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Sidamo Pour-Over Guji Parameters Introduction How to Determine Temperature and Grind for Moka Pot Coffee

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional barista exchanges, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). The Guji processing station is located in Buku Abel village at an altitude of 2200 meters. From the very beginning of cultivation, it was chosen for its noble environment - red-brown soil rich in humus, with protection provided by Enset trees for shade

Exploring Ethiopia's Coffee Map: The Legend of Flower Queen Coffee

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When you explore Ethiopia's coffee map, you'll discover many familiar names - Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Guji, and other specialty coffee regions that have captured public attention. Among these, Flower Queen coffee beans stand out remarkably. From 2017 to the present, spanning eight years, FrontStreet Coffee now delves into this renowned Hambella Flower Queen coffee bean and shares some brewing techniques using the Moka pot.

Sidamo Coffee Region

The Sidamo region is located in southern Ethiopia, extending eastward to the Arsi and Bale administrative regions and westward to the Gamogofa administrative area. Sidamo coffee is cultivated at altitudes between 1400-2000 meters. Agriculture dominates the local economy, with main coffee growing areas situated around the Great Rift Valley. Sidamo has developed rapidly in recent years and serves as an important coffee export hub. The flavor profiles of Sidamo coffee are incredibly diverse, with different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties creating distinct differences and characteristics in coffee produced by each town.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that as a large producing region, Sidamo has seen increasing refinement of coffee areas, with more and more small sub-regions emerging independently. Among these, the most famous coffee growing areas in Sidamo are Guji and West Arsi. Most coffee in Sidamo is processed using the natural method. FrontStreet Coffee finds that the natural processing method gives Sidamo coffee beans rich fruity aromas and smooth mouthfeel.

Guji Region

The Guji region was formerly part of the Sidamo region but was established as an independent new region by the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in 2010. Located southeast of Yirgacheffe, Guji features complex topography with towering mountains, valleys, and plains. The region's geology consists of fertile black soil (Vertisol) with depths reaching nearly two meters, and an average altitude exceeding 1800 meters. The significant day-night temperature differences created by these geographical characteristics provide ideal terroir conditions for producing high-quality specialty coffee. When discussing what made Guji famous, FrontStreet Coffee must mention the Flower Queen bean.

The Flower Queen bean comes from Hambella, located in Ethiopia's largest coffee producing region, Guji, administratively belonging to the Oromia region. To the west, Hambella faces Yirgacheffe's Kochere across mountain ranges, with the two regions separated by a highland area at 3200 meters altitude 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.

Buku Abel Flower Queen Processing Station

Hambella Region

Hambella (generally translated as "Hambella") is located in Ethiopia's famous specialty coffee region, Guji (formerly part of the Sidamo coffee region), administratively belonging to the Oromia region. To the west, Hambella faces Yirgacheffe's Kochere across mountains, with the two regions separated by a highland area at 3200 meters altitude 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 region).

Currently, there are about 20 processing plants of various scales in the Hambella region. In 2017, a natural process bean from DW Company's "Buku Abel" processing plant won the Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest Competition championship. Chinese green bean importers named this bean "Flower Queen" due to its rich strawberry and cream aroma. Subsequently, DW Company's core Hambella region, Dimtu, expanded from one estate processing plant to four: Buku Abel, Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, and Tirtiro Goye, with an annual coffee production of about 1100 tons. FrontStreet Coffee also offers coffee products produced by the Buku Abel processing plant.

Buku Abel Processing Plant

In the local Ethiopian language, Buku Abel means "NEW" - a new place. In this ancient country with over 2000 years of history and a population of 100 million, blocked from Asia by the Great Rift Valley, new virgin lands are still being discovered for development on this plateau. Compared to millennia-old culture, this is a relatively newly developed land.

Buku Abel is located in southeastern Ethiopia, in a high-altitude primitive tribal area within the Hambela region of Guji. With a population of about 30,000, this small village is like most Ethiopian coffee gardens - growing in wild, primitive forests. Coffee farmers here have passed down their traditions through generations, cultivating native bananas and interspersing local native coffee varieties among the banana groves.

The Origin of Flower Queen Coffee's Name

In 2017, Ethiopia's DW green bean company sent their coffee beans to the Taste of Harvest (TOH) competition organized by the African Fine Coffee Association. A natural process batch from the "Buku Abel" processing plant won the Ethiopia TOH championship with its rich strawberry and cream aroma. That year, this batch of green beans was imported to China by Beijing green bean trader Hongshun. In the same year, Li Jianfei used this bean to win second place in the 2017 World Brewers Cup China region competition. This Ethiopian bean stood out among many Geisha entries, thus earning the name "Flower Queen" (Geisha in Japanese refers to geisha, while Flower Queen means the leader among geishas, indicating this bean's outstanding quality).

Therefore, if we narrowly understand Flower Queen coffee, only the 2017 TOH natural process champion that entered China could be called Flower Queen coffee.

