Sidamo Coffee Bean Characteristics, Flavor Description, Region Information, and Estate Details

Coffee Information

Coffee Country of Origin: Africa, Ethiopia

Coffee Estate: Guji, Hambella Wamena region, Dimtu city, Buku Abel estate

Coffee Variety: Heirloom, Ethiopian native varieties

Production Altitude: 2250-2350m

Quality Grade: G1

Processing Method: Natural (African drying beds)

Ethiopian Sidamo Shakisso Natural

Country: Ethiopia

Region: Guji Zone

Altitude: 2250-2350m

Processing Method: Natural

Variety: Local native Heirloom varieties

Producer: Local small farmers

Flavor Notes: Passion fruit, rose floral aroma, strawberry jam

Sidamo's coffee flavors are incredibly diverse, because different soil compositions, regional microclimates, and countless native varieties create distinct differences between the coffees of each town. The Sidamo production area lies in southern Ethiopia, where the economy is primarily agricultural, and coffee-growing areas sit around the Great Rift Valley.

Hambella, generally translated as "Hambella," is located in Ethiopia's largest coffee-producing region, Guji, and administratively belongs to the Oromia Region. To the west, mountains separate Hambella from Yirgacheffe's Kochore region, with a highland barrier at 3,200 meters altitude and roughly 30 kilometers between the two producing areas. To the southeast, east, and north it borders Guji's Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions, making it Ethiopia's highest-altitude coffee sub-region (Harrar being Ethiopia's highest-altitude main producing region).

Today there are about 20 processing plants of various scales in the Hambella region. DW Company has four estate processing plants in Hambella's core Dimtu area — Buku Abel, Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, and Tirtiro Goye — with annual coffee production of about 1,100 tons.

Among all these estates and processing stations, only the natural process coffee from the Buku Abel estate and processing plant is called "Huang Kui" (Flower Champion).

Awards

Cupping Notes: Passion fruit, rose floral aroma, strawberry jam, berry sweetness and acidity, peach pulp, black tea finish

2016/2017 Season:
Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest Competition - Champion
2017 Regional Africa Taste of Harvest Competition - Second Place

Processing Details

The Huang Kui processing plant is located in Buku Abel village at an altitude of 2,200 meters. From the beginning it was chosen for its noble "family environment" — fertile, humus-rich reddish-brown soil — and given shade protection from Enset trees. This lets Huang Kui receive ample sunlight and develop rich flavor without exhausting its nutrients, retaining more of the essential substances within the coffee fruit. During the harvest and processing season, from December to January, its unique growing environment and natural climate create Huang Kui's distinctive flavors. Natural processing begins only once the harvested red cherries reach a sugar content above 30. Over the first two days, we carefully manage the cherries' moisture so their fruit sugars fully begin to ferment. At the same time, the high-altitude location lets the processing plant's nighttime temperature fall to around 12°C, preventing over-fermentation from excess heat. When the midday temperature rises, shade is promptly provided to prevent sun damage to the cherries. Only fully red, completely ripe cherries are selected, all hand-picked, dried on African raised beds with a limited fruit-layer thickness and turned continuously every 24 hours to ensure even drying and ventilation and to control the degree of fermentation more precisely.

To guard against sudden nighttime rain, thick plastic sheets are used for wrapping. This lets the red cherries ferment and dehydrate at a relatively low temperature. After 18 days of natural processing, when the moisture content of the raw beans drops to about 13%, natural processing is stopped. The beans are then packed in jute bags and stored in warehouses under natural conditions of 12-22°C and 40-50% humidity for about 50 days of resting and further dehydration. When the raw beans reach a moisture content of around 10%, they are transported to the processing plant for hulling, screening, and sale.

Brewing Method

For pour-over Huang Kui: use 15 g of coffee, ground medium-fine (Fuji ghost-tooth grinder setting 3.5), a V60 dripper, and water at 91-93°C. First pour 30 g of water and let it bloom for 27 seconds. Continue pouring to 105 g and pause. Wait until the water level drops halfway, then slowly pour until reaching 225 g total. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Ethiopia is a world-renowned specialty coffee origin, and because it is the birthplace of coffee it holds countless native varieties — a treasure trove for drinkers who want to follow a flavor faithfully. To taste the Ethiopian specialty profile, start with the entry-level FrontStreet washed Yirgacheffe, which offers clear jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia with spring-like weather all year, veiled in mist and cool and humid, where thousands of coffee trees thrive; the result is the region's signature interweaving of florals and fruit acidity, with a light, elegant body and a tea-like quality, so it drinks like a fresh, clean lemon tea.

FrontStreet's Gudingding cooperative coffee shows how Ethiopian production usually works: most Ethiopian coffee follows a garden-planting model, with each smallholder delivering harvested cherries to a village-based processing station, and the coffee ultimately sold under the production team's name. That is why we see cooperatives both large and small, such as FrontStreet's Gudingding, Worka, and Konga cooperatives. Gudingding sits in the Worka region at Yirgacheffe's southeastern edge and was originally part of the Worka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers' Cooperative Union (YCFCU). As demand grew for traceability, individual single-origin producers were unearthed by coffee hunters around the world, and in 2012 Gudingding, with roughly 300 member farmers, became an independent cooperative. Because the pulp is removed before drying, FrontStreet's Gudingding shows its own inherent aroma more clearly and thoroughly, presenting citrus and lemon notes with elegant white florals and a bright, delicate overall profile.

FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry, by contrast, is natural-processed. Unlike washed coffee, naturally processed coffee first has damaged or moldy cherries removed, then is dried in the sun for two weeks until the sugars and essence of the fruit have seeped fully into the bean and the moisture content has fallen to 12%. The hardened fruit, mucilage layer, and pod are then scraped clean by machine; the extracted beans still pass density and color checks to eliminate defective beans, and workers then remove any flaws that slipped through by eye, layer after layer of screening. Every bean that results is specialty grade, guaranteeing a clean, refined quality with a rich, alluring fruit aroma. FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry natural beans are described as peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon. The same natural method underlies FrontStreet's Huakui, which comes from the Hambella region of Guji in Sidamo. The whole farm covers 200 hectares and uses traditional natural processing. To keep the cherries from molding or picking up muddy off-notes while drying, workers lay the ripe fruit on raised beds to sun-dry for 21 days, turning constantly for even exposure, and every three to five days the farmers hand-sort out defective and moldy beans. Once the skin has dried hard it is removed with a huller, and after the raw beans are obtained the farmers screen one final time in pursuit of a perfect cup. Because the fruit and skin stay on through drying, a medium-light roast brings out a light fermented wine note, florals, citrus, and mango, with a much richer, more complex mouthfeel, honey sweetness, cocoa, a touch of spice, a thick body, and a lasting finish. For those curious about niche Ethiopian processing, FrontStreet's Hamashu natural coffee is another example: also from the Sidamo region, the Hamashu processing station has become a fixture on Ethiopian green bean competition winning lists thanks to its excellent quality and distinctive flavor, drawing wide attention. It works mainly with the 74-series disease-resistant varieties released by the JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center), and the 74158 lot has small beans with pronounced floral and fruit aromas. FrontStreet's Hamashu 74158 has an enticing aroma with notes like perfume lemon, strawberry, and starfruit; the cup opens with clear strawberry, starfruit, and green grape sweetness, then a faint floral note gradually emerges.