Differences Between Yirgacheffe and Sidamo: Flavor Characteristics and Distinctive Features

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ETHIOPIA, YIRGACHEFFE, Cherry Red

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Cherry Red G1

01 | Introduction to Growing Region

Unique Geographical Environment

Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia with an altitude of 1700-2100 meters, making it one of the world's highest altitude coffee-growing regions and synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee. Lake Turkana, Lake Abaya, and Lake Chamo bring abundant water vapor to this area. Represented by the Misty Valley, the rift valley is perennially filled with fog, spring-like throughout the seasons, with gentle breezes, cool and humid conditions. Thousands of coffee tree varieties thrive and propagate here, nurturing the unique terroir of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe, where floral and fruit aromas intertwine ambiguously and change unpredictably.

The Historical Origin of Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

Initially, Yirgacheffe's coffee trees were cultivated by European monks (somewhat similar to Belgian monks growing grain to brew beer), later managed by farmers or cooperatives. Coffee trees naturally spread across forests, fields, and backyards. During the harvest season, Ethiopian coffee trading companies come to town to purchase coffee beans collected by farmers, eventually auctioning and exporting them under the "Yirgacheffe" brand.

Sidamo grows in the southernmost Ethiopian highlands at altitudes between 4600-7200 feet (Sidamo province), making it a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia, bordering Kenya to the southeast of Jimma and directly south of the capital. It typically exhibits noticeable sweetness and is favored by many people. Its annual production is approximately 225,000 bags/60kg. The beans are slightly smaller than Longberry, greenish with gray tones. In Sidamo's natural drying fields, coffee is placed in hemp-net wooden frames, where workers take turns manually stirring the coffee under sunlight. Natural Sidamo is mostly exported as G4, while washed Sidamo, due to its more refined processing, is mostly exported as G2 grade.

Ethiopian Sidamo coffee flavors are extremely diverse. Different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties create distinct characteristics. The region's towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains offer diverse topography. The geology consists of nutrient-rich, well-drained volcanic soil with depths of nearly two meters, with surface soil appearing dark brown or brown. The region's greatest advantage lies in maintaining soil fertility through organic matter circulation, using fallen leaves from surrounding trees or plant roots as fertilizer. This results in noticeable differences and characteristics in coffee produced by various towns. From 2010-2012, it consistently achieved high scores of 92-94 on the authoritative American coffee evaluation website CR. This demonstrates the exceptional quality of green beans from this region.

FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Sidamo green beans are slightly grayish, with some areas coarse and others fine. They possess both gentle and intense acidity, appropriate body thickness, sweet and spicy flavors, making them one of the courtyard coffees from Ethiopia's southern highlands. Unlike typical African coffees, FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Sidamo has clear fruit acidity, smooth mouthfeel, and delicate floral and herbal aromas.

About Ethiopia's Natural Processing Method (High-Rack Natural Processing):

Traditional Ethiopian natural processing involved directly laying wild-harvested coffee cherries on the ground for drying. This method had two disadvantages:

1. Post-harvest beans were not specially screened or processed, mixing uneven quality and maturity levels together in a relatively crude process, resulting in unstable coffee bean quality and prone to defective beans.

2. Coffee farmers typically found open spaces near their homes for processing, where the ground often contained impurities or dirt, making coffee susceptible to off-flavors.

Improved natural processing addresses these two traditional disadvantages:

1. During harvesting, only fully ripe deep red coffee cherries are picked. Before drying, beans undergo defect screening at the processing plant to ensure relatively uniform size and maturity.

2. Elevated wooden frames or entire rack structures are used for natural drying, avoiding the risk of beans absorbing off-flavors from ground contact. During drying, beans must be carefully monitored to ensure even moisture loss; every three to five days, coffee workers manually screen out defective or moldy beans. Thus, by the time drying is complete and beans enter depulping, the brilliantly dried deep red coffee cherries already have very few defects.

After obtaining green coffee beans, a final screening is sometimes performed to pursue perfect flavor, allowing FrontStreet Coffee's natural Sidamo to achieve the highest G1 grade.

Region Introduction:

Shakisso, located in Guji, Oromia region's southern area, borders Sidamo and Gedeo. This region has many mining pits, previously used for gold mining, leaving numerous holes in the coffee cultivation area, making walking through coffee plantations dangerous. Shakisso is a distinctive region within Guji/Sidamo, even within Sidamo it's a remote area far from most coffee-producing regions, with gold mining being another famous local product. Factors like miners, land, and ethnicity also caused instability in this region in 2006. Therefore, the biggest challenge facing this area now is the need for manpower to maintain cultivation areas and harvest coffee. Local small farmers began growing organic coffee in 2001 and work closely with medium-sized coffee producers who understand how to grow forest coffee in highlands.

FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Shakisso coffee has considerable uniqueness, and its produced coffee frequently gains market attention. Ninety Plus' legendary bean (nekisse) originally means "Nectar from Shakisso," with its origin and naming both coming from Shakisso.

