coffee variety brought by Dutch agricultural researcher P.J.S. Cramer to Java in 1928. (It is not the original Typica brought from Yemen to Batavia, Java via India). Since then, the variety Abyssinia has been brought to other parts of Indonesia, notably Aceh area of Sumatra.  Abyssinia has a distinct longberry bean form, and bronze colored new leaf. AB-3 seems to be a pure arabica form, whereas AB-7 seems to be crossed with Timor Hybrid, according to discussions I have had with agronomists. Also see USDA Coffee Variety: another group of Ethiopian varieties found in Sulawesi, Java and Sumatra, after an American project that brought them to Indonesia in the 1950s.

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