Yirgacheffe Estate Premium Coffee Beans - Top Choice for Pour-Over Coffee: Washed Yirgacheffe

The Philosophy of Coffee

Balzac once said, "If I'm not at home, I'm at the cafe; if I'm not at the cafe, I'm on my way to the cafe."

FrontStreet Coffee puts it a little differently: "Finding a coffee that suits your taste is like finding a soulmate; brewing a coffee that suits your taste is like discovering yourself."

The Essence of Coffee

A coffee tree is just a plant and a coffee bean is just a seed, yet brewing coffee is a profound science.

Coffee flavor is a kind of taste memory, and drinking coffee becomes a habit, even an addiction.

East Africa: Ethiopia Washed Yirgacheffe Selected Beans

Yirgacheffe has a personality all its own, with bold floral aromas and lemon acidity.

Its layered complexity interprets the coffee flavor profile perfectly, creating a tea-like impression on the palate.

That is why so many people describe Yirgacheffe as a soft, pleasant fruit tea, and why it has been so beautifully called the queen of coffees.

Yirgacheffe is a high-quality Arabica with a distinctive, bright fruity sweetness and acidity.

The washed Yirgacheffe, with its rich berry sweetness and fragrance, is a pleasure to taste.

Product Details

Product: Ethiopia Washed Yirgacheffe Kochere G1, Roast Level (#3)

Region: Yirgacheffe Kochere

Variety: Typica & Heirloom (local native varieties)

Production: A collection of numerous small coffee farmers

Altitude: 1800 to 2000 meters

Grade: Washed, rated G1, the highest grade by the ECX

Annual Rainfall: 1400-1800mm

Soil: Red composite color

Flavor Characteristics: Jasmine, orange, caramel, grape, vanilla, honey and floral notes

Mouthfeel: Clean and balanced, with a lingering, lively and varied fruity sweetness in the aftertaste.

Introduction

Kochere lies in the Gedeo region of southern Ethiopia, the area that governs the well-known Yirgacheffe and Kochere districts. Because the coffee grown in Yirgacheffe has such special, distinctive flavors and is so widely loved, it forms a category of its own in product classification and has always held a firm place in the global specialty coffee market.

Yirgacheffe itself is a small town in Sidama province, with three neighboring small producing areas: Wenago, Kochere and Gelena Abaya. Because the coffees they produce are almost on par with Yirgacheffe, Kochere is also classified within the Yirgacheffe region. In November 2009, Ethiopia introduced a new trading and grading system and, alongside Yirgacheffe, added three sub-regions: Wenago, Kochere and Genlena/Abaya. That decision confirmed that the flavors of these three areas are extremely delicate and can be further subdivided.

Kochere is a small producing area about 25 kilometers southeast of Yirgacheffe. Its harvested coffee comes from local smallholders, forming a collective of many individual small farmers. These farmers cultivate an average of about 1 hectare each, at planting altitudes of roughly 1800-2000 meters, growing a mix of Typica and Heirloom (local native varieties). Because the region has relatively advanced green bean processing equipment, it has always performed at a high level in washed processing, prized for its clean sweetness with complex notes of honey and citrus.

The main local production model has small farmers delivering each harvest of red cherries to nearby cooperative washing stations for unified processing. Ethiopia introduced washed processing technology in the 1970s, and today the Kochere region primarily uses washed processing for its green beans. After the washing stations screen and grade the red cherry-colored fruit, the pulp is removed directly for washed fermentation. Once washed, the parchment green beans are placed on racks to dry naturally in the sun. When humidity falls to 12% or below, they are sent straight to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) warehouse in Awassa. Cupping grading and quantity checks are normally carried out, and washed beans are usually stored in parchment form until hulling before export.

This batch of Kochere has been rated G1, the highest grade by the ECX. From the appearance, consistency and freshness of the green beans to their dry aroma and flavor, it is quite excellent. The aroma is very rich, carrying the regional character of Yirgacheffe and emitting an elegant, captivating floral perfume. Floral notes, bright citrus acidity, lemon, berries and honey's sweet-and-sour aroma all emerge. Jasmine, orange, caramel, grape, vanilla, honey and floral notes together create a clean, balanced mouthfeel, with a lingering, lively and varied fruity sweetness in the aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this washed Kochere has you curious about Ethiopia's most celebrated terroir, the FrontStreet Coffee washed Yirgacheffe is the natural place to begin. It is the classic introduction to the region, known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a clean tea-like body, and it remains one of the most affordable ways to taste true specialty coffee. For a more focused single-community expression, the FrontStreet Gotiti Cooperative lot comes from southeastern Yirgacheffe and carries the same citrus and lemon acidity lifted by jasmine fragrance. If you lean toward a sweeter, fruit-forward cup, the FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry is picked only from fully ripe, sound cherries, dried on raised beds for three to five weeks, and shows berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness and a creamy smoothness.

All three share the Yirgacheffe character described above, so they make an easy side-by-side tasting of washed versus natural Ethiopian coffee.