Horse Champion Coffee Bean Guji Region Flavor Profile Description & Sidamo Horse Champion 8.0 Coffee Pour-Over Tutorial

The Importance of Coffee Processing Methods

When it comes to coffee, FrontStreet Coffee believes that besides variety, origin, and cultivation methods, there's another crucial process that affects flavor—the coffee bean processing method. Different processing methods not only allow coffee to present different flavor profiles but can also better express its essence. Take the well-known Ethiopian coffee as an example: washed processing amplifies the citrus and lemon aromas inherent in Yirgacheffe coffee, creating a unique "Yirgacheffe flavor"; natural processing allows FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Crown coffee to perfectly showcase its strawberry and cream aromas, making it shine in competitions.

Coffee: The Core of Ethiopian Culture

In Ethiopia, coffee production is both the labor of the majority and an important source of income, and this crop has integrated into the country's culture and economy. Ethiopia is the world's sixth-largest coffee producer. According to reports, in 2018, 100 million people worldwide were directly or indirectly engaged in the coffee industry, with Ethiopian coffee workers accounting for 20% of this group. In 2017, the country produced approximately 470,000 tons of green coffee beans, of which about 160,000 tons were exported, meaning Ethiopia exports less than half of its coffee production, with the rest consumed domestically.

Coffee has been integrated into Ethiopia's social structure for hundreds of years. According to reports, a common term in local social activities is "buna tetu," meaning "drink coffee." One of Ethiopia's most famous proverbs is "buna dabo naw," meaning "coffee is our bread."

Ethiopia's main coffee producing regions include eight major areas: Lekempti, Limu, Illubabor, Djimmah, Harar, Teppi/Bebeka, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe.

Sidamo Region

FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo coffee flavors are very diverse, with different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties. The region features towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains, with diverse topography. The local geology consists of fertile, well-drained volcanic soil, with depths reaching nearly two meters, and surface soil appearing dark brown or brown.

Sidamo is located between 4,600-7,200 feet above sea level in the southern Ethiopian highlands (Sidamo province), making it a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia. It borders Kenya to the south, lies southeast of Jimma, and directly south of the capital. The coffee typically has distinct sweetness and is favored by many people, with an annual production of about 225,000 bags of 60kg each. The region's greatest advantage lies in maintaining soil fertility through organic matter recycling, using fallen leaves from surrounding trees or plant residue roots as fertilizer. This creates significant differences and characteristics in the coffee produced by various towns.

According to Ethiopia's administrative divisions, it can be divided into four levels: Region, Zone, Woreda, and Kebele, equivalent to China's provinces, cities, districts, and streets. FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Crown coffee beans come from Guji city in Sidamo province, further subdivided to Shakisso Woreda's Hambella Kebele. Generally, when people mention Hambella, they're referring to FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Crown coffee beans, because FrontStreet Coffee's Hambella Queen Crown coffee beans are truly famous.

From the Ethiopia coffee producing region map, we can see that Guji is separated from Sidamo because Guji's geographical location is superior enough, and its coffee flavors are unique and distinctive. In 2010, it was separated from the Sidamo region by the ECX (Ethiopia Commodity Exchange). Shakiso is the most noteworthy micro-region within the Guji region, with an average elevation of over 1,800 meters.

Guji Region Introduction

The Guji region is located southeast of the famous Yirgacheffe region. Administratively, it belongs to the Oromia Region Guji Zone and is a regional green coffee bean. Like Yirgacheffe, which became widely known after achieving fame, it became an independent sub-region of the broader Sidamo area—the Guji Zone. This batch is produced by small coffee farmers from the Shilcho Cooperative near the town of Dara Woreda in Sidamo province. The cooperative was established in 1976 and is currently a member of the Sidamo Coffee Farmer Cooperative Union (SCFCU), which is one of Ethiopia's large coffee cooperative alliances. Currently, this union has about 46 member cooperatives and is Ethiopia's second-largest coffee production team.

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Queen Crown 4.0 Coffee Beans

Country of Origin: Ethiopia

Region: Sidamo, Guji, Hambella

Processing Station: BUKU

Altitude: 2350m

Variety: Dega

Processing Method: Natural

Hambella Region Introduction

Hambella (generally translated as "Hambella") is located in Ethiopia's largest coffee producing region, Guji, administratively belonging to the Oromia region. Hambella's west faces Yirgacheffe's Kochore across mountains, with the two regions separated by high ground at 3,200 meters above sea level and about 30 kilometers wide. To the southeast, east, and north, it borders Guji's Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions respectively, making it Ethiopia's highest-altitude coffee sub-region (Harrar is Ethiopia's highest-altitude main producing region).

