What Defines Authentic Yirgacheffe Flavor? The Characteristics of Exceptional Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans

The so-called Yirgacheffe flavor, as FrontStreet Coffee defines it, features elegant citrus, lemon, and berry sweet-sourness along with graceful jasmine floral notes, while also carrying a pleasant tea-like sensation. To express such refined flavor and mouthfeel in Frontsteet's Yirgacheffe coffee, every element is essential: the coffee's premium growing environment, variety, processing method, as well as roasting and brewing.

The Origin and Significance of Yirgacheffe

The name Yirgacheffe originates from Yirgacheffe town, a sub-region in Ethiopia's Sidamo province. Later, because the coffee produced here possessed distinctive flavors and became renowned worldwide, it was established as an independent category. Yirgacheffe, along with two other famous regions—Sidamo and Harar—were registered as commercial trademarks by the Ethiopian government. Therefore, what we call Yirgacheffe today refers more to a coffee flavor trademark. Yirgacheffe has also become synonymous with premium Ethiopian coffee. The Frontsteet Sun-dried Red Cherry coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's menu are selected from sun-dried processed Yirgacheffe, not only presenting typical Yirgacheffe flavors but the fully red fruits, having been sun-ripened, also exhibit exceptional sweetness.

The Red Cherry Project

To improve the income of local Ethiopian farmers and enhance coffee quality, Dutch trading company Trabocca BV launched the "Operation Cherry Red Project" in 2007. This project mainly focuses on improving washing, semi-washing, and sun-drying processing techniques in high-altitude production areas like Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe. Professional cuppers have joined the project, and during harvest seasons, different coffee harvesting quantities are established for different microclimate zones. Only 100% mature red coffee cherries must be harvested, with production ranging approximately 1500-3000KG. The economic loan support, new hardware equipment, and production knowledge technology provided by Trabocca company have greatly improved the quality of coffee beans in the Yirgacheffe region and even throughout Ethiopia. Consequently, the coffee commands higher prices, thereby increasing farmers' income.

Sun-drying Processing Method

Freshly picked coffee red cherries are manually sorted, removing defective beans and those that are overripe or insect-damaged, leaving only good beans. They are then transported to drying facilities for processing. Of course, different production areas use different drying racks—some might be waterproof tarps, raised beds, etc., but the most common are African drying beds. The drying process generally requires 27-30 days until the coffee turns dark purple and moisture content reduces to 11% to be considered complete. FrontStreet Coffee's sun-dried Yirgacheffe has more intense flavors, richer layering, with fermented wine-like notes, and also higher sweetness.

Light Roasting and Flavor Profile

Unlike that era of "bitter coffee," light-roasted Yirgacheffe can be said to have opened the "new era of fruity acidity coffee." The main reason coffee tastes strongly bitter is that roasters roast coffee beans deeply, with the main flavor direction being nuts and dark chocolate. With the emergence of specialty coffee concepts, to preserve more acidity, roasters only roast FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee to an appropriate light level, allowing FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe to express pleasant fruit sweet-sourness and white floral notes.

Loving sweetness and fearing bitterness happens to align perfectly with public taste preferences, which is one reason why Yirgacheffe is so popular worldwide. For such popular FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe coffee, FrontStreet Coffee naturally includes it in their FrontStreet Coffee's introductory daily bean series. FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans allow friends who are new to the coffee world to experience the basic flavors of production regions at extremely low prices, while the small packaging design also avoids waste from unfinished coffee.

Brewing Parameters for FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe

Filter: V60
Water temperature: 92-93 degrees Celsius
Coffee dose: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Fine sugar size (20# screen sieve 78%)

First pour 30g of water for 30 seconds of blooming, then pour 95g more (scale shows around 125g), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows around 225g), completing the pour in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Complete dripping at 2'10", remove the filter, and finish extraction.

Flavor Notes of FrontStreet Coffee's Sun-dried Red Cherry

Flavor: Lemon, licorice, citrus, berries, sweet orange, with overall higher sweetness. The aftertaste features caramel and cream flavors, while the finish carries black tea aroma.

Connect with FrontStreet Coffee

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473