Sidamo Natural Shakisso G1 Guji Honey Premium Coffee Beans: Grind Size, Roast Level & Processing Method

Factory Name: Coffee Workshop
Factory Address: FrontStreet Coffee, 10 Bao'an Front Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk
Origin: Ethiopia

Sidamo Natural G1

Country: Sidamo

Grade: G1

Origin: Guji

Roast Level: Medium-Light

Processing Method: Natural

Variety: Local Heirloom

Region: Shakicha

Flavor Profile: Cranberry, Sweet Orange, Plum, Blueberry

Shakicha stands apart within the Guji area of the Sidamo Valley, far from most of Sidamo province's coffee regions. The area's other famous industry is gold mining, and factors around labor, land, and ethnicity have kept the region unstable. Even so, the coffee here is quite special: Ninety Plus's legendary bean Nekisse also comes from this area.

The name Nectar originally referred to the flower nectar of Shakicha, and if you search "Guji" on the Coffee Review website you will find more than ten reviews scoring above 92 points, several of them as high as 94 and 95.

Shakisso, in Guji in the southern Oromia region, borders Sidama and Gedeo. The area is dotted with mine pits left over from gold mining, so there are many holes across the coffee-growing land, which makes walking between plots dangerous. Shakissa is a distinctive producing area within Guji/Sidamo, remote even by Sidamo standards and far from most coffee origins, while its other famous product is gold. Factors such as miners, land, and ethnicity also left the region unstable in 2006. As a result, the biggest problem it faces today is finding the manpower to maintain the growing areas and harvest the coffee. Local smallholders here began growing organic coffee in 2001 and work closely with medium-sized producers, because they know well how to grow forest coffee in highland terrain.

Tasting Notes

[Dry Aroma] Sweet cherry, raisin, dried fruit, preserved plum, dried pineapple, strawberry

[Wet Aroma] Cherry, cranberry, sweet orange, plum, blueberry, honey peach, lychee

[Slurping] The entry is like a sweet, juicy honey peach with the acidity of sweet pineapple. The mid-palate floods the mouth with intense aromas of cranberry, blueberry, strawberry, pineapple, and dried fruit. The finish carries lychee and plum flavors with a dried-fruit viscosity. The whole cup is like a tropical fruit storm, elegant yet dominant, falling into an ocean of nectar exactly as its name suggests.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To taste Ethiopia's specialty character, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with the entry-level washed Yirgacheffe, where you get clear jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia, mild all year round, often wrapped in mist, cool and humid, where thousands of coffee trees thrive and give the coffee its signature interweaving of florals and fruit acidity, a light, elegant, tea-like cup that drinks like a clean, refreshing lemon tea.

Most Ethiopian coffee follows a garden-farming model in which smallholders deliver their cherries to a village-level processing station and the coffee is sold under the producing team's name, which is why you see cooperatives large and small. FrontStreet Coffee's Gedingding Cooperative sits in the Worka area at Yirgacheffe's southeastern edge and was once part of the Worka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe union YCFCU. As buyers pursued traceability, single-origin areas were gradually uncovered, and in 2012 Gedingding, with about 300 member farmers, became an independent cooperative. Because the fruit is pulped before drying, the coffee's own aroma comes through more clearly, with citrus and lemon tones and elegant white florals, bright and delicate overall.

For a natural option, FrontStreet Coffee's sun-dried Red Cherry starts by removing damaged or moldy fruit, then dries the cherries in the sun for two weeks until the fruit sugars and essence have seeped into the bean and moisture drops to 12%. The hardened fruit, mucilage, and parchment are then scrubbed away by machine, and the beans pass density and color checks, with defective beans removed and workers picking out any stragglers by eye, so every bean is specialty quality with a clean, elevated character and deep, captivating fruit aroma. Its flavor notes are peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon.

Also from Sidamo, FrontStreet Coffee's sun-dried Huakui comes from the Hambella area of Guji, Sidamo. The farm covers 200 hectares and uses traditional natural processing. To keep the cherries from molding or picking up earthy off-notes while drying, workers spread the ripe fruit on raised beds for 21 days, turning it constantly for even drying and hand-sorting out defective or moldy beans every three to five days. Once the skin dries hard it is removed by a huller, and after the green beans are obtained, farmers do one final sort for the perfect cup. Because the fruit and skin stay on throughout drying, a medium-light roast brings out a light fermented wine aroma, florals, citrus, and mango, with a richer, more complex body, honey sweetness, cocoa notes, a touch of spice, a thick mouthfeel, and a long finish.