Currently, there are about 20 processing stations of various scales in the Hambella region. In 2017, a natural processed coffee from DW Company's Buku Abel processing station won the Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest Competition championship. China's green coffee importer named this coffee "Queen Crown." At that time, this coffee had rich strawberry and cream aromas. Subsequently, DW Company's Hambella core region Dimtu expanded from one estate processing station to four: Buku Abel, Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, and Tirtiro Goye, with an annual coffee production of about 1,100 tons. FrontStreet Coffee's annual Queen Crown coffee comes from the familiar Buku Abel processing station, and this year's fresh Queen Crown 8.0 is no exception.

Buku Processing Station (Buku Abel)

The Buku Abel processing station is located in the village of Buku Abel at an altitude of 2,200 meters. From the beginning of cultivation, the coffee was chosen for its noble "family environment"—humus-rich reddish-brown soil, and provided with shade care from "Enset" trees, allowing the fruit to receive full sunlight and develop rich flavors without consuming excessive nutrients, thereby retaining more essence within the coffee fruit.

During the harvest and processing season (December-January), its unique growing environment and natural climate create Queen Crown's distinctive flavors. First, coffee farmers must ensure that the sugar content of harvested red cherries reaches above 30 before beginning natural processing. In the first two days of drying, workers must maintain the moisture of the red cherries to allow their fructose to fully begin fermentation. Meanwhile, the high-altitude location allows the processing station's nighttime temperature to drop to about 12 degrees Celsius, preventing over-fermentation odors due to high temperatures. When temperatures are higher at noon, farmers need to provide timely shading to prevent coffee cherries from getting sunburned. Additionally, farmers limit the thickness of the fruit layer and turn it continuously 24 hours a day to ensure even drying and ventilation, more accurately controlling the degree of fermentation.

Buku Abel means "NEW" in the local Ethiopian language, meaning a new place. FrontStreet Coffee discovered through maps that Buku Abel is located in southeastern Ethiopia, in a high-altitude primitive tribal area within the Hambella region of Guji, with a population of about 30,000 people. This small village is like most Ethiopian coffee gardens, growing in wild original forests. Coffee farmers have passed down their traditions here for generations, cultivating native bananas and interspersing local native coffee varieties among the banana trees.

Strictly speaking, only natural processed coffee from the "Buku Abel" processing station is called "Queen Crown coffee beans." This is why in 2018 and 2019, the natural processed coffee from this processing station was named Queen Crown 2.0, Queen Crown 3.0, and Queen Crown 3.1 respectively.

The Queen Crown produced in the new 2020 season was named Queen Crown 4.0 to distinguish it from previous versions. As 2020 marks the fourth year of this coffee variety, the production area has expanded to several times its original size, combined with more scientific cultivation management. FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Crown 4.0 flavors are even more excellent, receiving praise from many coffee enthusiasts. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee also purchased this new season's Queen Crown 4.0 for roasting and cupping.

Dega Coffee Bean Variety

This year, Ethiopia hosted the Cup of Excellence (CoE) for the first time, and the detailed classification of coffee varieties among the top 28 finalists was surprisingly detailed. The 21st-ranked Dega has two very different versions regarding the origin of its name. One version says Dega's name comes from a type of firewood, and Dega's aroma during roasting is similar to the burning aroma of this firewood. Another version explains that "dega" is the root word for "highland and shady place" in the Ethiopian language, and Dega often grows in high-altitude areas. Unfortunately, since Dega didn't rank in the top 14 in this COE competition, no flavor descriptions were collected for it. FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Crown 4.0 is precisely Dega variety coffee beans.

Green Bean Analysis

This batch of Queen Crown 4.0 that FrontStreet Coffee purchased shows that compared to the other two Queen Crown 3.0 beans, Queen Crown 4.0 beans are smaller in size due to different varieties. Queen Crown 3.0 uses Ethiopian native variety coffee beans, while Queen Crown 4.0 uses the Dega variety. Additionally, we can see that the two Queen Crown 3.0 beans are relatively uniform in size because they were sorted after harvesting, while Queen Crown 4.0 was not sorted, so the beans appear uneven in size.

Coffee Processing Methods

Natural sun drying is the most traditional processing method, where fruits are naturally sun-dried after harvesting, with the following steps:

1. Coffee farmers place harvested cherries directly on sun drying beds to dry in sunlight;
2. During sun exposure, the cherries need to be stirred and turned appropriately to avoid uneven drying or fermentation;
3. After several days, they are dried completely;
4. The dried green beans are hulled to remove pulp and fruit skin, extracting the green beans.

Advantages: Naturally processed coffee retains its mucilage during processing, and mucilage itself is sweet. During natural processing, sugars convert into the coffee beans, so the processed coffee has relatively strong sweetness, rich mouthfeel, and distinct layers.

