What are the Differences in Appearance and Flavor Characteristics Between Washed and Natural Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans?

Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia with an altitude of 1700-2100 meters, making it one of the highest altitude coffee growing regions in the world and synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee. Lake Turkana, Lake Abaya, and Lake Chamo bring abundant moisture to this area. Represented by the Misty Valley, the rift valley is perpetually shrouded in mist, with spring-like conditions year-round, gentle breezes, cool and humid weather, where thousands of coffee tree varieties thrive and propagate, nurturing the unique terroir of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe with its ambiguous and ever-changing interweaving of floral and fruity aromas.

Different Green Bean Processing Methods

Yirgacheffe Washed Processing Method

This method uses washing and fermentation to remove the fruit skin, pulp, and mucilage, washing the coffee beans until they are smooth and clean. After washing, the coffee beans are still encased in their parchment with a moisture content of 50%. They must be dried to reduce the moisture content to 12%; otherwise, they will continue to ferment and become moldy and spoiled. The best processing method is sun drying, which takes 1-3 weeks, but produces exceptional flavor that is highly favored.

The washed method offers good body, high aroma, and lively acidity. Washed Yirgacheffe coffee beans are graded as Gr-1 and Gr-2, where smaller Arabic numbers indicate higher grades. FrontStreet Coffee's G1 Yirgacheffe has a distinctive style, where the fusion of citrus flavor and floral notes in the coffee liquid creates an irresistible deliciousness that everyone can appreciate.

Yirgacheffe Natural Processing Method

After harvesting, the fruits immediately begin the sun drying process without any treatment. This is the oldest existing processing method, with drying typically lasting about 4 weeks. The processing method must be extremely rigorous to ensure the coffee doesn't lose any flavor. Natural processed beans have complete natural body, gentle aroma, and more mucilage.

Natural grades are divided into Gr-1, Gr-3, Gr-4, and Gr-5. Similarly, the highest grade FrontStreet Coffee G1 natural Yirgacheffe has rich fruit aroma. Opening a bag of freshly roasted FrontStreet Coffee G1 natural Yirgacheffe can subvert everyone's original understanding of coffee, but only through tasting can you appreciate the different mouthfeel of the coffee beans.

Different Coffee Bean Mouthfeels

FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe coffee beans have a faint fermented wine aroma, with slightly more pronounced bitterness and much richer body. Honey sweetness, cocoa notes with hints of spice, full body with persistent aftertaste, rich texture and unique soft floral notes brush across your taste buds, leaving endless aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe has brighter acidity, like lemon acidity, with a cleaner mouthfeel and more prominent citrus aroma, with some black tea sensation in the finish. Both have fruit acidity similar to lemon and citrus fruits.

Best Brewing Methods

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans are most suitable for pour-over and siphon brewing. When grinding, you can smell the rich natural fruit aroma with noticeable sweetness. Among them, there's also FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe signature citrus and jasmine floral notes, making it endlessly memorable to drink.

Elegant, gentle, and delightfully sweet. FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe emits extremely complex aromas and showcases exceptionally outstanding mouthfeel that is difficult to describe.

V60 dripper, 15g coffee, water temperature 87°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, then slowly pour to 230ml
That is 31-99-100

Mouthfeel: Prominent strawberry fruit acidity, tea-like sensation in the finish

I've always felt that roasting and brewing natural processed beans is quite challenging, but their unique rich fruit fermentation flavor fascinates many enthusiasts. This time, FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe Aricha, when extracted through V60 pour-over, presents a unique translucent orange-red color with sweet and sour fruit flavors. From hot to cold, it offers different layers of drinking experience. After finishing, the residual aroma in the empty cup should reveal fruit notes similar to winemaking.

To learn how to brew coffee, you must first learn how to taste coffee, and also try different types of coffee. Yes, different types of coffee.

Today, let's discuss how beginners with no coffee knowledge can gradually and step-by-step learn to appreciate a cup of Yirgacheffe.

How to Properly Taste a Cup of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe?

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe has a characteristic citrus flavor, but this is very general—it's a regional characteristic. Coffee beans will also have different flavors due to different processing methods.

Harvested coffee beans must immediately enter processing; otherwise, they will start to ferment and produce off-flavors. There are two processing methods: "natural" and "washed," which create different flavors.

Natural processed beans have complete natural body, gentle aroma, and more mucilage; the washed method offers good body, high aroma, and lively acidity.

Tasting Single-Origin FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe in Seven Steps:

1. Smell the Dry Aroma
FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe often has floral and fruit-type dry aromas, with lemon fragrance. FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe often has wine aroma, floral notes, and rich fruit aromas.

2. Perceive the Mouthfeel
When coffee liquid enters the mouth and stimulates the taste buds, use your tongue to feel the coffee liquid and experience the sensation of your mouth being impacted.

In professional coffee tasting, this indicator is also called mouthfeel, visually explained as water versus syrup or milk. Syrup and milk have thicker texture than water. If it's FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe (light roast), it will taste very watery. FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe has full and rich body, which can also be understood as a viscous sensation.

Smoothness refers to the silky feeling, similar to drinking milk. Usually very smooth coffee, when entering the mouth for a moment, feels round and natural when swallowed through the throat, effortless. Poor quality coffee feels unsmooth when swallowed, giving the throat a tight and rough texture.

Coffee smoothness and body have a certain relationship, sometimes collectively called "rich smoothness." The more full-bodied the coffee, the more obvious the corresponding smoothness will be.

3. Understand Cleanliness
Some coffees have astringency, some powdery texture, some earthy notes—such coffee has unclean cup quality. High cleanliness makes tasting easy and enjoyable. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe mouthfeel will be clean and clear.

4. Understand Acidity
Sweet and acidic substances in coffee are components that contribute to the complexity of coffee flavor. Although Yirgacheffe has acidity, it's a comfortable and rounded acidity that comes with sweetness. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe contains rich acidity like citrus and berries.

5. Feel Sweetness
Sweetness is the simplest and most intuitive aspect of coffee tasting. A good single-origin coffee has almost no bitterness, so sweetness becomes more obvious.

Sweetness is liked and accepted by everyone. Pleasant and lively sweetness pairs well with acidity. When we drink coffee with excellent sweetness paired with lively acidity, we get sweet-sour balance and sweet-sour transformation.

FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe with sweetness is like a fruit, containing fructose in the coffee beans, sweet like sucrose, brown sugar, caramel, creating a mouth-watering sensation.

6. Taste Flavor
When coffee is in your mouth, you can perceive its flavor, typically distinguishing the coffee's sweet, salty, sour, and bitter notes.

7. Perceive Aftertaste
Coffee always has a flavor that returns from the throat after drinking, called "aftertaste." If it makes the mouth feel dry, it's generally called "dry throat."

The aftertaste of FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe coffee beans is very persistent and clear. A coffee with good aftertaste allows the aroma to linger in the mouth longer, with a more extended finish.

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473