What Does Washed Yirgacheffe Aricha Taste Like & How to Brew It

About Project Origin

Sasa Sestic, the 2015 World Barista Champion, launched a green bean sourcing project called Project Origin with his business team at ONA Coffee three years ago. The project works directly with coffee-farming families in poor countries and regions to improve their production conditions and pays them purchase prices 20% higher than fair trade prices.

The project's original purpose also includes strengthening the bond between roasters and coffee farmers and guiding growers toward producing higher-quality beans. 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, and a long-lasting aftertaste.

Yirgacheffe Processing Methods

Yirgacheffe falls into two main categories by green bean processing method:

Category A: Washed processing, graded according to the standards of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) into Gr-1 and Gr-2, where the smaller Arabic number indicates the higher grade. G1 washed Yirgacheffe has a distinctive style, with citrus and floral notes woven through the cup — a flavor nobody can resist;

Category B: Natural (dry) processing, graded into Gr-1, Gr-3, Gr-4, and Gr-5. Likewise, the highest-grade G1 natural Yirgacheffe has a rich fruity aroma. Opening a bag of freshly roasted G1 natural Yirgacheffe can overturn everything you thought you knew about coffee — only those who have tasted top-grade natural Yirgacheffe will believe that coffee really is a fruit.

Product Information

Ingredients: In-house roasted
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Raw/Roasted: Roasted coffee beans
Contains Sugar: Sugar-free
Origin: Ethiopia
Roast Level: Light roast

Processing Method: Washed

Happy coffee farmers first pick the cherries from the trees, then pour them into pools filled with water. Because ripeness changes a cherry's density, overripe and underripe cherries — along with leaves and twigs — float on the surface, while fully ripe cherries sink. This naturally screens the cherries in their first round of selection.

The selected ripe cherries then enter the depulper, where the skin and pulp are removed;

Brewing Instructions

Hand-poured Yirgacheffe. 15g coffee, medium-fine grind (Fuji ghost-tooth burr grinder at setting 3.5), V60 dripper, water temperature 91-93°C. First pour 30g of water and let it bloom for 27 seconds, then pour to 105g and stop. Once the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway, continue pouring slowly until you reach 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Next, the beans still coated with pulp and mucilage enter the fermentation stage, fermenting with microorganisms in water or in the air. After fermentation, the beans, still in their parchment, move through washing channels to be rinsed clean. Washing is followed by drying, during which the green beans' moisture content is kept as close to 12% as possible. They are then packed into jute bags and rested for about 2-3 months of conditioning for greater stability, and finally hulled from their parchment just before sale!

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Aricha G1 Washed

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

This Yirgacheffe lot was produced at the Kebel Aricha processing station, where roughly 650-700 smallholder coffee farmers from the surrounding area bring their ripe cherries for processing in exchange for cash.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia's southern Sidamo province at roughly 1,700-2,100 meters, with coffee planted above 1,800 meters — among the highest coffee elevations in the world. Its instantly recognizable white floral notes and lemon-citrus acidity have made the name a byword for Ethiopian specialty coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe house lot shows exactly that profile: white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a delicate tea-like finish, at an approachable price that makes it a perfect first specialty bean for newcomers.

For brewing, FrontStreet recommends a V60 with 90-91°C water, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, and a fine-sugar grind (about 80% passing through a #20 sieve). Pour in three stages: 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then 95g to reach about 125g on the scale within the first minute, and finally 100g to reach about 225g at around 1:35, with drawdown finishing between 2:00 and 2:10.