Product Name: FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Sidamo Natural Shakisso

Ethiopian Sidamo Shakisso Natural

Country: Ethiopia

Region: Guji Zone, Shakisso Region

Altitude: 1800-2000 meters

Processing Method: Elevated bed natural processing

Variety: Local Heirloom varieties

Producer: Local small farmers

Flavor: Lemon, mango, blueberry, wine notes

About the Cherry Red Program - OPERATION CHERRY RED

Many friends are familiar with the name "Cherry Red Program." However, only a few can specifically describe what the Cherry Red Program actually entails.

To help Ethiopian coffee farmers achieve better income and improve local living standards, in 2007, Dutch trader Trabocca initiated the "OPERATION CHERRY RED PROJECT" with local farmers - the Cherry Red Program. This was purely to motivate farmers to improve coffee bean quality. At the beginning of the harvest season, Trabocca designates microclimate zone harvest plans, manually harvesting 100% mature red coffee cherries, with production ranging from 1500-3000 kilograms.

In 2008, the Cherry Red Program invested $5,000 to purchase new natural drying racks. In 2009, another $8,000 was invested for new drying racks and shade nets. In 2010, a $9,000 generator was purchased, and in 2011, $10,000 was invested to improve some local coffee transport roads, making coffee transportation more convenient and efficient. Trabocca provides interest-free loans to purchase new coffee cherry depulpers and bean sorters. To facilitate supplier procurement, $14,000 was invested in 2012 to build a high-quality Addis Ababa coffee cupping laboratory.

Trabocca provides financial loan support, new hardware equipment, and production processing knowledge and technology to help farmers improve production levels. They promise to offer generous purchase prices as long as the actual output quality meets cupping standards in both Ethiopian Addis Ababa and Amsterdam cupping rooms. Trabocca's passing standard is 88 points.

Cherry Red Program coffee beans are immediately packaged in plastic inner bags (GrainPro bags or vacuum-packed individual bags) after processing at origin, then transported to Djibouti for shipping. Through real-time monitoring, secure transportation, and timely appropriate processing methods, they strive for perfect quality. Roasters can also purchase high-quality coffee beans through the Cherry Red Program, improving Ethiopian coffee quality and achieving better prices. Trabocca can then return profits to farmers, continuously improving and enhancing quality.

02 | Processing Method

This FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopian Yirgacheffe natural processed coffee has slightly larger beans with lower density and moisture content. Every coffee from this processing plant can be considered high-quality specialty processed coffee, exhibiting characteristics superior to other coffees. Regardless of processing method, coffee beans from here are considered the best in the Yirgacheffe region.

After screening available coffee cherries, the processing plant places whole cherries with complete pulp and skin intact on elevated racks for natural processing. This labor-intensive rack-drying method isolates beans from ground contact, preventing earthy off-flavors during drying and creating exceptionally clean fruit flavors. After more than two weeks of natural drying, dark brown coffee cherries are professionally stored while waiting for complete flavor development. Before shipment, the processing plant removes coffee beans from the cherries, resulting in imaginable sweetness.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

About Yirgacheffe Grading

Based on different green bean processing methods, Yirgacheffe can be divided into two main categories:

Class A: Washed processing method, with grade standards established by the American Specialty Coffee Association (SCAA), divided into Gr-1, Gr-2, where smaller Arabic numbers indicate higher grades. FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe G1 has a distinctive style, with citrus and floral notes blended into the coffee liquid - a delicious flavor that everyone finds irresistible.

Class B: Natural processed green coffee beans, graded as Gr-1, Gr-3, Gr-4, Gr-5. Similarly, the highest grade G1 natural Yirgacheffe has rich fruit aroma. Opening a bag of freshly roasted FrontStreet Coffee natural Yirgacheffe G1 can subvert people's original understanding of coffee - only those who have tasted the highest grade FrontStreet Coffee natural Yirgacheffe will believe that coffee is a fruit.

Difference One

Two different green bean processing methods:

Harvested coffee beans must immediately enter processing, otherwise they begin to ferment, producing off-flavors. Processing methods include "natural" and "washed" methods, which create different flavors.

Natural processed beans have complete natural mellow flavors, gentle aromas, and more body; washed processing has good mellow flavors, high aromatics, and lively acidity.

Natural Processing Method (Natural/Dried-in-the-Fruit):

After harvesting, fruits begin the natural drying process without any processing. This is the oldest existing processing method. The drying process typically lasts about 4 weeks. The method must be very rigorous to ensure coffee doesn't lose any flavor. Natural processing requires extremely dry local climate conditions. In some regions, people use drying machines to assist the coffee fruit drying process (the drying machine's hot air can accelerate drying and help control the drying degree).

Full Washed Method:

Using washing and fermentation methods to remove pulp, skin, and mucilage. Farms using washed processing must build washing pools and have access to continuous fresh water. During processing, fermented beans are placed in pools and moved back and forth, using bean friction and flowing water power to wash coffee beans until smooth and clean.

After washing, coffee beans are still encased in parchment with 50% moisture content and must be dried to reduce moisture to 12%, otherwise they will continue to ferment and become moldy and spoiled.

The better processing method is sun-drying, although it takes 1-3 weeks, the flavor is excellent and quite popular.

