What are the African coffee regions? Characteristics of African coffee and how to brew it

Coffee Bean Varieties and Regional Analysis

The world's coffee-producing regions lie north and south of the equator, in what is known as the "Coffee Belt." More than 10 coffee varieties are grown within the Belt, but the ones we see most often today are only Arabica and Robusta.

Before coffee became popular, and with few channels for getting high-quality beans, the Robusta commonly grown in Asia was more widespread. Robusta is generally cultivated at lower altitudes, and because of the climate its fat and sugar content are relatively low, leaving a more bitter, intense taste with limited flavour variation.

The other type, Arabica, grows at higher altitudes and accounts for the vast majority of specialty coffee on the market. Growing higher means growing more slowly, which lets the beans develop fully. Overall, Arabica tastes sweeter and smoother, with rich fruit aromas, which is why enthusiasts favour it.

When drinking coffee, watch the five indicators — aroma, sweetness, acidity, bitterness and aftertaste — to judge which characteristics you prefer. You can also look up a coffee flavour wheel online and test which flavours you can detect as you drink, gradually sharpening your tasting skills.

Coffee Bean Processing Methods Also Affect Flavor

1. Natural Process

The oldest and least laborious method: the beans are dried in the sun with pulp and skin intact, producing rich, wild flavours.

2. Washed Process

Today the most common method for raw beans. After the cherry pulp is removed, the beans are placed in fermentation tanks with their mucilage still on, and the mucilage is removed by fermentation; once fermentation is complete the beans are washed and then dried. Acidity develops in the beans during the process, so washed beans are more acidic than natural beans and have cleaner flavours.

3. Pulped Natural Process

An improvement on the traditional natural method: the cherry pulp is removed but the mucilage is left on before sun-drying, giving flavours that are less intense than a full natural.

4. Semi-washed Process

A less common method, the difference being that semi-washing removes the mucilage mechanically, which lowers the acidity. The taste falls between a natural and a washed bean.

Why Do African Coffee Beans Have Berry Aromas?

When you drink coffee, do you think about the variety or the origin? Many things shape the flavour — roast level, grind size and brewing temperature among them — and these layers stack up to make the cup in front of you. But the most fundamental flavours can be glimpsed from the origin.

Africa — Ethiopia, Kenya and elsewhere — is the birthplace of coffee, so it has more varieties, with generally wilder aromas and strawberry or blueberry aftertastes.

FrontStreet Coffee's Beans from African Origins:

Yirgacheffe

Flavor description: floral and refreshing citrus aromas, smooth, rich acidity with sweet fruit notes, accompanied by fresh wild berries, stevia, honey, cocoa and lemon.

Sidamo

Flavor description: sweet lemon, orange peel and wild ginger aromas, with a fresh, gentle, syrupy texture, accompanied by various fruit aromas and floral notes in many rich layers.

Kenya

Flavor description: green apple and berry flavours with caramel and coffee-cherry sweetness, bright aromas, a crisp, sweet taste and a smooth, refreshing palate.

Burundi

Flavor description: peanut-skin aroma with bright fruit acidity.

Geisha Village

Geisha Village is a coffee origin that has emerged suddenly in recent years, located in Bench Maji. Only Geisha variety coffee is grown here.

Flavor description: unlike Panamanian Geisha, the Geisha here has distinct African regional character, with bright lemon and citrus acidity, jasmine floral notes and sugarcane sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Parameter Recommendations:

V60 / 90°C / 1:15 ratio / time: two minutes

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Washed coffee repays attention because the method itself shapes the cup. The classic steps run from flotation and depulping to a soak or fermentation that clears the mucilage, then washing or further soaking, drying and finally hulling. Spending so long in water triggers chemical changes inside the bean that consume a great deal of its monosaccharides — fructose and glucose — lowering the sugar content while raising organic acids. The result is coffee that holds on to more of the bean's own aroma while showing bright fruit acidity and a clean, fresh character.

Two of the most convincing examples in FrontStreet's range are African. The Yirgacheffe Guodingding cooperative draws on a team of growers with real processing experience, and because the fruit is washed it shows jasmine and bright citrus acidity to the full; roasted medium-light, it opens up green tea and honey notes and suits pour-over, cold brew and espresso alike. Kenya Little Tomato is a leading washed representative, and Kenya is unusually good at double washing — essentially running the washing sequence twice, through flotation, soaking, washing the mucilage off, soaking again, drying and hulling — which draws out the juice to an extreme, giving cherry tomato, dark plum, snow pear, black plum and brown sugar in a sweet-sour, juicy cup. Washed processing is not only an African technique, either: Jamaica is a famous island origin whose shorter daylight made spoilage a risk, so washing was adopted to cut the moisture around the beans and shorten drying, producing bright, low-defect beans; the same method is what lets FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 show pure hazelnut, cream, chocolate and caramel with a balance in which no flavour dominates or goes missing.