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

Regarding the quality of Yirgacheffe coffee, FrontStreet Coffee believes many friends are familiar with this world-renowned coffee producing region, and it's no exaggeration to call it an evergreen of specialty coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's impression of Yirgacheffe is its elegant floral aroma and a coffee with clean taste reminiscent of flower and fruit tea. FrontStreet Coffee considers Yirgacheffe coffee as one of the most distinctive specialty coffees in the world, representing one of the finest examples of African washed coffee, enjoying widespread acclaim among both coffee connoisseurs and specialty coffee enthusiasts globally. High-quality Arabica coffee processed using the washing method is suitable for various degrees of roasting. With high moisture content and hard beans, it perfectly presents fresh and bright floral and fruit aromas through controlled roasting and development times, delivering an exceptionally clean taste.

About Operation Cherry Red

Speaking of "Operation Cherry Red," many friends are quite familiar with this name. However, what exactly is the Operation Cherry Red project? Perhaps only a few people can clearly explain it. Operation Cherry Red (ORC) is a project aimed at improving the quality of small-scale farms. In 2007, Trabocca, the largest green coffee bean importer in the Netherlands, launched "Operation Cherry Red" in pursuit of high-quality Ethiopian coffee beans. The project requires that harvested coffee beans must not only be fully ripe red fruits but also harvested entirely by hand - but this is just the most basic requirement, and the project is far more complex than that.

In 2007, to help Ethiopian coffee farmers achieve better income and improve the living standards of local people, Dutch trader Trabocca and local farmers launched the "Operation Cherry Red Project" project. The pure purpose was to incentivize farmers to improve coffee bean quality. At the beginning of the harvest season in producing areas, Trabocca would designate microclimate zones for harvesting plans, manually harvesting 100% mature red coffee cherries, with yields ranging from approximately 1,500 to 3,000 kilograms.

Trabocca provides financial loan support, new hardware equipment, and production processing knowledge and technology to help farmers improve production levels. They promise to purchase at premium prices as long as the actual output quality meets cupping standards in both Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Amsterdam, Netherlands cupping rooms. The passing standard set by Trabocca is 88 points.

Natural/Dried-in-the-Fruit Method

Fruits begin the sun-drying process immediately after harvesting without any processing. This is the oldest existing processing method. The drying process typically lasts about 4 weeks. The processing method must be extremely rigorous to ensure the coffee doesn't lose any flavor. The natural drying method requires extremely dry local climate conditions. In some regions, people would

Aricha Natural Processing Plant - Not part of Operation Cherry Red

FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Aricha coffee processed using the natural method comes from the Kebel Aricha region, owned by Surafel Birhanu. In the Gedeo zone, 4 kilometers west of Yirgacheffe town, approximately 650 to 700 small farms produce and grow these coffees. After the coffee cherries mature, they are harvested and sent to Kebel Aricha for processing, sorting, and rack drying. During the first few days of natural drying, these coffee cherries must be turned every 2 to 3 hours to avoid over-fermentation and mold growth. Depending on weather conditions, after 4 to 6 weeks, the beans with parchment are transported to Addis Ababa, where they are processed and packed into jute bags before export. This FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Aricha coffee processed by natural method is exported through the ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange) system. There are many high-quality coffee processing plants in the Yirgacheffe region, and many coffees have become hundred times more valuable due to originating from these processing plants. FrontStreet Coffee's natural processed Yirgacheffe from Kebel Aricha Mill is one of them. FrontStreet Coffee's ARICHA beans, processed by refined natural method at Kebel Aricha processing plant, were classified as Gr.1 or G1 (the highest grade of Ethiopian coffee) by ECX, earning the title "King of Fruits."

FrontStreet Coffee Green Bean Comparison

FrontStreet Coffee believes that because both FrontStreet Coffee's Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe and FrontStreet Coffee's natural processed Aricha belong to G1 grade, their green beans both show yellow-green color, which is typical of natural processed coffee color, with uniform and full beans and few defective beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

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

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

FrontStreet Coffee's roasters used light roasting to bring out the characteristics of these two Yirgacheffe coffee beans. From FrontStreet Coffee's roasting curves, we can see that FrontStreet Coffee's Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe has a smoother roasting curve, while FrontStreet Coffee's Aricha shows more fluctuations. This is because the maturity of FrontStreet Coffee's Aricha beans was not as uniform as FrontStreet Coffee's Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe, so we slightly extended the dehydration time for FrontStreet Coffee's Aricha, making the overall color more uniform and the development fuller.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Comparison

Although from the perspective of green beans, there isn't much difference between FrontStreet Coffee's Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe coffee beans and FrontStreet Coffee's non-Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe coffee beans, there are obvious differences in roasting and cupping. Because the coffee beans from Operation Cherry Red have more uniform maturity, this allows them to retain large amounts of floral aroma and fruit acidity during roasting. Non-Operation Cherry Red coffee beans, due to uneven maturity, make it difficult to balance roasting uniformity with 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: Fine sugar (EK43s grinder setting 10)

[FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Technique]

30g bloom for 30 seconds. After blooming, pour in a circular motion to 125g. When the water level drops by half, continue pouring in a circular motion to 225g. Extraction time: 2 minutes to 2 minutes 10 seconds.

[FrontStreet Coffee Flavor Description]

[FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Operation Cherry Red Coffee]: Lemon, licorice, citrus, berries, sweet orange. Overall sweetness is relatively high, with caramel and cream flavors in the aftertaste, and a black tea aroma in the finish.

[FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Aricha Coffee]: Has mature fruit aroma. Obvious fermentation flavor upon entry, green grapes. As the temperature slightly cools, there's lemon acidity, cream, and a grape juice sensation in the finish.

For more knowledge about specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, WeChat ID: kaixingoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473