Who is Sidamo Coffee Suitable For? Flavor and Taste Differences Between Ethiopian Hua Kui and Alsi Coffees

As an iconic large-scale specialty coffee producing region in Ethiopia, Sidamo's subordinate sub-regions enjoy considerable fame, with some exceptional ones even establishing themselves as independent entities. FrontStreet Coffee will now introduce you to the famous specialty coffee region of Ethiopian Sidamo.

Sidamo Coffee Region

The Sidamo region is located in southern Ethiopia, extending eastward to the Arsi and Bale administrative regions and westward to the Gamogofa administrative region. Sidamo coffee is cultivated at altitudes between 1400m-2000m. Agriculture dominates the local economy, with main coffee growing areas situated around the Great Rift Valley. Sidamo has developed rapidly in recent years and serves as an important coffee export hub. The coffee flavors in Sidamo are incredibly diverse, with different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties creating distinct differences and characteristics in the coffee produced by each town.

Among the most famous coffee growing areas in the Sidamo region are Guji and West Arsi. Most coffee in the Sidamo region is processed using the natural processing method. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the natural processing method gives Sidamo coffee beans rich fruity aromas and a smooth texture.

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopian Sidamo Natural Flower Queen 4.0 Coffee Beans

Region: Ethiopia, Guji, Hambella
Processing Station: Buku Able
Altitude: 2350 meters
Variety: Dega
Processing Method: Natural Processing

Guji Region

The Guji region, formerly part of the Sidamo region, was established as an independent region by the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in 2010. Located southeast of Yirgacheffe, Guji is a region with complex topographical changes including towering mountains, valleys, and plains. The region's geology consists of fertile Vertisol soil with a depth of nearly two meters, and an average altitude of over 1800 meters. The significant day-night temperature differences created by its geographical features provide the terroir conditions necessary for producing high-quality specialty coffee. What made the Guji region famous, FrontStreet Coffee must mention their Natural Flower Queen coffee beans.

The "Flower Queen" coffee beans come from Hambella, located in Ethiopia's largest coffee region, Guji, administratively belonging to the Oromia region. West of Hambella faces Yirgacheffe's Kochere across mountains, with the two regions separated by a highland area of 3200 meters altitude and about 30 kilometers wide. Hambella borders Guji's Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions to the southeast, north, and south respectively, making it the highest altitude coffee sub-region in Ethiopia.

Currently, there are about 20 processing stations of various scales in the Hambella region. In 2017, Ethiopia's DW green bean company sent their coffee beans to the Taste Of Harvest (TOH) competition hosted by the African Fine Coffee Association. A natural batch from the "Buku Abel" processing station won the TOH Ethiopia championship with its rich strawberry and cream aroma. That year, this batch of green beans was imported to China by Beijing green bean trader Hong Shun. In the same year, Li Jianfei used these beans to win second place in the 2017 World Brewers Cup China region competition. This Ethiopian bean stood out among many Geisha entries, earning it the name "Flower Queen." (Geisha means "geisha" in Japanese, while "Flower Queen" refers to the head among geishas, indicating the exceptional quality of these beans.)

Therefore, if we narrowly interpret Flower Queen coffee, it can only refer to the 2017 TOH natural category champion that entered China. Of course, it would be a pity if such a wonderful name were only fleeting. Consequently, Hong Shun continued to import coffee beans from the "Buku Abel" processing station in the Hambella region, naming them Flower Queen 2.0, Flower Queen 3.0, and Flower Queen 3.1 to distinguish them from the original Flower Queen coffee and represent different batches or harvest seasons. At this time, Flower Queen coffee still maintained certain characteristics: being imported by Hong Shun, with the production area still locked to the "Buku Abel" processing station in Hambella. Of course, as an agricultural product, coffee flavors vary each year.

FrontStreet Coffee, through cupping Flower Queen, Flower Queen 2.0, and Flower Queen 3.0, found that although the flavors of Flower Queen 2.0 and 3.0 were very close to the 2017 Flower Queen, their body and aftertaste were inferior to the original 2017 Flower Queen. Surprisingly, FrontStreet Coffee could sometimes identify green beans identical to the original Flower Queen batch from these two batches. As for Flower Queen 3.1, FrontStreet Coffee found its flavor differed significantly from Flower Queen, even thinking that Flower Queen 3.1's flavor somewhat resembled Geisha's flavor, which was confirmed by the green bean supplier. In 2020, as the fourth year of Flower Queen coffee, its production area had expanded to several times its original size, coupled with more scientific cultivation management, making Flower Queen 4.0's flavor even more exquisite. It received praise from numerous coffee enthusiasts, and FrontStreet Coffee also launched FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Flower Queen 4.0 coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopian Sidamo Natural Arsi

Region: Ethiopia, Sidamo, West Arsi
Altitude: 1900-2200 meters
Variety: Local native varieties
Processing Method: Natural Processing

West Arsi Region

West Arsi is located between the famous Yirgacheffe coffee growing region and Hararge, at altitudes of 1900-2200m, situated in the western part of the Sidamo region. The region's name comes from a branch of the Oromo people who have long inhabited this area. West Arsi consists of three woredas (Ethiopian third-level administrative divisions): Arsi, Bale, and East Shewa. Approximately 88.52% of West Arsi's population is Oromo, which is very important in coffee history because they were the first tribe in human history to drink coffee, and half of Ethiopia's coffee production comes from this region.