Starting from the 2018 harvest season, Flower Queen (Natural G1 coffee beans) from the same growing area and processing station already showed some flavor changes. At that time, through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that although the 2018 and 2019 Flower Queens had flavors similar to the 2017 Flower Queen, they fell short in terms of body, aftertaste, and other mouthfeel aspects compared to the "first-generation Flower Queen." Therefore, to continue selling this natural process coffee from Hambella while making some distinction from the original version, domestic green bean trading companies established an X.0 suffix system counting forward from 2017. For example, the 2018 batch was called "Flower Queen 2.0," the 2019 production was called "Flower Queen 3.0 and 3.1"... last year's release was "Flower Queen 7.0," and so on. This way, we can identify which year's batch the Flower Queen we purchased belongs to through this suffix.

The Flower Queen from the 2020 new harvest season was named Flower Queen 4.0 to distinguish it from previous Flower Queens. As the fourth year of this coffee bean, its growing area had expanded to several times its original size, coupled with more scientific cultivation management. Flower Queen 4.0's flavors became even more delightful, receiving praise from many coffee enthusiasts. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee also purchased this new harvest season's Flower Queen 4.0 for roasting and cupping.

FrontStreet Coffee's Green Bean Analysis

Regarding this batch of Flower Queen 4.0 that FrontStreet Coffee purchased, you'll notice that Flower Queen 4.0 beans are smaller than the other two Flower Queen 3.0 beans due to different varieties. Flower Queen 3.0 uses Ethiopian heirloom coffee beans, while Flower Queen 4.0 uses the Dega variety. Additionally, we can see that the two Flower Queen 3.0 beans are relatively uniform in size because they were sorted after harvesting, while Flower Queen 4.0 was not sorted, so the beans appear to be of varying sizes.

FrontStreet Coffee's Roasting Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee examines the flavor descriptions provided by green bean suppliers and checks the bean moisture content. The freshly received green beans have a fermented wine aroma of coffee flowers, completely different from the grassy aroma of typical green beans. Moreover, Flower Queen green beans vary in size with many pointed ends (Ethiopia Heirloom - Ethiopian native varieties), with good moisture content around 11%. However, they are not the very hard SHB beans. Due to the beans' high density and hardness, the initial dehydration time is extended, entering first crack with rising temperature to preserve the loss of small molecular aromatic substances like floral notes.

FrontStreet Coffee uses a Taiwan Yang Family 800N machine, charging beans at 190°C, completing dehydration and yellowing in nearly 6 minutes. (Yellow point around 150-153°C) First crack begins around 9 minutes and 50 seconds (Flower Queen's first crack occurs later than typical beans, with weak crack sounds). The development time after first crack should be controlled not to exceed 1 minute 30 seconds, nor be less than 1 minute. (It's recommended to open the air damper and reduce heat to control speed). Using a sampling spoon to smell, around 193°C you can detect strawberry jam aroma, at which point you should drop the beans, with total time ideally controlled within 11 minutes.

Recently, FrontStreet Coffee's newly acquired Flower Queen 8.0 finally arrived. Fresh and hot, and after a year of anticipation, it's definitely time to savor its flavors properly.

To present Sidamo region's delicate floral and fruit flavors while maintaining coffee's caramelized aroma, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters adopted a medium-light roast for this bean. The new harvest season's Flower Queen 8.0 shows more intense fruit aromas in its dry fragrance than 7.0, with complex notes of guava, jackfruit, apricot, preserved fruit, citrus, and floral aromas. When hot water is added, honey and berry sweet aromas emerge. Upon tasting, you can experience multiple fruit sweet and sour notes like dried mango, jackfruit, orange, and passion fruit. Therefore, it's suitable for various extraction methods, such as the Moka pot coffee that FrontStreet Coffee loves - a popular choice for many home enthusiasts.

How to Extract Flower Queen 8.0 Coffee with a Moka Pot?

To extract rich black coffee, the Moka pot requires a grind size finer than pour-over but coarser than espresso. If the particles are too coarse, it will lead to under-extraction, splattering, and other issues. Too fine, and it will cause over-extraction, resulting in bitter, harsh coffee that's difficult to drink. FrontStreet Coffee's store uses the EK-43s grinder at setting 3.5, controlling the coarseness to achieve a 30-40% pass-through rate on China's No. 20 standard sieve.

First, we pour the ground Flower Queen 8.0 coffee powder into the filter basket, spreading it evenly and filling it completely. Use your finger to level it and place it in the bottom chamber. No need to press firmly - overly compacted coffee layers can easily block water flow upward, affecting extraction. If there isn't enough coffee powder, when water from the lower chamber enters the middle coffee layer under steam pressure, it cannot extract fully, leading to significant splattering in the upper chamber.

Next, screw the upper and lower chambers together tightly and place on a gas stove or induction cooker. When using open flame, try to control the flame not to exceed the Moka pot's base range. There's actually no precise time requirement for brewing. Wait for the Moka pot to heat up - when you hear a hissing sound, turn to low heat. Coffee liquid and crema will slowly flow out. When you see the upper chamber half full of coffee liquid, you can turn off the heat source and move the pot to the table with a wet towel, using the residual temperature and pressure inside the pot to continue extracting the remaining coffee liquid.

Finally, pour the extracted coffee liquid into a cup and drink it directly. On the palate, you'll experience fresh berry sweet and sour notes with a faint caramel aroma. Diluting with 80°C hot water at a 1:5 ratio creates a "Flower Queen Americano" with a comfortable juiciness and lemon tea-like bright acidity. When paired with milk, it delivers the sweet aroma of cranberry chocolate.