How Sidamo G2 Coffee is Made and How Sidamo Coffee Bean Grades are Classified

About Sidamo Coffee

Unlike many typical African coffees, Sidamo pairs clear fruit acidity with a smooth texture, layered with delicate floral and herbal aromas. Washed Sidamo is elegant yet playful: the gentle, pleasant entry gives way to bright lemon acidity, creating a striking sensory contrast. Its full-bodied flavor leaves a distinctive, appealing aftertaste, with a slowly rising finish of unique sweetness. The raw beans lean slightly grayish, coarse in some areas and fine in others. The acidity balances soft and intense qualities, the body holds an appropriate richness, and the sweet-spicy notes mark it as one of the classic garden coffees of Ethiopia's southern highlands.

Farmers harvest bright red cherries daily, with every two days' picking forming one unit of fruit sent or sold to the washing stations. Cherries that never reach a washing station are typically fermented naturally for about 12 hours, then sun-dried and hulled. Wherever possible, farmers send their cherries to washing stations, since "washed process" designation commands better prices. There, cherries soak and ferment for about 12 hours to soften the pulp, then travel through channels with stirring paddles that separate pulp from beans, the pulp discharged through gates.

Product Information

Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Green to roasted coffee beans
Sugar Content: Sugar-free
Origin: Ethiopia
Roast Degree: Light roast

Coffee Specifications

Sidamo G2 Washed

Country: Ethiopia
Grade: G2
Region: Sidamo
Roast Level: Light roast
Processing Method: Washed
Variety: Local indigenous (heirloom) varieties
Flavor Profile: Honey, citrus, lemon

Brewing Instructions

For pour-over Sidamo: use 15g of coffee at a medium-fine grind (Fujimazu ghost-tooth burr grinder, setting 3.5), V60 dripper, water temperature 91-93°C. Pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Once the water level drops to half, resume pouring slowly up to 225g total, avoiding the final tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

The Ethiopian Coffee Industry

Ethiopia's washing stations keep expanding. Smallholders sell their harvested cherries to processing plants, which hull the coffee before reselling it through the auction system. From there it travels to the Red Sea port of Assab in Eritrea and the port of Djibouti near the Gulf of Aden. Although coffee is the country's main agricultural export, domestic consumption is surprisingly high — roughly 1,500,000 60kg bags, about 50% of total production.

Wild coffee grows in the tropical rainforests of the southwestern plateau and is mostly hand-picked. Sadly, some locals damage the natural rainforest — logging or burning to reach rugged, hard-to-access mountain areas — seriously harming the ecological balance. Whether washed or sun-dried, all exported coffee goes to the capital Addis Ababa and to Dire Dawa in Harar province for auction export; the Dire Dawa center typically handles the region's sun-dried Harar. Farm-level coffee information is posted daily at the auction to facilitate trading, and designated Ethiopian officials inspect and grade coffee daily there, each random inspection drawing a 3kg sample from the same shipment.

Large numbers of wild Arabica varieties still grow across Ethiopia, at average altitudes between 4,200-6,800 feet. Small-scale cultivation is a growing trend, typically with banana trees planted alongside for shade. Because agricultural technology is limited, herbicides and pesticides see little use.

Coffee is Ethiopia's main economic crop — the largest agricultural export and an important industry, accounting for 60% of total export value and sustaining countless small farms. Other crops include sugarcane, bananas, and cotton. Coffee is also Ethiopia's largest and most important commodity export after oil, and Africa's largest Arabica export, valued at approximately $300 million in 1997.

By production volume, 94% comes from small farms and 6% from government institutions. Because so many farms are scattered and intercropped with other crops, accurate statistics are hard to compile — but official figures put total coffee cultivation area at no less than 400,000 hectares. The government encourages farmers to improve quality and productivity to expand commercial scale and increase production and exports.

Sidamo Region Details

The Sidamo region sits at 1,400-2,200 meters in southern Ethiopia near the Kenyan border — one of the country's most famous specialty coffee areas. Washed Sidamo beans appear light green, are modest in size, and grow in an oval shape. The cup is full-bodied with aromatic, mellow fragrance; one sip reveals an endless aftertaste with wild beauty. Sidamo's flavors are remarkably diverse — different soils, microclimates, and countless native varieties give each town's coffee its own distinct character.

From 2010-2012, Sidamo lots continuously scored 92-94 on the authoritative American coffee evaluation website CR — proof of the region's extraordinary quality. The landscape is varied: towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains. The geology consists of nutrient-rich, well-drained volcanic soil nearly two meters deep, dark brown to brown at the surface. The region's greatest advantage is that soil fertility is maintained through organic cycling — fallen leaves from surrounding trees and residual plant roots serve as fertilizer.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Sidamo's diversity intrigues you, FrontStreet Coffee's Sidama lineup makes an excellent exploration path. The naturally processed Flower Queen — from the Hambella area of Guji, dried 21 days on raised beds with constant turning and hand-sorting every three to five days — shows a light fermented wine note, florals, citrus, and mango, with honeyed sweetness, cocoa, a touch of spice, and a thick body with a long finish.

The Hamasho 74158 lot, built on the JARC 74-series disease-resistant varieties, is alluring from the first sniff — perfume lemon, strawberry, and star fruit sweetness — with clear strawberry, star fruit, and green grape flavors followed by gentle florals. And for something wilder, the Kaffa Forest beans, grown semi-wild at 1,400-2,100m under natural shade, offer white florals, bright lemon acidity, sweet orange and bergamot, and a green-tea-like finish in a medium-light roast.