What are the Flavor and Taste Characteristics of Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee Beans? Introduction to Natural Process Red Cherry Project Coffee

When it comes to Yirgacheffe's quality, most coffee lovers already know the name. Call it an evergreen of specialty coffee and that's no exaggeration: FrontStreet Coffee pictures Yirgacheffe as an elegant floral coffee with a clean, flower-and-fruit-tea character, one of the most distinctive specialty coffees in the world and a benchmark for African washed coffee, admired by connoisseurs and enthusiasts alike. High-quality Arabica handled through the washed method suits a wide range of roast degrees: with high moisture content and hard, dense beans, careful control of roasting and development times brings out fresh, bright florals and fruit with an exceptionally clean taste.

About Operation Cherry Red

The name "Operation Cherry Red" rings a bell for many - but what the project actually involves, only a few can explain clearly. Operation Cherry Red (ORC) is a program aimed at raising quality on small farms. In 2007 Trabocca, the largest green coffee importer in the Netherlands, launched the project in pursuit of top Ethiopian lots. The rules require that harvested coffee be not only fully ripe red fruit but also entirely hand-picked - and that is merely the entry requirement; the project runs far deeper than that.

In 2007, to help Ethiopian farmers earn better incomes and raise local living standards, the Dutch trader Trabocca and local farmers launched the Operation Cherry Red project with a single-minded purpose: incentivize quality. At the start of each harvest season, Trabocca designates microclimate zones for the harvest plan, with 100% mature red cherries hand-picked, in yields of roughly 1,500 to 3,000 kilograms.

Trabocca supplies loan financing, new equipment, and production and processing know-how to lift farmers' output quality, and promises premium prices as long as the finished lots meet cupping standards in both the Addis Ababa and Amsterdam cupping rooms. Trabocca's passing standard is 88 points.

Natural / Dried-in-the-Fruit Method

In the natural method, cherries go straight to sun-drying after harvest with no further processing - the oldest drying method still in use. Drying typically lasts about 4 weeks, and the process must be extremely rigorous to ensure the coffee loses none of its flavor. Natural drying demands a very dry local climate. In some regions, people

Aricha Natural Processing Plant - Not part of Operation Cherry Red

FrontStreet Coffee's natural-process Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Aricha comes from the Kebel Aricha area, owned by Surafel Birhanu. In the Gedeo zone, 4 kilometers west of Yirgacheffe town, some 650 to 700 small farms grow and produce these coffees. Once the cherries mature they are harvested and sent to Kebel Aricha for processing, sorting, and rack drying. During the first days of natural drying the cherries must be turned every 2 to 3 hours to prevent over-fermentation and mold. Depending on the weather, after 4 to 6 weeks the beans in parchment travel to Addis Ababa, where they are milled, packed into jute bags, and exported. This natural-process Aricha moves through the ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange) system. The Yirgacheffe region has many excellent processing plants, and coffee from the best of them commands many times the market price - FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe from the Kebel Aricha Mill is one such lot. Refined through the natural method there, FrontStreet Coffee's ARICHA was graded Gr.1/G1 - Ethiopia's highest grade - by ECX, earning the title "King of Fruits."

FrontStreet Coffee Green Bean Comparison

FrontStreet Coffee notes that because both our Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe and our natural Aricha are G1 grade, their green beans both show a yellow-green color typical of natural-processed coffee, with uniform, full beans and few defects.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

[FrontStreet Coffee Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe]: charged into the roaster at 194°C

[FrontStreet Coffee Natural Aricha]: charged into the roaster at 198.6°C

FrontStreet Coffee's roasters used a light profile to express both beans. From our roasting curves, the Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe tracks noticeably smoother, while the Aricha shows more fluctuation. That's because the Aricha's maturity was less even than the ORC lot's, so we lengthened the Aricha's dehydration stage slightly, yielding a more uniform color and fuller development.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Comparison

Green-bean-wise there isn't much daylight between the two, but roasting and cupping reveal clear differences. The Operation Cherry Red beans' more uniform maturity preserves large amounts of floral aroma and fruit acidity through the roast. The non-ORC beans, with their uneven ripeness, make it hard to balance roast uniformity against flavor fullness and cleanliness.

[FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters]

Coffee amount: 15 grams. Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15. Dripper: V60. Water temperature: 90°C. Grind size: caster-sugar fineness (EK43s grinder setting 10)

[FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Technique]

Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. After blooming, pour in circles to 125g. When the level drops by half, continue pouring in circles to 225g. Extraction time: 2:00 to 2:10.

[FrontStreet Coffee Flavor Description]

[FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Operation Cherry Red]: lemon, licorice, citrus, berries, sweet orange. Overall sweetness runs high, with caramel and cream in the aftertaste and a black-tea note in the finish.

[FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Aricha]: mature fruit aroma with an obvious fermented note on entry - green grapes. As the cup cools slightly, lemon acidity, cream, and a grape-juice sensation arrive in the finish.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the natural-process character in this comparison caught your attention, FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Red Cherry is a fine next step. Like the lots above, it uses only fully mature, defect-free cherries: the fruit is screened at the mill, then laid straight onto raised beds to sun-dry, turned every 2-3 hours over the first days to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation. After three to five weeks in the sun, workers strip the dried outer fruit by machine and move the beans into warehouse storage. Because the cherries dry with their fruit intact, the cup keeps classic Yirgacheffe character while adding tropical fruit: peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon - citrus-like acidity, berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and a cream-smooth body.

For the washed side of the same town, FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Yirgacheffe daily bean remains the classic: white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a graceful tea-like finish at an everyday price, which is why so many drinkers call it their first specialty coffee. And if you'd like a washed lot with its own village identity, the Worka (Guodingding) Cooperative coffee from Yirgacheffe's southeastern tip offers clean, transparent citrus and lemon tones with elegant white florals - bright and delicate from first sip to last.

Whichever you choose, brew them the way FrontStreet Coffee does in the comparison above: a V60 at 90-91°C, 15g of coffee, a 1:15 ratio, and a fine, caster-sugar grind - bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to about 125g, then finish at about 225g for an extraction of 2:00 to 2:10.