Red Cherry Project Natural Yirgacheffe Goticha Village Samuel Processing Station Ethiopian Specialty Coffee

Coffee Origin Information

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Coffee Details

Origin: Ethiopia

Region: Gedeo, Yirgacheffe Town

Altitude: 2000m

Flavor Profile: Wine-soaked red berries, tropical fruits, apple juice, aromatic grass notes, light roast chocolate, brown sugar, balanced sweet and sour, cocoa aftertaste

The Samuel Processing Station is a private facility in the village of Gobita (Goticha) in the Yirgacheffe region, formed by a group of roughly 600 local smallholder coffee-farming families who bring their harvested red cherries here for collective processing. Because the whole village participates in the Dutch Operation Cherry Red project (see note), the entire cultivation and production process is supervised by assigned professional managers who advise on harvesting, production, and every other procedure — raising both yield and quality.

The Red Cherry Project (Operation Cherry Red) is a European Union initiative proposed by the Dutch government, with the primary goal of encouraging Ethiopian coffee farmers to produce higher-quality beans. It was initiated and led by Trabocca BV, the Netherlands' largest green coffee importer, with partial funding from the Dutch government providing loans for new equipment and technical assistance in production and processing.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee recommends: pour-over with a V60 dripper.

Grind Size: 3.5 (Japanese Fuji R440)

Water Temperature: 90°C

For French press, recommend grind size 4 / water temperature 90°C.

For AeroPress, recommend grind size 3.5, water temperature 87°C.

For siphon, recommend grind size 4.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this natural Yirgacheffe wins you over, explore the origin further with FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe daily bean. It is famous for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish, at an approachable price — the first specialty bean for many drinkers. Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia's southern Sidamo region at roughly 1,700-2,100 meters, with coffee planted above 1,800 meters — among the highest elevations in the world. The area was once wetland, and the name has become a byword for the signature white florals and lemon-citrus acidity of Ethiopian specialty coffee. Its fame grew so great that in 2010 the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange separated it from the Sidamo designation, creating the standalone Yirgacheffe origin we know today.

Village-level lots like this Samuel station cup show how much processing skill matters. Yirgacheffe town encompasses many small sub-regions and villages, several home to long-experienced cooperatives and stations. The washed Guoding cooperative lot from the Worka area — once part of a coop under the YCFCU union before being recognized as a distinct single origin — is a fine example: washed in the most traditional way, with no conventional bitterness, just fresh bright citrus and lemon acidity wrapped in jasmine.

And the natural method in this lot has cousins elsewhere in the lineup. FrontStreet Coffee's natural Red Cherry lot uses fully ripe, defect-free cherry, floated and sorted at the station, then dried whole on raised beds — turned every 2-3 hours in the first days to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation — for three to five weeks before the dried fruit skin is stripped and the beans rest in warehouse. Because the cherry dries on the bean, the cup keeps classic Yirgacheffe character while gaining tropical fruit: citrus acidity, berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and creamy smoothness.

To brew the washed Yirgacheffe as a pour-over, FrontStreet Coffee suggests a V60, 15g of coffee, a 1:15 ratio, water at 90-91°C, and a fine-granulated-sugar grind (about 80% passing a #20 sieve). Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to about 125g within a minute, then finish the last 100g (to about 225g) once the bed is two-thirds drained, wrapping up around 1:35 with drawdown complete at 2:00-2:10.