How to Perfectly Roast Guji Coffee Beans? How to Adjust the Light Roast Profile for Ethiopian Guji Coffee?

In our impression, coffee bean naming conventions usually follow predictable patterns and remain consistent once established. For example, Geisha refers to the variety, Blue Mountain to the origin, and Gotiten to the processing station. However, Guohuai is particularly special—it's like Apple's iPhone, requiring a new "version name" each year before it can be released. Why is this?

In fact, before this coffee bean was called "Guohuai," it only had an English name "Hambella," which essentially means natural-processed G1 coffee beans from the Hambella region. "Buku Abel" provides more precise traceability information.

During each annual coffee harvest season (December-January), Buku Abel processing station organizes farmers to pick fully ripe coffee cherries with sugar content above 30 degrees Brix. The selected coffee fruits are placed on African drying beds for sun-drying. Due to the significant day-night temperature differences, farmers provide shade during midday to avoid excessive fermentation from high temperatures, while using plastic covers at night to protect against sudden rain showers. The fruits are turned continuously throughout the day to ensure even drying while preventing sun damage or unpleasant fermentation flavors. After approximately 18 days of natural processing, when the moisture content of green coffee beans reaches only 13%, machines are used to remove the outer husk.

Expansion and Development

In 2017, after Guohuai rose to fame, DW company established 5 independent specialty coffee drying stations in Hambella Wamena Wereda to meet surging market demand, all located in the core production area of Dimtu town. Besides the original Buku Abel, four other small villages—Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, Tirtiro Goye, and Seke Bokosa—also joined natural coffee bean production. It's reported that DW company's annual "Guohuai" production reached tens of millions of tons at this time.

To further increase "Guohuai" production, DW company not only added processing stations but also significantly expanded the coffee fruit collection range. Coffee fruits grown in neighboring villages could also be sent to these processing stations for processing and then exported as "Hambella G1." In other words, as long as the natural-processed Hambella G1 coffee beans come from these five villages, we can call them "Guohuai."

What is the Guohuai Flavor Profile?

Guohuai, judging from its literal meaning, might suggest a coffee with "abundant floral notes." However, this is not the case. Guohuai's floral notes are not particularly strong; instead, fruit aromas are especially prominent, such as creamy strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus, and blueberry. It possesses the unique mature tropical fruit flavors characteristic of Yirgacheffe natural-processed beans, often leaving a lasting impression. Moreover, it was precisely this rich berry fragrance that earned "Guohuai" first place in that year's TOH green bean competition.

However, as everyone knows, coffee is essentially an economic agricultural crop. Each year's production and quality are first affected by factors such as climate, rainfall, altitude, soil, fertilization, and weeding. Then, differences in processing details (sun exposure time, temperature, humidity) present different flavor characteristics. Guohuai is no exception. Therefore, Guohuai beans produced each year will have more or less differences in taste compared to the previous year.

Starting from the 2018 harvest season, Guohuai (natural-processed G1 coffee beans) from the same growing region and processing station already showed some flavor changes. FrontStreet Coffee discovered through cupping that although the 2018 and 2019 Guohuai had flavors similar to the 2017 Guohuai, they were inferior to the "first-generation Guohuai" in terms of body, aftertaste, and other mouthfeel aspects.

Therefore, to continue selling this natural-processed coffee from Hambella while making certain distinctions from the original version, domestic green bean trading companies calculated backward from 2017 and established X.0 suffixes for each subsequent year's batch. For example, the 2018 batch was called "Guohuai 2.0," the 2019 production was called "Guohuai 3.0 and 3.1"... Last year's release was "Guohuai 7.0," and so on. This way, we can identify which year's batch the Guohuai we purchased belongs to through this suffix.

FrontStreet Coffee: Yirgacheffe · Guohuai 8.0 Coffee Beans

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Yirgacheffe · Guji Zone
Altitude: 2250～2350 meters
Variety: Local heirloom varieties
Processing: Natural process
Flavor: Floral, jackfruit, dried fruit, apricot, juicy sensation

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Suggestions

FrontStreet Coffee's roasters first check the flavor descriptions provided by green bean suppliers, then examine the beans' moisture content. The freshly received green beans have a light fermented wine aroma, completely different from the grassy scent of typical green beans. Additionally, Guohuai green beans vary in size with many pointed ends (Ethiopian heirloom varieties), have good moisture content around 11%, but are not the very hard SHB type beans. Due to the beans' high density and hardness, we extend the dehydration time in the early stages, enter first crack with rising temperature, and try to preserve the loss of small-molecule aromatic substances like floral notes.

Roasting Machine: Yangjia 800N semi-direct flame

After roasting and adjustments, FrontStreet Coffee's preferred curve: charge beans at 190°C, complete dehydration and yellowing in about 6 minutes (yellowing point around 150-153°C). First crack begins around 9 minutes 50 seconds (Guohuai's first crack occurs later than most beans and has a weak crack sound). The development time after first crack should be controlled not to exceed 1 minute 30 seconds but not less than 1 minute (recommend opening the damper and reducing heat to control speed). When smelling from the sample spoon, strawberry jam aroma can be detected around 193°C, then discharge the beans. It's best to control the total time within 11 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee Barista's Brewing Suggestions

To taste Guohuai's rich aroma, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing, which better preserves the coffee's aromatic compounds. FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans are all freshly roasted within 5 days, plus logistics time, customers receive the coffee just within the optimal tasting period and can brew and enjoy it directly.

To extract the aroma from high-altitude coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee chooses higher water temperatures to release more aromatic compounds from the coffee, but attention must be paid to avoid over-extraction. Brewing parameter recommendations:

Dripper: V60
Water Temperature: 92～93°C
Grind Size: Fine sugar (80% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve)
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Coffee Dose: 15 grams
Three-Pour Method: Use twice the amount of water as coffee grounds to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome and bloom for 30s. Then use a small water stream to pour in concentric circles from inside to outside to 125g for the second pour. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, then continue with the same fine water stream for the third pour to 225g. Remove the dripper once all coffee liquid has filtered through, with a total time of about 2 minutes.

After grinding, natural-processed Guohuai 8.0 releases rich tropical fruit aromas and honey-like sweetness. The entry is rich with berry sweetness and complex aromas like passion fruit, featuring a black tea mouthfeel and a long, memorable aftertaste that leaves one wanting more.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473