Ethiopian Washed Yirgacheffe Aricha G1 Specialty Coffee Beans: Grading, Pricing, Green Beans & Roast Level

About Project Origin

Sasa Sestic, the 2015 World Barista Champion, launched a green coffee sourcing project called Project Origin with his business team at ONA Coffee. The project works directly with coffee farmers in impoverished countries and regions, improving their production conditions and paying purchase prices 20% above fair trade prices.

The project's founding aims also include strengthening the connection between roasters and farmers, and guiding growers toward cultivating high-quality coffee. To date, Sasa has built relationships with coffee growers in eight countries, including Brazil, Panama, India, Ethiopia, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.

Flavor Description

Sweet citrus notes, green berries, peach, longan and red date aroma, honey sweetness, cocoa with subtle spice notes, full body with a persistent aftertaste

Yirgacheffe Coffee Classification

Yirgacheffe is sorted into two main categories based on green bean processing:

Category A covers washed coffees, graded to "Specialty Coffee Association of America" (SCAA) standards as Gr-1 and Gr-2, where the smaller Arabic numeral denotes the higher grade. G1 washed Yirgacheffe has a style all its own — citrus and floral notes woven through the cup in a way no one can resist;

Category B covers natural (dry) processed green beans, graded Gr-1, Gr-3, Gr-4, and Gr-5. Likewise, the top G1 natural Yirgacheffe is loaded with fruit aroma. Opening a bag of freshly roasted G1 natural Yirgacheffe can upend everything you thought you knew about coffee. Only those who have tasted the highest grade of natural Yirgacheffe truly believe that coffee is, at heart, a fruit.

Brewing Method

Hand-poured Yirgacheffe: 15g of coffee at a medium-fine grind (Fujimaru ghost-tooth grinder, setting 3.5), V60 dripper, 91-93°C water. First pour 30g of water and bloom for 27 seconds, then pour to 105g and pause. Once the water level drops to half the bed, continue pouring slowly up to 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, total extraction time 2:00.

Product Information

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee
Ingredients: Roasted in-house
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Light roast
State: Roasted coffee beans
Contains Sugar: Sugar-free
Origin: Ethiopia
Processing Method: Washed

The Washed Processing Method

First, farmers pick the coffee cherries from the trees and pour them into pools of water. Because cherries mature unevenly, their densities differ: overripe and unripe cherries — along with stray twigs and leaves — float, while fully ripe cherries sink. This first round of flotation screening naturally filters out the rejects.

The selected ripe cherries then enter the depulper, which strips away the skin and pulp.

Next, the beans, still coated in clinging mucilage, move into fermentation (fermented with microorganisms either in water or in the air). Once fermentation is complete, the parchment coffee enters washing channels to be scrubbed clean. After washing comes drying, which brings the green beans' moisture down to around 12%. The beans then rest in jute bags for 2-3 months to stabilize their quality. Finally, the parchment is milled off and they are ready for sale!

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Aricha G1 Washed

Country: Ethiopia
Grade: G1
Region: Yirgacheffe Gedeo
Altitude: 1900-2100 meters
Variety: Heirloom
Producer: Kebel Aricha
Flavor: Sweet orange, cherry, honey sweetness

This Yirgacheffe lot is produced at the Kebel Aricha processing station, where roughly 650-700 smallholder farmers from the surrounding area deliver their ripe cherries for processing and are paid in cash on the spot.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this washed G1 has you hooked on Yirgacheffe, FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Yirgacheffe house coffee is the classic starting point: known for white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish, all at a friendly price — the bean many coffee lovers use as their gateway into specialty coffee.

Yirgacheffe itself is a small town in Ethiopia's southern Sidamo zone at roughly 1700-2100 meters, with coffee planted above 1800 meters — one of the world's highest coffee regions. For a taste of one of its celebrated micro-lots, try the FrontStreet Coffee Aricha-style fruit-forward counterpart, the Natural Red Cherry Project: made only from fully ripe, defect-free cherries dried in the fruit for three to five weeks (turned every 2-3 hours in the first days to prevent uneven fermentation), it pairs classic Yirgacheffe citrus acidity with berry juice, honeyed sweetness, and a silky, cream-smooth texture.

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing recommendation for these Ethiopian beans: V60 dripper, 15g of coffee, 1:15 ratio, water at 90-91°C, grind at EK43s setting 10 / fine-granulated-sugar texture (80% pass on a #20 sieve). Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 125g on the scale within about a minute, then, once the bed drains to two-thirds, pour the remaining water to 225g by about 1'35". Drawdown finishes at 2:00-2:10 — lift the dripper and enjoy.