Who is Yirgacheffe Coffee Suitable For? The Correct Way to Drink Yirgacheffe - Flavor Characteristics of Natural and Washed Yirgacheffe

The Yirgacheffe coffee region is undoubtedly familiar to many coffee enthusiasts. Unlike traditional coffee flavors, Yirgacheffe region coffee beans are characterized by bright acidity and clean, refreshing coffee flavors, making them the first choice for many people entering the world of specialty pour-over coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's espresso blend in our stores consists of 30% FrontStreet Coffee's sun-dried Yirgacheffe coffee beans and 70% FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe beans add layers and soft fruit acidity to the coffee, while FrontStreet Coffee's Sherry beans provide body and aroma.

Yirgacheffe Coffee Region

Yirgacheffe is located on the eastern edge of the East African Rift Valley, with complex topographical divisions and an altitude of 1800-2000m, making it one of Ethiopia's highest-altitude coffee regions. To the west lies Lake Abaya, which has historically been a wetland with abundant water resources, providing excellent resources for Yirgacheffe's washing stations.

Yirgacheffe was originally a small town in Ethiopia, located in the Sidamo administrative region. What made this town famous worldwide are the high-quality coffee beans produced here.

Yirgacheffe is one of the world's highest-altitude coffee regions and synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee. With an altitude of 1700-2100 meters, it enjoys cool, foggy weather year-round, with spring-like conditions in all four seasons. The geographical environment and unique cultivation system provide optimal conditions for growing specialty coffee beans. Although Yirgacheffe is affiliated with the Sidamo region, it was separated due to its unique flavor profile, becoming its own distinctive style and one of Africa's most renowned regions.

Washed Processing Method

The washed method removes impurities (stones or debris) and defective beans through each step, resulting in uniform raw bean appearance and is generally considered high-quality, commanding higher prices than naturally dried coffee beans. However, the more detailed the process division, the more procedures involved in operation and hygiene management, and the higher the risk. Therefore, washed processing does not necessarily equal high quality. FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed coffee has more prominent acidity, better cleanliness, medium mouthfeel, and the most consistent raw bean quality.

Selected coffee cherries are placed in a pulper to initially remove their skin and pulp; coffee beans with residual pulp and mucilage are placed in water to ferment for about 24 hours; after fermentation, coffee beans with parchment are placed in flowing water channels to wash away pulp and mucilage; after washing, the coffee beans are dried in the sun or using dryers to reduce moisture content to about 12%. Finally, the parchment is removed from the raw coffee beans.

Natural Processing Method

Natural processing is one of the oldest and most traditional processing methods. Coffee cherries are dried in the sun immediately after harvesting. This method is more common in areas with abundant sunshine or scarce water resources. For example, nearly 70% of coffee cherries from all Ethiopian regions are processed using natural methods. FrontStreet Coffee believes that compared to washed coffee, natural coffee has lower acidity, higher sweetness, clearer mouthfeel, but slightly less cleanliness. In terms of flavor, it produces more berry-like notes and is more complex.

Yirgacheffe's natural processing involves selecting usable coffee cherries and placing them on raised beds while preserving the entire fruit pulp and skin. This labor-intensive raised bed drying method prevents contact with the ground, avoiding earthy off-flavors during sun-drying and creating exceptionally clean fruit flavors. After more than two weeks of sun-drying, the dark brown coffee cherries are professionally stored to await full flavor maturation. The beans are only removed from the cherries before shipment, making the sweetness可想而知.

Next, starting with FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe washed and natural processed raw coffee beans, we'll go through a series of comparisons including roasting, cupping, and brewing to see the differences between FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe natural red cherry and FrontStreet Coffee's washed Gedeb.

FrontStreet Coffee · Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Coffee Beans

Region: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe
Estate: Arertelan Estate
Altitude: 1700-2200m
Variety: Local Landraces
Processing: Natural Processing

FrontStreet Coffee · Yirgacheffe Gedeb Coffee Beans

Region: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe
Producer: Gedeb Cooperative
Altitude: 2000-2100m
Variety: Local Landraces
Processing: Washed Processing

These two FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe coffee beans are what FrontStreet Coffee believes best represent the Yirgacheffe region's specialty coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's natural red cherry is of excellent quality, originating from the "Red Cherry Project" launched in 2007 by Dutch green coffee trader Trabocca, aimed at improving the quality of natural processed coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's washed Gedeb—this is the proud creation of the Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative. The Gedeb Cooperative was originally affiliated with the larger Woka Cooperative, but later, "talent scouts" from around the world discovered this "dark horse" and helped them establish their own washing station, allowing them to become independent from Woka and launch their own coffee beans under the Gedeb name. FrontStreet Coffee's Gedeb washed coffee beans are of excellent quality, and FrontStreet Coffee can often taste the floral aromas of Yirgacheffe coffee beans, clean and fresh citrus, and tea-like aftertaste in FrontStreet Coffee's washed Gedeb.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that both processing methods have their advantages. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe Gedeb brings a fresh, clean feeling with bright acidity, while FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe red cherry provides a juicy sensation and more pronounced sweetness compared to the washed version. Therefore, whether FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe or natural Yirgacheffe tastes better depends on the drinker's personal preference.

