Introduction to Sidamo Sharmi Imer Processing Plant and Sidamo Coffee Flavor Characteristics

The Guji region of Sidamo, along the Mora Mora River in southern Ethiopia, has long been recognized as the original home of forest coffee.

Administratively Guji belongs to the Oromia region in southern Ethiopia, and the local ethnic group is the "Gujii Oromo" people. Coffee cultivation has always been at the core of Oromia's highland culture. Within the area, several small coffee farms combine their harvested cherries for processing and export. The washing station that handles them is the Ch'ire Ameli washing station in the Nensebo woreda of Guji. More than 800 smallholders deliver their cherries there, where the fruit undergoes extremely strict screening before being laid out on traditional raised African beds for natural sun-drying.

The green beans processed at this station scored an impressive 91.75 and took third place in the 2015 Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest Competition.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing Parameters:

Pour-over: V60 dripper, small Fuji R440 grinder setting 3.5, water temperature around 90°C

French press: recommended grinder setting 4, water temperature 90°C

Siphon: recommended grinder setting 4, water temperature 90°C–91°C

AeroPress: recommended grinder setting 3.5, water temperature 90°C

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Sidamo and Guji share the same high-altitude, forest-grown character, and these FrontStreet Ethiopian beans let you taste it from several angles:

FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe — the ideal entry point into Ethiopian specialty coffee. It shows the jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity that define Yirgacheffe, a town in southern Ethiopia where cool, misty, humid conditions have long nurtured the local coffee trees. The cup is light and elegant with a tea-like quality, as refreshing and clean as iced lemon tea.

FrontStreet Guodingding Cooperative — most Ethiopian coffee is grown in garden plots, with each smallholder delivering cherries to a village-level washing station that sells under the producing team's name. The Guodingding Cooperative is a representative example: originally part of the Worka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, it became an independent single-origin station in 2012 with roughly 300 member farmers, after buyers around the world began seeking traceability. Because the fruit is pulped before drying, the coffee's own aromatics come through more clearly, showing citrus and lemon tones with elegant white florals.

FrontStreet Sun-dried Flower Queen — grown in the Hambella region of Guji, Sidamo. The farm covers 200 hectares and uses the traditional natural method: ripe cherries are laid on raised beds for 21 days of sun exposure, turned constantly for even drying, and screened every three to five days to remove defected or moldy beans; once the skin dries hard, a huller removes it. Because the fruit and skin stay on through drying, a light-to-medium roast brings out soft ferment-like wine, florals, citrus, and mango, with a rich, complex body, honeyed sweetness, cocoa, and a touch of spice, plus a long finish.