Disadvantages: There may be more defective beans, uneven bean appearance, and it easily absorbs odors and earthy flavors from the ground.

Roasting Suggestions

Cupping Report

Brewing Parameters

Brewing Device: HARIO V60

Coffee Dose: 15 grams

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Medium-coarse grind (80% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve)

The ribs of the V60 dripper are curved from top to bottom and of varying lengths, providing smoother exhaust and relatively faster flow during brewing. Therefore, this dripper typically uses segmented extraction methods: one is to slow water flow, and the other is to improve extraction, which can reduce under-extraction caused by fast flow to some extent.

Brewing Technique

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, which is a three-pour method.

First Pour: Bloom (helps with degassing)

Coffee beans undergo a series of chemical reactions and physical changes during the roasting process from green to roasted beans. After reaching a certain degree of roasting, coffee beans accumulate a large amount of gas (mostly carbon dioxide).

Generally, the fresher the coffee and the closer to roasting, the more bubbles typically appear during blooming. Dark roasted beans also release more gas during blooming than light roasted beans. FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans are freshly roasted, so FrontStreet Coffee generally recommends customers let the beans rest for three days first, allowing the coffee beans to release carbon dioxide first, which can avoid instability and under-extraction issues during brewing.

After blooming releases gas, coffee particles can absorb water evenly, allowing for uniform extraction later. Good blooming allows coffee grounds to quickly, fully, and evenly release gas while also enabling the coffee grounds to fully and quickly contact water, helping the coffee grounds to be extracted evenly.

Four Points to Note During Blooming:

1. Before pouring water for blooming, level the coffee grounds first.
2. Pour gently during blooming.
3. During blooming, minimize the amount of extract liquid that flows down; when there's too much extract liquid in the lower pot, reduce the water amount or pay attention to grind size. (If there's too much bloom water and a large amount of coffee liquid drips down, the falling water doesn't停留 but directly carries substances from the outer layers of coffee grounds, and the outer bitterness and astringency of the coffee grounds begin to dissolve. This results in coffee that is both weak but has over-extracted bitterness. If bloom water is insufficient and no water drips down, the coffee grounds haven't absorbed enough water, and some coffee hasn't fully degassed, causing under-extraction.) Based on this situation, FrontStreet Coffee conducted multiple bloom experiments and found that pouring twice the amount of water to coffee grounds during blooming is most suitable.
4. Bloom time should be about 30 seconds. When the expansion of the coffee grounds surface ends, you'll see the coffee surface start to shrink, indicating blooming is complete and you can begin pouring. (In terms of time, if blooming is too long, coffee easily develops bitterness and astringency; if too short, soaking is insufficient, and coffee may have under-extraction or fail to fully express itself.) Generally, bloom completion time varies for each bean, but FrontStreet Coffee found this不利于新手操作, after all, beginners focus on standardization and ease of use. Therefore, while ensuring coffee beans are still in a freshly roasted state, FrontStreet Coffee recommends a 30-second bloom time, though experienced brewers can adjust the time themselves.

Second Pour

The second pour starts from the center, pouring into the bottom of the coffee bed with a small water stream. To concentrate the water stream's penetrating power, the circular movement range should be small, about the size of a one-yuan coin, then move outward. When starting the second pour, pay attention to water amount, trying not to exceed the height of the coffee bed—that is, when the water stream approaches the filter paper, you can stop pouring.

Third Pour

As the originally thicker coffee bed near the filter paper becomes heavier from absorbing water, it slides down and becomes thinner as the water level drops. When the water level drops to halfway, you can begin the third pour.

Starting from the third pour, observe the magnitude of water level drop. Again, start from the center and pour in circles, with water not exceeding the coffee bed height. At this point, you'll also observe that foam has filled the surface. The third pour needs to increase the rolling of coffee particles, causing all settled particles to roll and dissolve soluble substances.

Rolling particles will begin to settle when water addition stops. At this point, rely on the flow rate caused by dropping water levels to create friction between coffee particles. Once water addition stops, coffee particles sink, causing blockage, so pay special attention to the rhythm of water addition. If there are too many water interruptions, it's equivalent to letting coffee particles continuously soak in water, which will lead to astringency and bitterness in the final coffee extraction.

Summary:

When FrontStreet Coffee brews this Queen Crown 4.0 coffee bean, the overall process is: use bloom water amount twice the coffee dose, meaning 30g water for blooming, with a bloom time of 30 seconds. Pour in small circles until reaching 125g, then segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from bloom beginning). Extraction time is 2 minutes.

【FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Queen Crown 4.0】 Flavor Description: Citrus acidity, full berry juice sensation, lemon black tea tea notes, persistent sweetness.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on WeChat: ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473