World's Best Coffee Beans - Yirgacheffe Coffee Price and Yirgacheffe vs Blue Mountain Comparison

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01 | Introduction to Yirgacheffe Coffee Region

Unique Geographical Environment

Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia with an altitude of 1700-2100 meters, making it one of the highest altitude coffee growing regions in the world and synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee. Lake Turkana, Lake Abaya, and Lake Chamo bring abundant water vapor to this area.

Many coffee enthusiasts cannot distinguish between the two regions of Yirgacheffe and Sidamo - both belong to Ethiopia. Simply put, Sidamo is a province, while Yirgacheffe is a town within Sidamo province. Sidamo has an altitude of 2100 meters, while the Yirgacheffe region is higher, with the maximum altitude exceeding 2600 meters, much higher than Sidamo. Yirgacheffe coffee is known for its unique jasmine fragrance, bright and lively citrus acidity, and black tea texture, distinguishing it from Sidamo's full berry and tropical fruit flavors.

Yirgacheffe is located in the Gedeo region of southern Ethiopia. This region governs the well-known areas of Yirgacheffe and Kochere. Because the coffee produced in Yirgacheffe has special, unique flavors that are widely loved, it stands as its own category in product classification and always occupies a place in the global specialty coffee market. Yirgacheffe itself is a small town located in the Sidama province, with three neighboring small regions: Wenago, Kochere, and Gelena Abaya. Because the coffee flavors produced in these areas are nearly identical to Yirgacheffe coffee, Kochere is also classified within the Yirgacheffe regional category. In November 2009, Ethiopia implemented a new trading and grading system, adding three sub-regions: Wenago, Kochere, and Genlena Abaya, in addition to Yirgacheffe.

Kochere is a small small production region located about 25 kilometers southeast of Yirgacheffe. The harvested coffee beans come from local small-scale coffee farmers, composed of numerous individual small coffee farmers. These small farmers have an average coffee cultivation area of about 1 hectare, with growing altitudes ranging from 1900 to 2000 meters. The coffee varieties are mainly a mix of Typica and Heirloom (local native varieties). Because this region has more advanced green bean water processing equipment, it has always demonstrated high performance in the field of washed processing, praised for its clean sweetness with complex honey and citrus tones. The main local production model involves small coffee farmers directly delivering each harvest of red cherries to nearby cooperative washing stations for unified processing.

Starting in the 1970s, Ethiopia introduced washed processing technology. Currently, the green bean processing in the Kochere region is primarily washed. After the washing plant selects and grades red cherry-colored coffee fruits, they are directly depulped for washed fermentation. After washing, the parchment beans are placed on racks to dry naturally in the sun. When humidity reaches 12% or below, they are directly sent to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) warehouse in Awassa. Cupping grading and quantity assessment are typically conducted, and washed processed beans are usually stored in parchment form until dehulling is performed just before export.

Since the implementation of the ECX system in 2008, most coffee green beans have been sold through bidding under this system. This batch of natural processed Yirgacheffe G1 Chelelektu comes from Chelelektu village in the Kochere region of Yirgacheffe. The coffee cherries come from about 500 local family small coffee farmers. These small farmers have an average coffee cultivation area of less than 2 hectares, with growing altitudes ranging from 1900 to 2000 meters. Their washed beans have been cupped by professionals, with historical records reaching as high as 94 points.

02 | Yirgacheffe Coffee Processing Methods

This natural processed Yirgacheffe coffee has slightly larger beans with lower density and moisture content. Every coffee from this processing plant can be considered high-quality specialty processed coffee, exhibiting characteristics superior to other coffees. Regardless of the processing method used, coffee beans from here can be considered the best coffee in the Yirgacheffe region.

After the processing plant selects available coffee cherries, the entire pulp and skin are kept intact, and the coffee cherries are placed on raised beds for natural sun-drying. It is precisely this labor-intensive raised bed drying method that isolates contact with the ground, preventing earthy off-flavors during the drying process and creating exceptionally clean fruit flavors. After more than two weeks of sun-drying, the dark brown coffee cherries are professionally stored, waiting for full flavor development. Before shipment, the processing plant extracts the coffee beans from the coffee cherries, making the sweetness imaginable.

03 | Yirgacheffe Coffee Green Bean Analysis

Grading of Yirgacheffe Coffee

According to different green bean processing methods, Yirgacheffe coffee can be divided into two main categories:

Category A includes washed processed coffee, with grading standards set by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), divided into Gr-1 and Gr-2. The smaller the Arabic numeral, the higher the grade. G1 Yirgacheffe has a distinctive style, with citrus flavors and floral notes fused into the coffee liquid - a delicious taste that everyone finds irresistible.

