Introduction to Yirgacheffe Licho Washed Processing Station - How to Brew Yirgacheffe Coffee? Yirgacheffe Flavor Profile

The Red Cherry Project

In 2007, the Dutch trading company Trabocca launched the Red Cherry Project. Spanning every processing method — washed, semi-washed, natural, and semi-natural — the project aims to inspire Ethiopian farmers to produce coffee of the very highest quality and to make sure their extra effort is rewarded and recognized. Before each harvest, Trabocca invites selected producers to take part, making micro-lots of roughly 1,500–3,000 kg. Only 100% ripe red cherries are hand-picked in small batches — hence the name. Trabocca provides financing, new equipment, and technical guidance, and promises premium prices provided the lot passes cupping standards in both of its labs, in Addis Ababa and in Amsterdam. The bar is set at 88 points.

Red Cherry coffees are sealed in GrainPro or vacuum bags immediately after processing at origin and trucked to Djibouti to await ocean freight; real-time monitoring, secure transport, and prompt handling protect quality all the way.

Thanks to the project, roasters can buy outstanding Ethiopian coffee, overall quality rises, prices improve, and Trabocca returns the profits to farmers — a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement.

Liko Washing Station

Trabocca's Amsterdam office receives hundreds of samples each year. In a blind tasting in December 2013, it discovered this washed Yirgacheffe from the Liko washing station, with distinctive peach, mango, and stone-fruit aromatics.

Liko was established in 2011 in the Kochere district of Yirgacheffe, at roughly 1,850–2,100 meters above sea level. During the harvest, from late October to mid-January, about 850 smallholder farmers deliver their cherries to Liko. There the coffee is washed with water from nearby rivers and pulped on traditional Aegir machines; the mucilage is removed by traditional fermentation over roughly 36–48 hours depending on the climate, and the beans then dry on raised beds for 10–12 days — yielding an elegant, refined Yirgacheffe with a whisper of natural-process character.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests these parameters:

• Pour-over: V60 dripper, grind at Fuji R440 setting 3.5, water around 90°C
• French press: grind setting 4, water at 90°C
• Siphon: grind setting 4, water at 90–91°C
• AeroPress: grind setting 3.5, water at 90°C

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

More Yirgacheffe from FrontStreet Coffee

Liko's elegant washed profile is classic Yirgacheffe, and FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe lineup lets you explore the region's full range. The entry-level FrontStreet washed Yirgacheffe house coffee is famous for white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish — grown in a small Sidamo highland town at 1,700–2,100 meters, where coffee planted above 1,800 meters ripens slowly in cool, misty air, and so distinctive that Ethiopia's commodity exchange made it its own designation in 2010.

The FrontStreet Guodingding (Worka) Cooperative lot comes from a village cooperative at Yirgacheffe's southeastern tip, once part of the Yirgacheffe Union's Worka co-op and now an independent single origin prized for traceability; its traditional washed processing yields clean, bright citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine and none of the old bitterness. For naturals, the FrontStreet Red Cherry Project natural dries only fully ripe cherries whole on raised beds for three to five weeks — turned every 2–3 hours at the start — producing citrus acidity, berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and creamy smoothness alongside classic Yirgacheffe florals. FrontStreet's brew recipe for these beans: V60, 15g at 1:15, 90–91°C water, grind like fine granulated sugar; bloom with 30g for 30 seconds, pour to 125g by one minute, finish pouring to 225g by 1:35, and expect a drawdown between 2:00 and 2:10.