Washed Yirgacheffe Coffee Flavor Characteristics and Pour-Over Brewing Temperature Ratio Recommendations

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With the development of the coffee industry, more and more innovative coffee processing methods have emerged. This year, the most popular processing methods are anaerobic and barrel fermentation. FrontStreet Coffee currently has several anaerobic and barrel-processed coffee beans, which are very popular among customers in the store. Indeed, this type of processing is very prominent and impressive in terms of aroma performance.

However, there are still customers who prefer classic flavors. At FrontStreet Coffee's shop, there is a customer who comes every weekend without fail to order a cup of washed FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe. This customer's taste leans towards fresh and clean flavors, so choosing FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe is actually very suitable for him. FrontStreet Coffee currently offers two main categories of Yirgacheffe: FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe and FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe. As mentioned earlier, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe has a fresher and cleaner taste, while FrontStreet Coffee's natural Yirgacheffe retains the pulp flavor, showing obvious differences in taste with fermentation notes, and enhanced sweetness and richness. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will mainly discuss the specific flavor characteristics of washed Yirgacheffe.

Yirgacheffe Coffee Growing Region

Yirgacheffe is located in the Gedeo region of southern Ethiopia. Due to the unique style and widespread popularity of coffee produced in Yirgacheffe, it has established its own category in product classification and occupies a place in the global specialty coffee market. Yirgacheffe itself is a small town, with three neighboring small growing regions: Wenago, Kochere, and Gelena Abaya. Because the coffee flavors produced in these areas have significant similarities with Yirgacheffe, these small regions are also classified under the Yirgacheffe region. Initially, Yirgacheffe coffee trees were cultivated by European monks, later managed by farmers or cooperatives.

Ethiopia's Coffee Production Systems

Ethiopian coffee can be classified into three categories based on cultivation methods:

Forest Coffee

These wild coffee trees mostly grow in southwestern Ethiopia, typically surrounded by many shade-providing plants. The coffee trees themselves are mixed varieties of multiple species. Their reproductive capacity and yield are not as high as other artificially selected high-yield varieties.

Garden Coffee

These coffee trees are usually planted around human and animal dwellings with fewer natural shade trees. Management of these shade trees is more active, such as frequent pruning to prevent coffee trees from being overly shaded. Many producers apply fertilizers. Most Ethiopian coffee belongs to this type.

Large Farm Coffee

This type of coffee comes from intensively cultivated large agricultural land. It uses standardized farming methods, including pruning, soil covering with compost, fertilization, and selection of disease-resistant varieties.

Washed Processing Method

Traditionally, Yirgacheffe coffee used the oldest natural processing method. However, because early natural-processed coffee beans were mostly dried directly on the ground, they inevitably absorbed earthy flavors, dust, and other impurities. Coupled with lack of proper screening, the quality of natural-processed beans was generally average. In 1972, Ethiopia introduced washed processing technology from Central and South America to improve coffee quality. This made the jasmine fragrance and citrus-lemon freshness of Yirgacheffe coffee clearer and brighter, quickly making it one of the representatives of world specialty coffee.

Compared to natural processing, the washed method offers better control over coffee bean quality. The main advantage lies in washing the coffee to slow down the "fermentation" process. Because it requires large amounts of water, countries with limited water resources rarely use washed processing. FrontStreet Coffee considers that washed processing can better reflect the clean taste and pure flavor presentation of coffee. Therefore, when analyzing the specific flavors of a coffee region, FrontStreet Coffee uses washed beans from that region as reference. If customers haven't tried Yirgacheffe before, FrontStreet Coffee will also prioritize recommending a washed-processed FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe to help establish an understanding of regional flavors. Later, when trying natural, honey, and other processing methods of Yirgacheffe, they can have a basis for comparison.

