Konga Natural — Ethiopia

From the Birthplace of Coffee, at Its Most Expressive

Ethiopia is where coffee began — and Konga, a small village deep in the celebrated hills of Yirgacheffe, is where it shows off. This is a ripe, juicy, fruit-forward cup: crisp red apple and fresh orange, sweet grape, and a smooth cocoa depth underneath. The kind of coffee that reminds you it's a fruit.

It's a natural-process coffee, dried whole in the sun on raised beds, which is exactly where all that fruit character comes from. Roasted fresh at our Upper Hutt roastery and rested for 30 days, it's a joyful introduction to why Yirgacheffe is spoken about with such reverence.

Origin: Ethiopia 
Washing Station: Konga (Konga kebele)
Location: Yirgacheffe District, Gedeo Zone
Altitude: 1,800–2,000 masl 
Variety: Ethiopian heirloom (local landraces)
Process: Natural (sun-dried on raised beds)
Grade: Ethiopia Grade 1 (G1) — the country's top quality tier 

Tasting Notes

Red apple, orange, grapes, cocoa powder

Crisp red apple and fresh orange lead, giving the cup a lively lift, while sweet grape brings that unmistakable natural-process character — ripe, fruity and moreish. A smooth cocoa-powder depth rounds everything out and carries into a sweet, satisfying finish. Expressive, fun, and full of personality.

Coffee's Birthplace, and the Art of the Natural

Ethiopia isn't just a great coffee origin — it's the origin, the wild home of Coffea arabica and still the most genetically diverse coffee country on earth. Yirgacheffe is its crown jewel, and Konga is a benchmark village within it.

You'll notice the variety simply reads "heirloom," and we want to be honest about what that means: it isn't a single named variety, but a catch-all for the thousands of local landrace types that have grown wild and cultivated across these hills for centuries, interplanted and harvested together. Nobody can point to one cultivar — and that mixed, indigenous character is a big part of the magic.

The other half of the story is the process. Rather than washing the fruit away, the whole cherry is dried intact — seed and fruit together — on raised beds under the sun for around two to three weeks. As it dries, the coffee draws in sweetness and fruit from the surrounding pulp, developing those jammy grape-and-berry notes naturals are loved for. It's hands-on, high-care work: the cherries are raked continuously, covered through the hottest midday hours to slow the drying, and covered again at night to protect them from moisture.

Why This Coffee?

At Frank's, Passion and Innovation lead this one.

• Passion: A natural-process Yirgacheffe is coffee at its most joyful and expressive — a cup made by people who clearly love what they do.
• Innovation: The careful raised-bed drying — raked, covered, watched over — is craft in action, coaxing bold fruit from the cherry without letting it tip over.
• Excellence: From one of the most revered coffee names in the world, roasted by the team behind New Zealand's 2023 Barista Champion and a 4th-place finish at the 2024 World Barista Championship.
• Generosity: Grown by hundreds of smallholder families on tiny garden plots, delivered cherry by cherry to the local washing station.

Brewing Recommendations

Fruit-forward and rewarding — a little cooler than a washed coffee keeps it clean and sweet.

For Espresso Dose: 18g Yield: 38–45g (1:2–1:2.5) Time: 26–32 seconds Temperature: 90–93°C Naturals give a syrupy body and big fruit — a wonderfully expressive black shot. Keep the temperature down to keep it clean.

For Filter (V60) Coffee: 15g Water: 240g (1:16 ratio) Temperature: 90–94°C Grind: Medium (a touch finer if the flow runs fast) Brew time: 2:45–3:30 A slightly cooler brew keeps the apple and grape crisp and sweet.

Peak Freshness: 14–24 days post-roast, as the fruit settles and integrates.

These are our recommended starting points — adjust to your taste. Great coffee is coffee you enjoy.

Meet the Farmers

Konga is a kebele — a village — not a single farm. Around 800 smallholder farmers grow coffee here on small garden plots of roughly two hectares each (figures reported by Cofinet), in the shade, much as their families have for generations. At harvest, each grower hand-picks ripe cherries and delivers them to the local washing station, where they're dried and cared for with real attention.

Washing stations around Konga sit within Yirgacheffe's wider cooperative network, which channels value back to farming communities through shared infrastructure and market access. We've sourced this lot through our East African partner Cofinet so you can taste one of the world's great coffee origins at its expressive best.

Process & Sustainability

Natural processing is the oldest way to make coffee — and one of the most demanding to do well. Drying the whole cherry means the sugars and fruit compounds migrate into the seed, building that fruit-forward sweetness and fuller body. Done carelessly it can turn muddy or boozy; done well, as here, it's clean, sweet and vivid. Shade-grown and slowly ripened at high altitude, these cherries build the density and complexity that show up in the cup.

A joyful natural from coffee's original home, roasted with care in Upper Hutt.

Roasted fresh to order. Ships within 2–3 business days.

Questions about this coffee? Get in touch — we love talking coffee.=