How Much Does Yirgacheffe Coffee Cost Per Cup? Which is Better: Yirgacheffe or Sidamo?

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Understanding Yirgacheffe and Sidamo: Ethiopia's Premier Coffee Regions

Many coffee enthusiasts struggle to distinguish between Yirgacheffe Coffee and Sidamo, both of which belong to Ethiopia. Simply put, Sidamo is a province, while Yirgacheffe is a town within the Sidamo province. Sidamo sits at an altitude of 2,100 meters, while the Yirgacheffe region is even higher, with maximum altitudes exceeding 2,600 meters—significantly higher than Sidamo. Let's start our journey from Ethiopia...

Ethiopia: The Birthplace of Coffee

Ethiopia, located in a land full of wonders, is where all Arabica coffee varieties originated. The Kaffa Forest is where everything began, situated in southwestern Ethiopia.

Through centuries of natural evolution in Kaffa, approximately 5,000 coffee varieties have been cultivated. Currently, local communities manage about 12,000 hectares of the Kaffa wild coffee region. Through the introduction of Participatory Forest Management (PFM), about 4,500 farmers have the legal right to harvest wild coffee cherries and are obligated to protect the forest.

Regarding Kaffa, rumors suggest it was the first place where coffee was cooked and consumed. For coffee enthusiasts, this place is as enchanting as the Garden of Eden.

In Bonga, a region within Kaffa, over 100 Ethiopians are dedicated to cultivating high-quality Arabica coffee. This area boasts an excellent coffee-growing environment with altitudes between 1,600-1,900 meters, red soil, and suitable temperatures. The region receives high rainfall and is considered one of Ethiopia's rainiest areas. As one of Ethiopia's first two biosphere reserves, the well-known Gesha is actually a region within Kaffa.

Kaffa coffee typically includes: Gimbo, Gewata, and Chena.

Ethiopia's Coffee Cultivation

Due to administrative division changes in Ethiopia around 1995, the most significant impact on coffee regions was that the original Sidamo province was divided into the new Sidama (occupying a small portion) and mostly incorporated into the Oromia region. Yirgacheffe, which originally belonged to Sidamo province, is now part of the new Gedeo zone.

Currently, Ethiopian coffee items on the market show a mixed situation of naming using both new and old regional names. Here, we'll use the new regional divisions as a basis to understand Ethiopia's coffee cultivation map in combination with administrative regions.

Coffee cultivation in both Sidamo and Yirgacheffe Coffee regions mostly follows the garden coffee model, where coffee farmers plant coffee trees near their living areas, harvest them themselves during the harvest season, and then send them to nearby processing plants built near water sources for unified processing (or collected by middlemen). Except for a few powerful plantations that independently plant, harvest, and process green coffee beans, many coffee beans from different regions and varieties are centrally processed by processing plants and then sent to auctions for official evaluation and grading.

This is why many Ethiopian coffee beans are named and distinguished by processing plants or cooperatives, and it's also one of the reasons why batches of coffee beans contain multiple coffee varieties. Even coffee beans produced by the same processing plant can show significant flavor differences between different batches.

If we want to purchase Ethiopian coffee, there are generally 3 channels:

• Farmers' Cooperative Unions (coffee comes from subordinate cooperatives and small farmers)
• Exporters (intermediaries who purchase from ECX or various local coffee markets)
• Large public or private plantations (exporters who produce and sell their own coffee)

Farmers' Cooperative Unions

To facilitate direct exports from farmer cooperatives, various farmer cooperatives have established their respective cooperative unions. There are currently 6 cooperative unions in Ethiopia:

• Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU)
• Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU)
• Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU)
• Kafa Forest Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (KFCFCU)
• Bench Maji Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (BMCFCU)
• Tepi Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (TCFCU)

The advantage of cooperative unions is that they unite scattered small farmers and cooperatives into a large collective, enabling participation in international projects such as Fairtrade. They provide a unified export channel to contact buyers internationally. A certain percentage of the harvest income is paid to cooperatives, which deduct management fees, retain a portion for community development, and distribute the remainder to small farmers. This allows small farmers to obtain income more stably and conveniently to cope with cultivation and living expenses, which is why more and more small farmers are willing to join cooperatives.

Ethiopia's Coffee Grades

Based on green bean grading: Q1 is the highest grade, followed by Q2.