Washed Processing Procedure

1. Bean Selection: Place harvested fruits in large water tanks. Ripe fruits will sink, while unripe or overripe fruits will float on the surface.
2. Pulp Removal: Use machines to remove the skin and pulp, leaving only coffee beans covered with mucilage. The washing process is designed to clean this layer of mucilage.
3. Fermentation: The mucilage has strong adhesion and is not easy to remove. It must be placed in tanks for about 18-36 hours, using microorganisms to ferment and decompose the mucilage.
4. Washing: Place the fermented beans in water pools, rinsing back and forth, using the friction between beans and water flow to wash the coffee beans clean.
5. Drying: After washing, the coffee beans have a moisture content of 50% and must be dried to reduce the moisture content to 12%. Otherwise, they will become moldy and spoiled due to excessive moisture. The best method is sun drying, which takes 1-3 weeks but produces excellent flavor. Some places use machine drying, which significantly reduces processing time, but the flavor is relatively inferior to sun-dried coffee beans.
6. Hulling: After drying, coffee beans are stored in warehouses for a week (to stabilize moisture content) before being sent to factories for hulling to remove the parchment layer.
7. Selection and Grading: Remove defective beans and ensure better quality, then deliver to exporters for sale worldwide.

Yirgacheffe Coffee Bean Grading

Yirgacheffe coffee varieties are local native species, small-seeded types, with a more rounded appearance and very small beans, mostly between 14-15 screen size. The ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, established in 2012) grading system for Ethiopian coffee beans is divided into two aspects, combining physical attribute characteristics with cupping flavor characteristics for scoring to determine grade levels.

ECX specific grading and scoring standards are as follows:

1. Scoring Definition for Washed Processing

• Physical characteristics account for 40%: Defect count (20%), appearance size (10%), color (5%), odor (5%)
• Cupping quality accounts for 60%: Cleanliness (15%), acidity (15%), mouthfeel (15%), flavor characteristics (15%)

2. Scoring Definition for Natural Processing

• Physical characteristics account for 40%: Defect count (30%), odor (10%)
• Cupping quality accounts for 60%: Cleanliness (15%), acidity (15%), mouthfeel (15%), flavor characteristics (15%)

3. Overall Summary

• All coffee is first classified by processing method: Natural, Washed
• Each is then scored from G1-G9 (9 grades) based on physical characteristics and basic cupping quality
• G1-G3 undergo additional cupping according to SCAA standards for more detailed evaluation of flavor attributes. G1 and G2 scoring not less than 85 points are classified as Q1 grade
• G1, G2, and G3 scoring between 80-85 points are classified as Q2 grade, while all G1, G2, and G3 below 80 points are classified as G3 grade
• Q1 and Q2 are classified as Specialty Grade for export. G4-G9 maintain their original grading and are classified as Commercial Grade for export along with G3

Whether for washed or natural processed coffee beans, export-grade raw beans with 3 or fewer defects per 300g are classified as G1, while those with 4-12 defects per 300g are classified as G2.

What's the Difference Between G1 and G2 Washed Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans?

FrontStreet Coffee currently uses FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe coffee beans of G1 grade, but has also compared them with G2 Yirgacheffe. Taking washed Yirgacheffe as an example, let's see the differences in appearance and flavor between G1 and G2 grades. FrontStreet Coffee's comparison of raw beans shows that FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe G1 raw beans appear relatively uniform overall with lower defect rates, while FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe G2 raw beans show obvious size unevenness and higher defect rates.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Suggestions

FrontStreet Coffee's overall roasting approach is that Yirgacheffe coffee's most iconic flavors are its refined acidity and rich floral and fruit notes. To highlight this flavor to the greatest extent, light roasting is used.

1. FrontStreet Coffee Washed Yirgacheffe G1

Enter drum at 200°C, heat at 150, damper at 3; Return temperature at 1'46", when drum temperature reaches 140°C, open damper to 4, heat unchanged; When drum temperature reaches 151°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering dehydration stage, reduce heat to 120. At 7'37", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly changes to coffee aroma, can be defined as prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the first crack sound. First crack starts at 8'35", open damper to 5, develop for 2'00" after first crack, discharge at 193.5°C.

2. FrontStreet Coffee Washed Yirgacheffe G2

Enter drum at 200°C, heat at 150, damper at 3; Return temperature at 1'47", when drum temperature reaches 132°C, open damper to 4, heat unchanged; When drum temperature reaches 147°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering dehydration stage, reduce heat to 140. At 8'00", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly changes to coffee aroma, can be defined as prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the first crack sound. First crack starts at 9'08", open damper to 5, develop for 2'00" after first crack, discharge at 195°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

1. FrontStreet Coffee Washed Yirgacheffe G1

• Dry Aroma: Jasmine, ginger flower
• Wet Aroma: Lemon, citrus
• Palate: Citrus, lemon, grapefruit, plum, Tieguanyin tea