Difference Two:

Coffee Bean Appearance

Green beans: Generally washed green beans are bluish-green, while natural green beans are yellowish-green

Roasted beans: FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe has more silver skin, while FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe has less silver skin

Difference Three: Flavor Differences

Dry Aroma Differences:

Cupping: [Using 8 grams of powder to 150ml of 94°C hot water in a cup, let coffee steep for 3-4 minutes until forming coffee grounds crust]

FrontStreet Coffee · Natural Yirgacheffe: Light fermented wine aroma, spice fragrance

FrontStreet Coffee · Washed Yirgacheffe: Jasmine floral aroma, lemon or lime citrus fragrance

Flavor Differences:

FrontStreet Coffee · Natural Yirgacheffe: Natural processing is somewhat complex, with light fermented wine aroma, slightly stronger bitter notes, much richer mouthfeel, honey sweetness, cocoa notes with hints of spice, full body with persistent aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee · Washed Yirgacheffe: Washed processing has brighter acidity, like lemon acidity, cleaner mouthfeel, more prominent citrus aroma, with some tea-like sensations in the finish.

Similarities: Both have fruit acidity, similar to lemon and citrus fruits

Exported using ordinary jute bags printed with Trabocca branding

FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Yirgacheffe variety is local heirloom, small grain variety, with more rounded appearance, very small beans, mostly between 14-15 screen size

FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Cherry Red G1 (Yirgacheffe Cherry Red Grade 1) green beans have yellow-green color, typical of natural coffee color, with uniform, plump beans and few defective beans

04 | Roasting Analysis

Such brilliantly flavored beans are naturally not suitable for medium-dark roasting, so this FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe coffee will use light slow roasting to best express its round and sweet characteristics with rich floral and fruit aromas.

This FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Cherry Red coffee has relatively small beans with low moisture content, absorbing more heat during roasting, and the Maillard reaction process is relatively faster.

In the first roast, I used a high drop temperature, using 160 heat before the coffee beans dehydrated and turned yellow, ensuring sufficient heat to continue through first crack directly to second crack, determining the development curve.

In the second, third, and fourth roasts, using the same 200°C entry temperature and same heat, gradually reducing heat during roasting as needed.

This roast is a quick roast light roast:

Cupping:

Roast one: strawberry, raspberry, vanilla, honeydew, juicy

Roast curve 2: Strawberry, raspberry, vanilla, honey, fruit juice

Roast two: mango, black plum, citrus juice

Roast curve 3: Mango, black plum, blueberry, citrus juice

Roast three: citrus juice, cream

Roast curve 3: Citrus juice, cream

Roaster: Yangjia 600g semi-direct flame

Using quick roast mode, roaster temperature to 200°C, damper opened to 3.5, after 1 minute adjust heat to 160°C, damper unchanged, adjust heat once at 148°C, reducing to 130°C, roasting to 5'03", temperature 151°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, dehydration complete, heat adjusted to 105°C, damper opened to 4;

At 8 minutes, bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma clearly transforms to coffee aroma, can be defined as prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for first crack sounds, first crack begins at 9'07", reduce heat to 70°C, damper fully open (adjust heat must be very careful, not so low that cracking stops), drop at 194°C.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Cherry Red dry aroma emits strong fruit fragrance with heavy dried fruit notes, strawberry, mango, and apricot jam aromas.

The wet aroma is like sweet syrup, like thick apricot pulp juice wrapped in rustic honey or chocolate. The entry is not intense, with medium body, acidity not obvious but lively and bright, like fruit tea.

04 | Brewing Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Flavor

Brewing Methods

Regarding brewing methods, pour-over and siphon brewing are optimal. During grinding, you can smell the intense natural fruit aroma with noticeable sweetness.

Gentle and elegant, sweet and lovely. FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee emits extremely complex aromas, displaying exceptionally refined flavor that's difficult to describe.

First Brew:

V60 dripper, 15g powder, water temperature 90°C, grind setting 4, water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15

31g water for bloom, bloom time 29s

Segments: Pour water to 99ml, pause, slowly pour water to 230ml

That is: 31-99-100

Flavor: Strawberry fruit acidity obvious, finish has astringency, off-flavors present

Adjusting Grind Setting 4 to 3.5 (finer), lower water temperature

Second Brew (Correction):

V60 dripper, 15g powder, water temperature 86°C, grind setting 3.5

Water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15

27g water for bloom, bloom time 28s

Segments: 27-105-88, time 1:50 (timing starts from bloom)

Flavor: Smooth, much richer flavor, layered, fermented berry sweetness enhanced

The produced wet aroma of fermented berries and fruit wine makes it hard to believe this is FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe, though personally I don't particularly like this wet aroma. However, from the extremely smooth entry to delicate body, the emergence of ripe fruit's sweet and sour flavors is truly stunning. The sweetness exceeds any Yirgacheffe I've tasted before. The aftertaste performance is also excellent, truly deserving the name "fruit bomb" - basically guaranteed to leave sweetness in your mouth for half an hour after drinking.

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Important Notice :

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Tel:020 38364473