Differences Between Yirgacheffe and Sidamo Coffee: Price Gap Comparison

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Many coffee enthusiasts struggle to distinguish between the Yirgacheffe and Sidamo producing regions. Both belong to Ethiopia, and to put it simply, 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 a maximum altitude exceeding 2600 meters, significantly higher than Sidamo. Let's start our exploration from Ethiopia...

Ethiopia

Ethiopia, a land filled with mystery, is where all Arabica coffee varieties originated. The Kaffa Forest is where everything began, located in southwestern Ethiopia.

Through centuries of natural evolution in Kaffa, approximately 5,000 coffee varieties have been nurtured. Currently, local communities manage about 12,000 hectares of Kaffa's wild coffee areas. 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, there are rumors that it was the first place where coffee was brewed and consumed. For coffee lovers, this place is as enchanting as the Garden of Eden.

In the Bonga area of Kaffa, over 100 Ethiopians are dedicated to cultivating high-quality Arabica coffee. This region has an excellent coffee-growing environment, with altitudes between 1600-1900 meters, red soil, and suitable temperatures. The area receives high rainfall and is considered one of the regions with the most precipitation in Ethiopia. As one of Ethiopia's first two biosphere reserves, the well-known Gesha is actually a region within Kaffa.

Kaffa coffee (originally referred to as Kaffa types) typically includes: Gimbo, Gewata, and Chena.

Coffee Cultivation in Ethiopia

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 region (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 with both new and old regional names. Here, we'll use the new regional divisions as a baseline to understand Ethiopia's coffee cultivation map in combination with administrative regions.

FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo coffee beans and FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans are mostly cultivated under the garden coffee system, where coffee farmers plant coffee trees near their living areas, harvest them during the harvest season, and then send them to nearby processing stations built near water sources for unified processing (or they are purchased by middlemen). Except for a few well-established plantations that independently plant, harvest, and process green coffee beans, many coffee beans from different regions and varieties are centrally processed by processing stations and then sent to auction houses for official evaluation and grading.

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

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

Purchasing Channels

Farmers' Cooperative Unions (coffee comes from member cooperatives and small farmers)

Exporters (intermediaries who purchase from ECX or various coffee markets)

Large public or private plantations (exporters who grow and sell their own coffee)

Farmers' Cooperative Union

To facilitate direct exports from farmers' cooperatives, various farmers' cooperatives have established their respective cooperative unions. Ethiopia now has 6 cooperative unions, namely:

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 to participate in international projects, such as Fairtrade, providing a unified export to contact buyers. A certain percentage of the harvest income is paid to the 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.

Ethiopian Coffee Grades

Grading by green bean quality scores: Q1 is the highest grade, Q2 is second

Commonly available in domestic markets are only G1~G4 classifications. Whether washed or natural processed, choosing G1 should generally yield coffee beans with fewer defects and delicious flavors.

For the actual quality grading of beans themselves, ECX has further classification methods. It's not the familiar "Yirgacheffe G1" or "Yirgacheffe G2" that you might know. Freshly harvested coffee beans must first undergo primary grading, and only those receiving G1~G3 ratings will be further divided into Q1 and Q2 grades using SCAA cupping quality evaluation.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe washed beans

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe natural processed beans

Q1 Highest grade: Coffee beans receiving G1 or G2 in primary grading with scores above 80 points + specialty grade scoring above 85 points. This is the highest grade of coffee beans.

Q2 Second highest grade: Coffee beans receiving G1 or G2 in primary grading + specialty grade scoring between 80-84.75 points. This is the second-highest grade of coffee beans.

About Yirgacheffe and Sidamo Regions

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

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans (specialty region): altitude 1,800-2,000 meters | garden coffee system

Yirgacheffe is subordinate to the Sidamo region but was separated out due to its unique flavor profile. Besides the town of Yirgacheffe, it includes three surrounding sub-regions: Wenago, Kochere, and Gelena/Abaya. Therefore, in the new Yirgacheffe grading system, Yirgacheffe A, Wenago A, Kochere A, and Gelena/Abaya A are more expensive than their B-grade counterparts. Besides washed and natural processed, the recently introduced semi-washed FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe is also worth trying.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe beans are local native varieties, small-sized, with a relatively round shape. The beans are very small, mostly between 14-15 screen size.

FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo coffee beans (specialty region): altitude 1,400-2,200 meters | garden coffee system

Similar in flavor to FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe, finely washed or natural processed FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo coffee beans also have floral and citrus aromas, with quality comparable to FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe. The varieties in these two regions are similar, with medium-sized beans but also dwarf varieties that farmers often sell separately. Common varieties include Kurmie, which has poor disease resistance; Wolisho, which is tall and robust; and Deiga, which has medium-sized trees. These three varieties are the main components of the premium natural processed series Biloya and Arescha.

Somewhat smaller than Longberry

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

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

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

Flavor Profile

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans are known for their unique jasmine fragrance, bright and lively citrus acidity, and black tea mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo coffee beans offer rich berry and tropical fruit flavors.

Sidamo Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) roasts FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo Flower Champion coffee beans, which have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value - a 227-gram package costs only 98 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to cafés selling coffee for dozens of yuan per cup, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473