Coffee cultivation in the West Arsi region follows a smallholder model, with each smallholder's farm averaging about 2-3 hectares, which is still slightly larger than the usual 1.5-2 hectares in most Ethiopian regions. Although current coffee cultivation techniques are still developing, West Arsi's coffee cultivation technology is developing very rapidly compared to other regions. Coffee farmers don't need to hire temporary or full-time workers but instead select coffee with family help. This allows them to better control coffee quality, and processing stations typically pay extra fees for fully ripe red cherries, greatly motivating coffee farmers.

Natural Processing Method

Both of these coffee beans are naturally processed. During the coffee harvest period, coffee farmers in the Sidamo region only pick mature red fruits, placing them one by one in baskets. The harvested coffee fruits are uniform in size, similar in maturity, and free from other impurities. During processing, manual selection is first performed to remove defective coffee beans and immature or overripe coffee fruits. Then the red coffee cherries are spread evenly on raised wooden frames or entire drying racks for sun drying, which avoids the risk of beans picking up unwanted flavors from the ground.

During the drying process, the beans are constantly turned to ensure even exposure and uniform dehydration; every three to five days, farmers manually remove defective and moldy beans. After the fruit skin dries and hardens, a hulling machine is used to remove the dry, hard fruit skin. After obtaining the green coffee beans, farmers perform one final selection to pursue perfect flavor.

Next, FrontStreet Coffee uses FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Natural Flower Queen 4.0 from the Guji region and FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Natural Arsi coffee beans from West Arsi to conduct a series of comparisons including green bean analysis, roasting, cupping, and brewing, to see the differences between coffee beans from these two regions.

FrontStreet Coffee Green Bean Comparison

Both coffee beans use the natural processing method, with green bean colors showing green with yellow tones. Flower Queen 4.0 beans have some small particles and appear uneven in size, while Arsi beans are more uniform in size.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendations

During the roasting process of these two new harvest beans, we will: extend the dehydration time to ensure even heating of the bean surface and core. To express the acidity and fruity aromas of these two FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo coffee beans, we adopted a light roast level.

FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo Natural Flower Queen 4.0: Yangjia 800N, bean input 480g: Preheat roaster to 175°C, damper at 3, heat at 120. Raise to 140°C, damper at 4. At 6'00", temperature reaches 151.7°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. When ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and toast smell clearly changes to coffee aroma, this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the first crack sound. At 9'50" first crack begins, damper fully open, reduce heat to 80 at 188°C, first crack development time 1'40", drop at 196°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo Natural Arsi: Yangjia 800N, bean input 480g: Preheat roaster to 160°C, damper at 3, heat at 120. Adjust heat once at 115°C, damper at 4. At 6'00", temperature reaches 154.9°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. At 8 minutes, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and toast smell clearly changes to coffee aroma, this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the first crack sound. At 9'08" first crack begins, damper fully open, first crack development time 1'20", drop at 193.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Dripper: V60 #01
Water Temperature: 90-91°C
Dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: EK43s setting 10/fine sugar size (20# sieve 80%)

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Method: First pour 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour 95g (scale shows about 125g), finishing in about 1 minute. When water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows about 225g), finishing in about 1'40"-1'45". Complete extraction at 2'00"-2'10", remove dripper.

FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo Natural Flower Queen 4.0 Brewing Flavor: Aromas of ripe berries, bright acidity of passion fruit and citrus on entry, followed by jackfruit's fermented fruit aroma and sweetness in the middle to later stages, rich in layers. After cooling, it presents the sweetness of oolong tea.

FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo Natural Arsi Brewing Flavor: Aromas of berries and honey, jam-like sweetness spreads throughout the mouth, very sweet, with nectarine flavors in the finish, juice-like texture. After cooling, it becomes more like plum and nectarine-flavored juice.

In comparing the flavors of these two beans, FrontStreet Coffee's Arsi has a slight edge in fruit sweetness and juiciness. Especially when hot, the jam and honey flavors are irresistible, and the juiciness becomes more pronounced as the temperature drops, very pleasant.

FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen 4.0 leans more toward tropical fruit flavors, with the alternating contrast between sweetness and acidity being quite surprising. Between these two, FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen 4.0 has a stronger fermented character.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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