Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee Characteristics and Flavor Profile - Yirgacheffe Coffee Tasting Notes

What are the characteristics, taste, and cupping notes of Yirgacheffe Red Cherry? What is its processing method and is it good?

Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia, located at an altitude of 1,700-2,100 meters, making it one of the highest altitude coffee growing regions in the world and synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee. The nearby Lake Turkana, Lake Abaya, and Lake Chamo bring abundant moisture to this area.

In the Rift Valley, represented by Misty Valley, fog lingers year-round, creating a spring-like environment with gentle breezes and cool, humid conditions. Thousands of coffee tree varieties thrive and multiply here, cultivating Yirgacheffe's unique terroir character—a mysterious and ever-changing interplay of floral and fruity aromas.

What is the "Red Cherry Project"?

To help Ethiopian coffee farmers achieve better income and improve local living standards, in 2007, a Dutch trading company called Trabocca launched the "OPERATION CHERRY RED PROJECT" together with local farmers. The project was purely aimed at encouraging farmers to improve coffee bean quality. At the beginning of the harvest season, Trabocca would designate harvest plans for specific microclimate zones, manually harvesting 100% ripe red coffee cherries, with production ranging from about 1,500-3,000 kilograms.

In 2008, the Red Cherry Project invested $5,000 to purchase new natural drying racks. In 2009, it invested another $8,000 for new natural drying racks and shade nets. In 2010, a $9,000 generator was purchased, and in 2011, it continued to invest $10,000 to improve local coffee transport roads, making coffee transportation more convenient and efficient. Trabocca provides interest-free loans for purchasing new coffee cherry depulpers and coffee bean sorters. To facilitate supplier procurement, it invested $14,000 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 technical assistance to help farmers improve production levels. They promise to purchase at premium prices as long as the actual output quality meets cupping standards in both Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Amsterdam cupping rooms. The passing standard set by Trabocca is 88 points.

After processing is completed at the production site, Red Cherry Project coffee beans are immediately packaged in individual GrainPro bags or vacuum-sealed bags, then transported to Djibouti to await shipment. Through real-time monitoring, safe transportation, and timely appropriate processing methods, they strive for perfect quality. Roasters can purchase high-quality coffee beans through this Red Cherry Project, which also helps improve Ethiopian coffee quality and achieve better prices. Trabocca can then return profits to farmers, continuously improving and enhancing quality.

Due to its strict selection process, annual production for each coffee farmer group is small batches of only about 1,500-3,000 kilograms of coffee. The ripe coffee fruits resemble cherries in appearance, hence they are called "coffee cherries."

About Yirgacheffe Grading

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

Category A consists of washed processing, graded according to standards set by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA),分为 Gr-1 and Gr-2. The smaller the Arabic numeral, the higher the grade. G1 Yirgacheffe has a distinctive style, with citrus and floral notes blended into the coffee liquid—a delicious flavor that everyone finds irresistible.

Category B consists of natural processing of green coffee beans, graded as Gr-1, Gr-3, Gr-4, and Gr-5. Similarly, the highest grade G1 natural Yirgacheffe has rich fruity aromas. Opening a bag of freshly roasted G1 natural Yirgacheffe can overturn people's original perception of coffee. Only those who have tasted the highest grade natural Yirgacheffe will believe that coffee is a fruit.

Processing Method

FrontStreet Coffee purchased this natural processed Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee. Observing the green beans, we found that these Yirgacheffe Red Cherry beans are slightly larger in size, with slightly lower density and moisture content.

In fact, every coffee from this processing station can be considered high-quality specialty coffee, with characteristics superior to other coffees regardless of processing method. Therefore, the coffee beans from here can be considered the best coffee in the Yirgacheffe region.

After the processing station selects usable coffee cherries, they place the entire coffee cherries with pulp and skin intact on raised beds for natural drying. It is this high-intensity labor method of raised bed drying that isolates contact with the ground, prevents earthy off-flavors during the drying process, and creates exceptionally clean fruity flavors.

After more than two weeks of natural drying, the dark brown coffee fruits are professionally stored, waiting for full flavor development. Before shipment, the processing station removes the coffee beans from the coffee cherries, making the sweetness imaginable.

Roasting Analysis & Cupping

Such flavorful Yirgacheffe Red Cherry beans are naturally unsuitable for medium-dark roasting. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster plans to use a light slow roasting method for this "Yirgacheffe Red Cherry" to highlight its round and sweet characteristics with rich floral and fruity aromas.

Considering that this coffee has relatively small bean size and moisture content, it absorbs more heat during the roasting process, and the Maillard reaction proceeds more quickly.

In the first roast, due to a higher drop temperature, we used 160 heat output before the coffee beans completed dehydration and turned yellow, ensuring sufficient heat would continue through to first crack, directly developing to second crack to determine the development curve.

In the second, third, and fourth roasts, with the same 200°C entry temperature and same heat output, we gradually reduced the heat output as needed during the roasting process.

Yangjia 600g semi-direct flame roasting machine

Using fast-roasting mode, heat to 200°C and load beans, damper set to 3.5. After 1 minute, reduce heat to 160°C, damper unchanged. Adjust heat once at 148°C, reducing to 130°C. Roast to 5'03", temperature 151°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, dehydration complete, adjust heat to 105°C, damper to 4;

At 8 minutes, the bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma clearly transforms to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'07", first crack begins, reduce heat to 70°C, damper fully open (be very careful when reducing heat - don't reduce it so much that crackling stops), drop at 194°C.

Cupping:

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

Roast two: mango, black plum, blueberry, citrus juice

Roast three: citrus juice, cream

The dry fragrance of Yirgacheffe emits strong fruity aromas with rich dried fruit notes, strawberry, mango, and apricot jam aromas. The wet aroma is like sweet syrup, resembling thick apricot pulp juice wrapped in rustic honey or chocolate. The entrance is not intense, with medium body, acidity not obvious yet lively and bright, like a fruity black tea.

Important Notice :

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