Are Ethiopian Coffee Beans Light Roasted? Flavor Characteristics, Story, and Origin of Yirgacheffe Banko Gutiti Coffee Beans

As is well known, Ethiopian coffee is primarily characterized by its fruity acidity, but Ethiopia is such a large country that there are differences among its sub-regions. FrontStreet Coffee's current selection of daily coffee beans includes a FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe washed coffee bean, allowing you to experience the flavor profile of Ethiopia's essential Yirgacheffe region at a great value: clear and bright acidity like citrus and lemon, with delicate and elegant floral and fruit aromas.

Of course, if we continue to subdivide the FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe region, we can also discover the unique characteristics of each small sub-region or cooperative. Today, FrontStreet Coffee would like to introduce a coffee bean produced by the FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative. In addition to possessing the main flavor profile of the FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe region, it also features a clear tea-like quality, tasting just like lemon tea.

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative Coffee Bean

Region: Yirgacheffe, Gedeo Zone

Altitude: 1900-2300m

Variety: Heirloom

Processing: Washed

Grade: G1

Flavor: Citrus, Green Tea, Floral, Honey

Yirgacheffe Coffee Region

Yirgacheffe has always been one of Ethiopia's most important coffee regions. It was formerly part of the Sidamo coffee region but later became an independent coffee region due to the unique flavor of Yirgacheffe coffee beans. It can be said that Yirgacheffe is not just a coffee region name but also a noun describing specific coffee flavors. The Yirgacheffe coffee region is considered a high-altitude coffee region, with an altitude of around 2000 meters. The Yirgacheffe coffee region has more than 40 cooperatives, mainly managing coffee cultivation through family-operated models.

Underneath the Yirgacheffe coffee region, there are many well-known micro-regions, such as Kochere, Fog Valley, Worka, and others. These micro-regions all have excellent cooperatives, and the Yirgacheffe coffee beans they produce each have their unique flavor characteristics.

Gedeb Cooperative

Gedeb was originally a member of the Worka Cooperative but was later discovered by coffee green bean traders and became independent as the Gedeb Cooperative. The coffee beans produced by Gedeb are of very high quality, allowing you to clearly perceive the very rich jasmine floral aroma, elegant citrus acidity, and honey-sweet tea notes in FrontStreet Coffee's Gedeb coffee.

Coffee Grade

The FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe coffee variety is local heirloom, small-grained variety, with a relatively round appearance and very small beans, mostly between 14-15 mesh. The ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, established in 2012) has a grading system for Ethiopian coffee beans that focuses on two aspects.

On one hand, it defines grading based on the defect rate of coffee beans. Whether for washed or natural processed coffee beans, if there are fewer than 3 defective beans per 300g of exported green beans, the grade is G1; if there are 4-12 defective beans per 300g of exported green beans, the grade is G2. The FrontStreet Coffee Gedeb coffee bean that FrontStreet Coffee acquired belongs to G1 grade.

Coffee Varieties

Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee, which is why there are thousands of coffee varieties here. Since the coffee trees are all native, they carry extremely distinct regional flavors. Therefore, Ethiopia locally uses "Heirloom" to概括 such numerous coffee varieties.

Roasting Suggestions

FrontStreet Coffee considers that this FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb bean is primarily characterized by its fruity acidity, making it quite suitable for light roasting, which will highlight the clean taste, bright fruit acidity, and obvious sweet aftertaste of FrontStreet Coffee Gedeb.

After determining the general roasting direction, FrontStreet Coffee developed three different roasting curves, then selected the one with excellent and stable flavor performance for mass production.

Roasting machine: Yangjia 800N, 550g green beans

Curve 1

Bean entry temperature: 180°C, Yellowing point: 5'00", 151.9°C, First crack: 8'30", 184.1°C, Development after first crack: 2'08", discharged at 194°C.

Curve 2

Bean entry temperature: 180°C, Yellowing point: 5'00", 149.9°C, First crack: 8'42", 183.8°C, Development after first crack: 1'48", discharged at 193.5°C.