Commonly available domestically, only G1-G4 classifications exist. Regardless of whether washed or natural processed, choosing G1 should yield coffee beans with fewer defects and delicious flavor.

The bean quality itself has further classification methods by ECX. Not the familiar "Yirgacheffe G1" or "Yirgacheffe G2" you might know. Freshly harvested coffee beans must first undergo primary grading. Coffee beans receiving G1-G3 ratings are further graded into Q1 and Q2 levels using SCAA cupping quality standards.

Yirgacheffe Coffee Washed Process

Yirgacheffe Coffee Natural Process

Q1 Highest Grade: Coffee beans receiving G1 or G2 in primary grading + scoring above 85 points in specialty grading. This represents the highest grade coffee beans.

Q2 Highest Grade: Coffee beans receiving G1 or G2 in primary grading + scoring 80-84.75 points in specialty grading. This represents the second-highest grade coffee beans.

About Yirgacheffe Coffee and Sidamo Regions

These four major cultivation systems are distributed across Ethiopia's nine major regions: Jimma, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harrar, Limu, Illubabor, Kombolcha (Lekempti), Tepi, and Bebeka.

Yirgacheffe Coffee (Specialty Region)

Altitude: 1,800-2,000 meters | Cultivation System: Garden Coffee System

Yirgacheffe is affiliated with the Sidamo region but was separated due to its unique flavor characteristics. Besides the town of Yirgacheffe itself, it includes three surrounding sub-regions: Wenago, Kochere, and Gelena/Abaya. Therefore, in the new Yirgacheffe coffee grading system, Yirgacheffe A, Wenago A, Kochere A, and Gelena/Abaya A are more expensive than their B-grade counterparts. Besides washed and natural processes, semi-washed Yirgacheffe coffee has recently been introduced and is worth trying.

Yirgacheffe coffee varieties are local landraces, small-bean varieties, relatively round in shape, with very small beans mostly between 14-15 screen size.

Sidamo (Specialty Region)

Altitude: 1,400-2,200 meters | Cultivation System: Garden Coffee System

Flavor similar to Yirgacheffe Coffee, finely washed or natural processed Sidamo also offers floral and citrus aromas, with quality rivaling Yirgacheffe. The varieties in these two regions are similar, with medium-sized beans but also dwarf small-bean varieties that farmers often sell separately. Common varieties include Kurmie (with poor disease resistance), Wolisho (tall and robust), and Deiga (medium tree form) - these three varieties are the main components in the natural processed series of Biroya and Alisha.

Beans are smaller than Longberry varieties.

Ethiopia has nearly 2,000 recorded coffee varieties, including 1,927 indigenous varieties and 128 introduced varieties. So in terms of appearance alone, Ethiopia's coffee varieties are like a "grand view garden" - containing everything: long, short, thin, fat...

Long-shaped beans are found throughout Ethiopia's coffee-growing areas. Based on actual observed proportions, western Jimma, including Limu and Kaffa, has more long-shaped varieties, while Sidama (Sidamo) or Yirgacheffe has fewer.

Small-bean varieties are relatively round in shape, with very small beans mostly between 14-15 screen size. This variety should be the most familiar to us, as they are frequently seen in Sidamo and Yirgacheffe. I've also seen them in a Harrar sample and in green coffee beans sold locally in Jimma. Compared to other regions, Sidama and Yirgacheffe, along with surrounding Arsi and Guji, have more plantings of these small-bean indigenous varieties.

Flavor Profiles

Yirgacheffe Coffee

Known for its unique jasmine aroma, bright and lively citrus acidity, and black tea texture.

Sidamo

Characterized by rich berry and tropical fruit flavors.

Yirgacheffe Coffee Brand Recommendations

Yirgacheffe has numerous villages, micro-regions, cooperatives, and processing stations. In most parts of Ethiopia, coffee farmers still live very difficult lives. They don't have sufficient capacity to build family-style processing workshops, which results in many processing stations that centrally purchase coffee cherries from surrounding small farmers, process them, and then sell to green bean merchants. Therefore, Yirgacheffe coffee quality can vary significantly. To find a high-quality Yirgacheffe coffee without expert discernment, it's recommended to choose brands with high credibility.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee offers full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, it offers exceptional value - each 227-gram package costs only 85-95 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams of coffee beans per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 6 yuan.

Important Notice :

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