Category B includes natural processed coffee green beans, graded as Gr-1, Gr-3, Gr-4, and Gr-5. Similarly, the highest grade G1 natural Yirgacheffe has rich fruit aromas. Opening a bag of freshly roasted G1 natural Yirgacheffe coffee can subvert everyone's original understanding of coffee. Only those who have tasted the highest grade natural Yirgacheffe will believe that coffee is a fruit.

Yirgacheffe coffee varieties are local native varieties, small particle types, with a relatively round appearance. The beans are very small, mostly between 14-15 mesh.

Yirgacheffe Cherry Red Grade 1 green beans have a yellow-green color, typical of natural processed coffee. The beans are uniform and full, with few defective beans.

04 | Yirgacheffe Coffee Roasting Analysis

Beans with such splendid flavors are naturally not suitable for medium-dark roasting. Therefore, Yirgacheffe coffee is best roasted using a light, slow roasting method to best express its rounded sweetness and rich floral and fruit aromas.

The beans of this Yirgacheffe coffee are relatively small, with moisture content, and they absorb more heat during the roasting process. The Maillard reaction process is also faster.

In the first roast, I used a higher dropping temperature, using 160 heat power before the coffee beans dehydrated and turned yellow, to ensure sufficient heat could sustain through the first crack and directly develop to the second crack, determining the development curve.

In the second, third, and fourth roasts, with the same entry temperature of 200°C and same heat power, I gradually reduced the heat power during the roasting process as needed.

This roast was a fast-roasted light roast:

Cupping notes:

Roast curve 2: Lemon, blueberry, floral, stone fruit

Roast curve 3: Citrus, jackfruit, peach

Roast curve 4: Fermented, cream

Roast curve 2:

Using fast roast mode, preheat the roaster to 200°C, set the damper to 3.5. After 1 minute, adjust heat power to 160°, damper unchanged. Adjust heat power once at 140°, reducing to 130°. Roast to 5'03", temperature 151°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. Adjust heat power to 105°, open damper to 4.

At the 8th minute, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast smell明显 changes to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 8'30", first crack begins, reduce heat power to 80°, open damper fully (adjust heat power very carefully, not so small that crackling stops), drop at 198°C.

The dry fragrance of Yirgacheffe coffee emits strong fruit aromas, with heavy dried fruit notes of strawberry, mango, and apricot jam.

The wet aroma is like sweet syrup, like thick apricot pulp juice, wrapped in simple honey or chocolate. The entrance is not strong, with medium body, acidity not obvious but lively and bright, like fruit black tea.

04 | Yirgacheffe Coffee Brewing Analysis

Flavor of Yirgacheffe Coffee

Brewing Methods

As for brewing methods, pour-over and siphon brewing are optimal. When grinding, you can smell the overwhelming natural fruit aroma, with noticeable sweetness.

Gentle, elegant, sweet and lovely. Yirgacheffe emits extremely complex aromas, displaying exceptionally outstanding mouthfeel that is difficult to describe.

V60 dripper, 15g coffee, water temperature 86°C, grind size 3.5.

Water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15.

27g water for bloom, bloom time 28s.

Segments: 27-105-88, time 1:50 (timing starts from bloom).

Mouthfeel: Smooth, layered, enhanced fermented berry sweetness.

The wet aroma of fermented berry and fermented fruit wine makes it hard to believe this is Yirgacheffe, but personally, I don't particularly like this wet aroma. However, from the extremely smooth entrance to the delicate body, the emergence of ripe fruit's sweet and sour flavors is truly astonishing. The sweetness exceeds any Yirgacheffe I've tasted before. The aftertaste performance is also quite good, worthy of its "fruit bomb" nickname - basically guaranteeing you'll still feel sweetness in your mouth half an hour after drinking.

Yirgacheffe Coffee Brand Recommendations:

Under Yirgacheffe, there are 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, so many processing stations emerge to centrally purchase coffee cherries from surrounding small farmers, process them, and then sell to green bean suppliers. Therefore, the quality of Yirgacheffe coffee inevitably varies. To find a high-quality Yirgacheffe coffee, without sharp discernment, it's recommended to choose brands with high credibility.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee has full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, the price-performance ratio is extremely high - each 227g bag costs only 85-95 yuan. Calculating at 15g coffee beans per cup, one bag can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 6 yuan.

Important Notice :

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