Curve 3

Bean entry temperature: 180°C, Yellowing point: 5'10", 151.1°C, First crack: 8'46", 184.5°C, Development after first crack: 1'28", discharged at 192.3°C.

Cupping Flavors

Curve 1

Dry aroma: Citrus, Honey

Wet aroma: Floral, Caramel

Entry: Smoky, Citrus, with floral, caramel, and honey notes as temperature changes during slurping, with cream aroma in the aftertaste

Curve 2

Dry aroma: Citrus, Lemon

Wet aroma: Floral, Berry, Caramel

Entry: Citrus, Cream, with berry, black tea, and caramel sweetness as temperature changes during slurping, with citrus aftertaste

Curve 3

Dry aroma: Citrus, Caramel

Wet aroma: Caramel, Light floral

Entry: Woody, Citrus, with caramel and cream notes as temperature changes during slurping, with astringency in the finish

Brewing Suggestions

After cupping, FrontStreet Coffee can basically confirm choosing Curve 2, but it's not over yet. To further determine the flavor, another brewing test is needed. Because FrontStreet Coffee conducted cupping 8 hours after roasting, the coffee beans are still quite fresh and need to rest for another three or four days until most of the gas inside the beans has been released, then brewing can proceed.

To fully extract the fruity acidity of FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe, FrontStreet Coffee uses higher water temperature and finer grind size for extraction, but to avoid over-extraction caused by high temperature, they use a faster flow rate dripper such as the V60.

The V60 dripper has a 60-degree conical shape. The conical angle allows coffee grounds to be concentrated, and during pouring, water flow automatically converges toward the center of the dripper, ensuring sufficient contact time between water and coffee grounds, thus achieving appropriate coffee extraction. Additionally, the ribs on the inside of the V60 dripper body extend clockwise in a spiral from bottom to top, creating enough space between filter paper and dripper, allowing good water flow. Combined with the large hole at the bottom, the water flow rate is relatively faster than many other drippers.

FrontStreet Coffee's specific brewing parameters are: V60 dripper, water temperature at 91°C, water-to-coffee ratio of 1:15, 15g coffee dose, grind size of fine sugar (80% pass-through rate on China #20 standard sieve).

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, with bloom water amount being 2 times the coffee grounds, i.e., 30g water for 30 seconds bloom, then small circular pour to 125g before segmenting, continue pouring to 225g when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, stopping there. The entire extraction time is 2 minutes.

Flavor Description

Entry reveals citrus and black tea, with cream and caramel notes as temperature changes, almond aftertaste with obvious sweetness and clean, sweet taste.

Flavor Changes of FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb at Different Temperatures

FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier using higher water temperature to brew FrontStreet Coffee Gedeb coffee to extract as much of its fruity acidity as possible. Regarding this, some customers might ask: what water temperature is appropriate? According to SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) brewing recommendations, water temperature should be controlled between 85-94°C, with light roast beans suitable for brewing at 90-94°C, and dark roast beans suitable for brewing at 85-89°C.

To help everyone more intuitively understand the impact of temperature on coffee flavor, FrontStreet Coffee uses FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb as an example, brewing with four different water temperatures to verify what kind of flavor experience it will provide.

Brewing parameters (kept as consistent as possible): V60 dripper, 15g coffee, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size of EK43s setting 10 (80% pass-through rate on China #20 standard sieve)

Through the brewing data, we can see that the light-roasted FrontStreet Coffee Gedeb is quite suitable for brewing with 90-92°C water temperature, which can present fruit acidity and sweetness, matching the flavor of FrontStreet Coffee Gedeb. Using 86-88°C water temperature, one can clearly perceive that the bean's acidity is prominent but lacks aroma, with thin, watery mouthfeel.

Light roast coffee preserves more of the coffee's flavors. At this roast level, beans often have rich and prominent floral and fruit acidity, with more layered flavors. Using slightly higher water temperature can better highlight the flavor characteristics of "FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb."

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473