2. FrontStreet Coffee Washed Yirgacheffe G2

• Dry Aroma: Jasmine, citrus
• Wet Aroma: Lemon, citrus
• Palate: Lemon, citrus, tea-like sensation

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-over Suggestions

To fully extract the fruit acidity of Yirgacheffe, FrontStreet Coffee uses higher water temperature and finer grind for extraction. However, to avoid over-extraction caused by high temperature, FrontStreet Coffee uses faster-flowing drippers such as the V60. The V60 dripper has a 60-degree conical shape, which allows coffee grounds to concentrate distribution. During pouring, water flow automatically converges toward the center of the dripper, ensuring sufficient contact time between water and coffee grounds, thus extracting appropriate coffee liquid. Additionally, the ribs on the inside of the V60 dripper body extend spirally clockwise from bottom to top, creating enough space between filter paper and dripper, allowing good water flow. Combined with the large hole at the bottom, water flow is relatively faster than many other drippers.

FrontStreet Coffee's specific brewing parameters are: V60 dripper, water temperature at 90°C, water-to-coffee ratio of 1:15, coffee amount 15g, grind size (80% pass rate through China #20 standard sieve)

Regarding grind size, FrontStreet Coffee reminds that even though all are Yirgacheffe coffee, due to different grades, FrontStreet Coffee will still sieve each type of bean to determine their respective grind sizes. FrontStreet Coffee brewing method: First wet the filter paper and preheat the dripper and coffee pot. Use 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds, small circular pour to 125g, then continue pouring to 225g when water level drops to just expose the coffee bed. Stop pouring and wait for water level to drop to just expose the coffee bed, then remove the dripper (timing starts from bloom). Extraction time is 2'05".

FrontStreet Coffee Washed Yirgacheffe G1

Smells of jasmine, lemon freshness, and caramel sweetness. The entry has gentle citrus acidity and creamy aroma, with lemon acidity emerging in the middle section, sugarcane aftertaste, and oolong tea finish.

FrontStreet Coffee Washed Yirgacheffe G2

Carries jasmine fragrance and citrus acidity aroma. The entry has lemon and grapefruit acidity with black tea sensation, ending with some cocoa flavor and caramel aftertaste.

Through the above series of processes, FrontStreet Coffee compared these two FrontStreet Coffee washed Yirgacheffe coffees. From both raw and roasted beans, it's clearly visible that [G1] beans have relatively uniform particle sizes, while [G2] beans show obvious unevenness and more defective beans. During roasting, the aroma of [G1] is clearly perceptible, while [G2] is somewhat inferior. In terms of flavor, actually [G1] and [G2] are quite similar, mainly featuring lemon, citrus, and jasmine flavors. However, in comparison, [G1] has richer and clearer flavor layers, while [G2] has fewer and less clear flavor layers, with some impurity flavors.

Will Different Water Temperatures Produce Different Results When Brewing FrontStreet Coffee Washed Yirgacheffe?

FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier that higher water temperature should be used to brew Yirgacheffe to extract its fruit acidity as much as possible. However, FrontStreet Coffee has encountered customers asking what specific water temperature is appropriate. According to SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) brewing recommendations, water temperature should be controlled between 85-94°C. Light-roasted beans are suitable for brewing at 90-94°C, while dark-roasted beans are suitable for brewing at 85-89°C.

To help everyone more intuitively understand the impact of temperature on coffee flavor, FrontStreet Coffee used FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Fruit Dingding as an example, brewing with four different water temperatures to verify what flavor experiences it would produce. Brewing parameters (kept as consistent as possible), except for water temperature, other parameters remained consistent: V60 dripper, 15g coffee, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size BG#5F (80% pass rate through China #20 standard sieve)

Through brewing data, we can see that light-roasted FrontStreet Coffee Fruit Dingding is more suitable for brewing at 90-92°C water temperature, which can present fruit acidity and sweetness, matching FrontStreet Coffee Fruit Dingding's flavor characteristics. Using 86-88°C water temperature, one can clearly feel the prominent acidity of the beans but insufficient aroma, with thin, watery mouthfeel. Light-roasted coffee retains more of the coffee's original flavors. At this roast level, beans often have rich and prominent floral and fruit acidity with multi-layered flavors. Using slightly higher water temperature can better highlight the flavor characteristics of "FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Fruit Dingding."

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