The Origin of Yirgacheffe Natural Process Aricha Coffee and How Yirgacheffe Coffee Bean Grades Are Classified

About Project Origin

Three years before this article was written, Sasa Sestic—the 2015 World Barista Champion—launched a green coffee sourcing project called Project Origin together with his business team at ONA Coffee. The project works directly with coffee farming households in some of the world's poorest coffee regions, improving their production conditions and paying them prices 20% above fair trade rates.

The thinking behind Project Origin goes beyond pricing. Sestic wanted to tighten the bond between roasters and growers while guiding farmers toward better cultivation of high-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 profile: a light fermented winey aroma, jujube, sweet citrus, dark berries, lychee, starfruit, peach, juicy stone fruit, longan and red date fragrance, honey sweetness, and cocoa with subtle spice—full-bodied with a long, persistent finish.

Yirgacheffe Aricha Processing Details

This lot of Yirgacheffe was produced at the Kebel Aricha processing station, where roughly 650-700 smallholder farmers from the surrounding area deliver ripe coffee cherries for processing and immediate cash payment. After the station screens out usable cherries, they go straight onto raised drying beds for sun exposure. During the first few days, workers turn the cherries every 2-3 hours to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation. After four to six weeks of natural processing—depending on weather and temperature—the dried outer pulp is removed by machine, and the beans are trucked to Addis Ababa for storage. Natural lots are typically stored in their parchment until just before export, when they are hulled to protect green bean quality. This natural Aricha was rated G1 (the highest grade) by the ECX, and it shows excellent quality in appearance, consistency, freshness, dry aroma, and flavor. If bright acidity and dense berry flavors are your thing, don't miss it.

How Yirgacheffe Coffee Is Classified

Yirgacheffe coffee falls into two main categories based on processing method:

Category A covers washed coffees, graded under the standards of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) into Gr-1 and Gr-2, where the smaller Arabic numeral denotes the higher grade. G1 washed Yirgacheffe has a unmistakable style: citrus and floral notes woven through the cup—flavors almost nobody can resist.

Category B covers natural (dry) processed coffees, graded as Gr-1, Gr-3, Gr-4, and Gr-5. The top grade, G1 natural Yirgacheffe, bursts with fruit aromatics. Open a bag of freshly roasted G1 natural Yirgacheffe and it can completely reset your idea of what coffee tastes like. Only after tasting a top-grade natural Yirgacheffe will you truly believe that coffee is, at heart, a fruit.

Brewing Recommendations

Pour-over recipe for natural Yirgacheffe Aricha: 15g of coffee, ground medium-fine (setting 3.5 on the Fuji ghost burr grinder), brewed in a V60 dripper at 90-92°C. Start with 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour up to 105g and pause. Once the water level in the bed drops to halfway, resume pouring slowly until you reach 225g. Skip the tail end of the brew. Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15, total extraction time 2:00.

Yirgacheffe Heritage

Yirgacheffe's coffee trees were originally cultivated by European monks—much as Belgian monks grew grain for brewing beer—and later passed into the care of farmers and cooperatives. Yirgacheffe is in fact a collection of surrounding coffee communities and cooperatives, including Idido near Misty Valley, Harfusa, Hama, and Biloa. Most of these use washed processing, though a few exceptional lots are deliberately processed as naturals to amplify their enchanting fruit aromas and body. The mountain villages sit wrapped in mist, enjoy spring-like weather year-round, and are cooled by gentle summer breezes—warm without heat, rainy without dampness, and frost-free in winter—which nurtures the region's unmistakable citrus-and-floral character. Coffee trees are mostly planted in farmers' backyards or intercropped with other food crops, so each household's output is small—true pastoral coffee. Award-winning Yirgacheffe lots come almost exclusively from these coffee villages and communities.

Processing Method

Natural.

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Aricha G1

Country: Ethiopia
Grade: G1
Region: Yirgacheffe, Gedeo
Altitude: 1900-2100 meters
Variety: Heirloom
Producer: Kebel Aricha
Flavor: Light fermented winey aroma, sweet citrus, spice, honey sweetness

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia, within the Sidamo region, sitting at roughly 1700-2100 meters with most coffee trees planted above 1800m—one of the highest coffee origins in the world. The area was historically wetland, and the name itself has become shorthand for the region's striking white floral aroma and lemon-citrus acidity. Yirgacheffe only became its own classification in 2010, when the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange split it from Sidamo because the name had grown too famous to hide behind.

For newcomers to Ethiopia, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with the classic washed Yirgacheffe daily brew—famous for its white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and tea-like finish, all at a friendly price that has made it many people's first specialty coffee bean. If it is the fruit-forward character of naturals like Aricha that draws you, try the FrontStreet Coffee natural Red Cherry: only fully ripe, defect-free cherries are picked, screened at the station, then laid on raised beds to sun-dry, with turning every 2-3 hours during the first few days to prevent over-fermentation. After three to five weeks of drying, the outer pulp is removed by machine and the beans go to warehouse. Because the fruit dries in contact with the bean, the cup keeps its classic Yirgacheffe identity while gaining tropical fruit—citrus-like acidity, berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness.

Brewing suggestion for FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe beans: use a V60 dripper at 90-91°C, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, ground to fine-granulated-sugar texture (80% pass-through on a #20 sieve). Pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then add 95g (scale reading about 125g) within roughly one minute; once the level falls to two-thirds of the bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale reading about 225g) finishing around 1 minute 35 seconds. Drainage completes at 2:00-2:10—remove the dripper and enjoy.