Hand Brew Parameter Recommendations for Ethiopia Washed Sidamo G1 Shakisso Specialty Coffee Beans

Pour-over Sidamo Brewing Guide

Pour-over Sidamo: 15g coffee grounds, medium-fine grind (Fuji ghost-tooth grinder setting 3.5), V60 dripper, water temperature 91-93°C. First pour 30g water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level drops to halfway, then slowly pour until reaching 225g total. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Product Information

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

Ethiopian Sidamo Shakisso Washed

Country: Ethiopia

Grade: G1

Region: Shakisso region, Guji Zone

Roast Degree: Light roast

Processing Method: Washed

Washed coffees tend to have fewer wild flavors, with clean and refreshing characteristics, and suit City to Full City roast levels. Some exceptionally high-quality Ethiopian washed beans may show distinct notes of uplifting lemon, citrus essential oils, jasmine fragrance, and honey, with more prominent acidity and a lighter body.

"Ethiopian Sidamo" is a single-origin type of Arabica coffee grown in Ethiopia's Sidamo province. Like most African coffees, Ethiopian Sidamo has small gray-green beans, but its distinctive features include rich, spicy, wine-like, or chocolate-like flavors with floral notes. The most characteristic flavors found in all Sidamo coffees are lemon and citrus, with a bright, crisp acidity. Sidamo coffees include Yirgacheffe and Guji, both of excellent quality.

Variety: Local native Heirloom

Producer: Local small farmers

Flavor: White grape juice, citrus, Earl Grey tea sensation

Sidamo Region

Sidamo coffee flavors are extremely diverse. Different soil compositions, regional microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties create significant differences and characteristics from town to town. The Sidamo region lies in southern Ethiopia, where agriculture dominates the economy and coffee-growing areas sit around the Great Rift Valley.

Region Introduction

Shakisso is located in the Guji Zone of Sidamo, in the southern part of the Oromia region, adjacent to Sidama and Gedeo. The area has many old mine pits from gold mining, so there are numerous holes in this coffee-growing region, making walking between plantations dangerous. Shakisso is a unique region within Guji and Sidamo; even within Sidamo it is remote and far from most coffee-producing locations, and the region's other famous product is gold. Factors such as miners, land, and ethnicity also caused unrest here in 2006. The region's biggest problem now is finding the manpower to tend the plantations and harvest the coffee.

Local smallholders here began growing organic coffee in 2001 and work closely with medium-sized producers familiar with highland forest coffee. It is one of the micro-regions of Sidamo with very distinct regional character. Coffee from here is quite unique and has repeatedly drawn market attention. The legendary Ninety Plus bean (Nekisse) originally means "Nectar from Shakisso," and both its origin and name come from Shakisso.

Flavor Description

Lemon and citrus with a bright, crisp acidity, lemon, citrus, white grape juice, blackcurrant, with Earl Grey tea notes in the finish.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Shakisso's clean, washed, citrus-and-Earl-Grey profile is best understood alongside FrontStreet Coffee's Gedeb cooperative washed Yirgacheffe. Originally part of the Worka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers' Cooperative Union and later recognized as a single-terroir lot, it carries bright citrus and lemon acidity and jasmine fragrance with no heavy bitterness: the clearest picture of what a washed Ethiopian coffee can do.

If you want the wilder, fruit-forward side of the same Sidamo world, FrontStreet Coffee's Hamesha (Hamasho) natural is a fine contrast. Built mainly on the JARC 74-series disease-resistant varieties, its 74158 lot has especially small beans and striking floral and fruity aromas, with scents of perfume lemon, strawberry, and star fruit and clear strawberry, star fruit, and green grape sweetness on the palate.

To go deeper into Ethiopia's origins, FrontStreet Coffee's Kafa Forest coffee grows between 1400 and 2100 meters in a shaded, original red-soil rainforest and is given a medium-light roast, showing clear white florals and a bright lemon acidity with sweet orange and bergamot, a light melon-and-nut sweetness, and a green-tea-like body.