Ethiopia Washed Sidamo G1 Shakisso Specialty Coffee Bean Flavor, Taste, and Aroma Characteristics

Shakisso sits at the far edge of Ethiopia's Guji zone, and the washed coffees that come out of it taste like the place: precise, floral, and a little wild around the edges. This is a Grade 1 Sidamo, and it shows exactly why the region has held its reputation for so long.

Flavor Description

Lemon and citrus up front, carried by a bright, crisp acidity. White grape juice and blackcurrant build through the middle of the cup, and the finish closes on the bergamot-like lift of Earl Grey tea.

Product Information

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee
Ingredients: House-roasted
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Roasted coffee beans
Sugar Content: Sugar-free
Origin: Ethiopia
Coffee Type: Other
Roast Degree: Light roast

Ethiopia Sidamo Shakisso Washed

Country: Ethiopia

Grade: G1

Region: Shakisso, Guji Zone

Roast Level: Light roast

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Local heirloom

Producer: Local smallholder farmers

Flavor: White grape juice, citrus, Earl Grey tea

The Sidamo Coffee Region

Sidamo covers a remarkable range of flavors, because the soil, the microclimates, and the countless native coffee varieties change from one town to the next. The growing region lies in southern Ethiopia, where agriculture is the main industry, and the coffee gardens are planted around the Great Rift Valley.

"Ethiopian Sidamo" is a single-origin Arabica grown in the old Sidamo province. Like most African coffees it has small, slightly grayish beans, but its signature is a rich, spicy, wine-like or chocolate body layered with floral notes. The flavor that ties every Sidamo lot together is lemon and citrus over a bright, crisp acidity. Both Yirgacheffe and Guji fall inside the wider Sidamo family, and both are of excellent quality.

Washed coffees are much less likely to show wild, fermented flavors. They tend to be pure and refreshing instead, and they suit City to Full City roast levels. The very best Ethiopian washed lots sometimes throw off distinct rising lemon and citrus oils, jasmine florals, and honey sweetness, with more pronounced acidity and a lighter body.

Inside Shakisso

Shakisso is a district in the Guji zone of Sidamo, in the south of the Oromia region, next to Sidama and Gedeo. The area holds many old mining pits, dug for gold, and the leftover holes are scattered right through the coffee gardens, which makes walking the plantations a genuinely hazardous business. Shakisso is a distinctive producing area even within Guji and Sidamo, a remote corner far from most coffee origins, and gold mining is its other famous local product. Miners, land, and manpower all shaped the region's history in 2006, and the biggest problem the area faces today is simply the labor needed to maintain the gardens and bring in the harvest.

Local smallholders here began growing organic coffee in 2001 and work closely with medium-sized producers who understand how to farm forest coffee in the highlands. The result is one of the micro-regions with the strongest regional character inside Sidamo, and Shakisso coffee has repeatedly drawn market attention for its considerable uniqueness. Ninety Plus's legendary Nekisse bean takes its name from that reputation: "Nekisse" originally meant "nectar from Shakisso," and both the origin and the name come from this district.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For anyone who loves the floral, citrus-driven character of washed Ethiopian coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe daily bean is the natural first stop. It is famous for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a clean tea-like body, and its friendly price has made it the very first specialty coffee for a great many drinkers. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia, in the old Sidamo province, with coffee planted between 1700 and 2100 meters and the trees themselves sitting above 1800 meters, making it one of the highest growing regions in the world.

One step further up is FrontStreet Coffee's Gedingding Cooperative, a standout washing team in Gedingding village in the Worka district on the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe. It was once part of the Worka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, and as demand for traceability grew it was separated out as a single-origin lot in its own right. The cooperative keeps to the most traditional washed processing, which is why the cup stays free of the heavy bitterness people expect from coffee and instead delivers clean, bright citrus and lemon acidity alongside jasmine perfume. FrontStreet roasts it light-medium, releasing green tea and honey notes; it works beautifully as pour-over, cold brew, or espresso.

If you want the same terroir with fruit and sweetness pushed forward, FrontStreet Coffee's natural Red Cherry is the one to try. Only fully ripe, sound cherries are picked, given a first sorting at the mill, then laid out on raised beds to dry. In the first few days the fruit is turned every 2-3 hours so it does not over-ferment in the heat, and after 3-5 weeks of drying the dried pulp is machined off and the beans are stored. Because the coffee dries with the fruit still attached, it keeps the classic Yirgacheffe profile while adding tropical natural-process aromatics: citrus-like acidity, juicy berry, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness. For all three, FrontStreet recommends a V60, 90-91°C water, 15g of coffee, and a 1:15 ratio, ground to fine-sugar size (fine enough that 20-mesh screen passing runs about 80%). Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 95g (about 125g on the scale), then finish with the remaining 100g (about 225g on the scale) once the bed has dropped to two-thirds, for a total brew of roughly 2:00 to 2:10.