Wush wush tea is a high-grown specialty tea from the Wush Wush area of the Kaffa highlands in southwestern Ethiopia — a corner of the world far better known for coffee. Grown on misty slopes at roughly 1,900 metres (about 6,200 ft), it is turned into smooth, sweet, gently fruity black and green teas that a growing circle of specialty drinkers has learned to seek out. This guide explains what Wush Wush tea is, where and how it grows, and why a tea from the birthplace of coffee is worth knowing.
What is Wush Wush tea?
Wush Wush is both a place and a name. The Wush Wush area sits in the Gimbo district of the Kaffa Zone, in the lush, high, rain-soaked country of southwestern Ethiopia. A large tea estate there, together with its older sister garden at Gumaro (also spelled Gumero), grows true tea (Camellia sinensis) and processes it into finished black and green tea. When people say "Wush Wush tea," they usually mean tea from this single origin.
Because it is a true tea, Wush Wush sits inside the same handful of categories as every other leaf tea; if you want the full map of black, green, oolong and the rest, see our overview of the types of tea. What makes Wush Wush distinctive is not a new processing method but where it is grown: a high, humid, equatorial highland famous the world over for coffee rather than tea.
A tea from the birthplace of coffee
Here is the one thing to remember about Wush Wush tea: it comes from the country most people think of first for coffee. Ethiopia is widely regarded as the birthplace of Arabica coffee, and its southwestern forests are the wild home of the coffee plant. Yet those same lush, high-rainfall highlands also grow a genuinely good tea — a crossover origin that surprises almost everyone who tastes it. That contrast is the whole appeal: a well-made leaf tea from the heart of coffee country.
The name has traveled, too. "Wush Wush" is also a rare Ethiopian coffee variety, an heirloom type that growers in Colombia and Panama now plant for its delicate, floral, almost tea-like cup. That is a different plant and a different drink from the tea in this guide — but the fact that one small southwestern locality lends its name to both a prized coffee and a rising specialty tea says a lot about how fertile this corner of Ethiopia is. Keep the two clearly separate: Wush Wush the coffee is a bean; Wush Wush the tea is brewed from tea leaves.
Where Wush Wush grows: the Kaffa highlands
The Wush Wush estate lies at around 1,900 metres above sea level, on fertile red-brown soil, in a mild and even climate — daytime temperatures generally in the range of about 12–24°C. Rain is the defining feature: heavy annual rainfall, on the order of 1,800 mm, spread across nine or ten months of the year. That long wet season, thin equatorial air and rich soil give the bushes a slow, steady flush and the kind of clean, high-grown character that specialty tea drinkers prize.
Tea is a relative newcomer here. The older of the two estates, Gumaro, is usually described as Ethiopia's first tea farm, with tea seed introduced in the late 1920s. Wush Wush itself began as a trial planting in the early 1970s and was expanded from the 1980s onward into a large commercial garden of well over 1,000 hectares. The two estates are run today by a single Ethiopian agri-business, and their tea has been Rainforest Alliance certified. Tea is now grown commercially at a third estate, Chewaka, as well, though Wush Wush and Gumaro remain the best-known names. By world standards the output is small — a handful of estates rather than a national industry — which is part of why Wush Wush reads as a specialty lot rather than a bulk tea.
How Wush Wush is grown and made
The bushes are mostly assamica-type clones — selections such as BB-35 and SR-18 are among the improved varieties grown in Ethiopia's tea gardens — chosen to suit the warm, wet highland conditions. From that leaf the estates make both black and green tea, and the black tea comes in both the fine-grained CTC style and the whole-leaf orthodox style. That crush-tear-curl-versus-orthodox choice mainly changes the grade and body of the cup, not the origin; the leaf is the same Kaffa-grown tea either way.
Most of what reaches the wider world is black tea, and the fully oxidized black style is where Wush Wush first built its name. If black tea as a category is new to you, our guide to what black tea is covers how oxidation turns green leaf dark. The green tea, made by halting oxidation early, is less widely seen but increasingly sought out for its softer, sweeter side.