FrontStreet Coffee Raw Bean Comparison

In their raw state, natural processed beans appear yellow-green with more silver skin; while washed beans are blue-green with less silver skin. This is because washed beans undergo prolonged soaking during processing, causing the silver skin to separate from the coffee beans. When the parchment is finally removed, the outer silver skin is peeled off along with it, leaving very little silver skin residue on washed raw beans.

Natural processed beans are the opposite—the fruit pulp adheres to the outside of the beans, and the silver skin sticks more tightly to the coffee beans. When removing the parchment, it doesn't easily fall off, so natural raw beans still have much external silver skin attached. Have you noticed that Yirgacheffe coffee beans vary in size? This is because Ethiopia, as the birthplace of all Arabica coffee beans, still has many unnamed varieties. Due to the vast variety, detailed classification is impossible, so most Ethiopian coffee beans have uneven particle sizes.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasted Bean Comparison

Although raw washed beans have less silver skin and natural beans have more, during the roasting process, the silver skin at the center line of washed coffee beans is the most difficult to remove. The outer silver skin of natural beans connects in entire pieces, making it easier to remove along with the center line silver skin, so after roasting, natural beans have very clean silver skin removal.

Washed beans are the opposite—because there's almost no outer silver skin connection, the silver skin in the center line crack cannot be easily removed and instead remains after roasting. This is why, when looking at roasted beans, washed beans have more silver skin while natural beans have less.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendations

For FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe natural red cherry coffee, using Yangjia 800N with 600g batch size: Heat the drum to 200°C, open the damper to 3.5. After 1 minute, reduce heat to 160°C, keep damper unchanged. Adjust heat to 130°C at 148°C. Roast to 5'03'', temperature reaches 151°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. Adjust heat to 105°C, open damper to 4. At 8 minutes, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma—this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the first crack sound. At 9'07'', first crack begins, reduce heat to 70°C, open damper fully (adjust heat very carefully, don't reduce so much that cracking stops), drop at 194°C.

For FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe washed Gedeb coffee, using Yangjia 800N with 480g batch size: Heat the drum to 175°C, open damper to 3, set heat to 120. Return temperature at 1'32", when drum temperature reaches 140°C, keep heat unchanged, open damper to 4. At this point, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering dehydration stage. At 166°C, reduce heat to 100, at 176°C reduce heat to 80, keep damper unchanged. At 8'28", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma—this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the first crack sound. At 9'38", first crack begins, adjust damper to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, don't reduce so much that cracking stops). After first crack, develop for 1'30'', drop at 193.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee's natural red cherry's dry aroma emits strong fruit fragrances with rich dried fruit notes of strawberry, mango, and apricot jam. The wet aroma is like sweet syrup, resembling thick apricot nectar wrapped in rustic honey or chocolate. The entrance is not intense, with medium body, like fruit tea.

FrontStreet Coffee's washed Gedeb's dry aroma emits fresh passion fruit, citrus, and berry acidity. The wet aroma is citrus and berries. On entry, citrus acidity, berry sweetness, almond, tea sensation, with honey-sweet aftertaste. Light body, bright acidity, clean and refreshing.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Dripper: V60 #01
Water Temperature: 91-93°C
Coffee Dose: 15g
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: Fine pour-over grind (80% pass-through rate with #20 standard sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing method: First pour 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour 95g more (scale shows around 125g), completing in about 1 minute. When water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows around 225g), completing in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Drip completes in about 2 minutes, remove the dripper, extraction complete.

FrontStreet Coffee's washed Gedeb brewing flavor: Entry features citrus and black tea, with cream, caramel, and almond aftertaste as temperature changes, with obvious sweet aftertaste and clean, sweet mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee's natural red cherry brewing flavor: Lemon, licorice, citrus, berries, sweet orange, overall higher sweetness, with caramel and cream flavors in aftertaste, ending with black tea aroma.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473