What Wush Wush tea tastes like
Wush Wush black tea pours a bright, coppery-amber liquor with a smooth, rounded body. Expect a brisk, lightly malty cup with a natural sweetness and a soft fruitiness — approachable and clean rather than sharp or tannic, and generally easy to drink without milk. It is often compared to the bright, full East African style, which makes sense given the shared high-altitude, equatorial growing conditions.
The green version is gentler still: sweet, mellow and fruity, with far less grassy bite than many green teas. Across both styles, the through-line is smoothness and a fruit-forward sweetness — the qualities that have turned "Wush Wush" into a name specialty buyers now look for rather than a generic bulk tea.
Wush Wush tea at a glance
| Attribute | Wush Wush tea |
|---|---|
| Origin | Wush Wush / Gimbo, Kaffa Zone, southwestern Ethiopia |
| Altitude | Around 1,900 m (about 6,200 ft) |
| Plant | Camellia sinensis, mostly assamica-type clones (e.g. BB-35, SR-18) |
| Styles made | Black (CTC and orthodox) and green tea |
| Climate | Mild, roughly 12–24°C; heavy rain over 9–10 months (~1,800 mm) |
| Black liquor | Bright coppery-amber |
| Black flavour | Brisk, lightly malty, smooth, gently fruity |
| Green flavour | Soft, sweet, fruity, low grassiness |
| Certification | Rainforest Alliance (estate tea) |
| Caffeine | Present; moderate and variable |
How Wush Wush compares to Kenyan and other African teas
Wush Wush belongs to the wider world of African specialty tea, and its closest reference point is the tea of the East African highlands. The obvious neighbour is Kenya, the continent's tea giant; our guide to Kenyan tea covers that industry in depth. Both share high altitude, rich soils and a mostly assamica-type leaf, and both lean toward bright, brisk, full-bodied black tea. The differences are mainly ones of scale and emphasis.
| Feature | Wush Wush (Ethiopia) | Kenyan tea |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Kaffa highlands, SW Ethiopia | Highlands around Kericho, Nandi and beyond |
| Altitude | ~1,900 m | ~1,500–2,700 m |
| Main styles | Black and green | Mostly CTC black |
| Typical cup | Smooth, malty, fruity | Brisk, coppery, full-bodied |
| Scale | Small; a few large estates | Very large; a top global exporter |
Compared with the huge, CTC-dominated Kenyan output, Ethiopian tea is small and Wush Wush in particular is positioned as a smoother, more characterful specialty lot offered as both black and green tea. It is best understood not as a rival to the East African bulk trade but as a distinctive single-origin curiosity from coffee country.
How to brew Wush Wush tea
Wush Wush is an easygoing tea that asks for no special equipment. For the black tea, use freshly boiled water (around 95–100°C / 205–212°F), about 2–3 g of leaf per cup, and steep for three to four minutes; it takes milk well but is clean enough to enjoy on its own. The green tea prefers cooler water — roughly 75–80°C (about 170–175°F) — and a shorter steep of two to three minutes, which keeps its sweetness forward and avoids drawing out bitterness. As with any tea, start light and lengthen the steep to taste rather than over-brewing from the start.
The bottom line
Wush Wush is one of the most quietly surprising origins in tea: a smooth, sweet, fruity leaf grown high in the Kaffa highlands of a country the world knows for coffee. It will not displace the great teas of China or the East African bulk trade, but as a well-made, high-grown African specialty tea with a genuine story, it is well worth seeking out — a reminder that the map of good tea is still being drawn.
Caffeine and a general note
As a true tea from the Camellia sinensis plant, Wush Wush contains caffeine. Black tea is often cited somewhere around 40–70 mg per cup and green tea a little lower, but the real amount varies widely with leaf grade, dose, water temperature and steeping time, so treat any single figure as an approximation.
Many people find a smooth, high-grown black tea an easy everyday cup, but responses to caffeine differ from person to person. This is general information, not medical advice; if you are sensitive to caffeine, are pregnant, or manage a health condition, follow your own clinician's guidance.