How Do Ethiopian Coffee Beans Taste? Are Ethiopian Coffee Beans Expensive?

The Secrets of Ethiopian Coffee Beans

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

The original name of coffee wasn't actually "coffee." In Ethiopia, there is a province called Kaffa, which produces a plant fruit with multiple flavors including richness, sweetness, fruitiness, acidity, and bitterness. After consumption, it has stimulating and calming effects. When European colonists plundered the African continent, they brought this plant to Europe. Meanwhile, Arab countries also spread this plant to Central Asia and Southeast Asia. Over time, people adapted the pronunciation of this plant, abundantly produced in Africa's Kaffa province, and called it "coffee."

The Secrets of Ethiopian Coffee Beans

Coffee is not just bitter—it should also have sweetness, acidity, richness, and aroma. Depending on the origin, the richness and acidity vary. Bitterness is the taste of caffeine, and although it has undergone thousands of years of cultivation and breeding, the bitterness has basically remained unchanged. Richness comes from the taste of fats and proteins in coffee after roasting, somewhat similar to the richness of butter tea enjoyed by our ethnic minorities. Acidity comes from tannins—that's right, the same substance abundant in red wine. Sweetness is produced by plant fructose during the coffee roasting and caramelization process, and depending on variety and production methods, the degree of sweetness varies. The world's second most expensive Blue Mountain coffee is renowned for its rich variety of flavors and strong layering, with scarce production and monopolization by certain trading companies causing its high price. Before 2008, China had no records of importing Blue Mountain coffee—at least customs had no relevant import information. It's undeniable that authentic Blue Mountain coffee exists in China, either brought in privately or smuggled. Therefore, when you taste Blue Mountain in a coffee shop, be aware that more conscientious merchants might say "Blue Mountain style," meaning they use multiple different coffee bean varieties to blend and create Blue Mountain's flavor profile.

As imported goods, Europe and America have preserved coffee's many flavors. However, most coffee beverages in China retain only bitterness and coffee aroma, while sweetness, richness, fruitiness, and acidity are completely absent. Moreover, some Chinese people believe that the more bitter, the better—let me tell you, this concept is wrong. An important part of coffee production is roasting, which is the caramelization process of coffee. During roasting, temperature causes the release of sweetness, richness, and acidity from the coffee. However, dark roasting causes these flavors to disappear, leaving only the bitterness of caffeine. Therefore, the concept of "more bitter is better" is incorrect—this concept was influenced by island nations or Taiwan. In Sumatra, a famous coffee variety called Mandheling is produced, which is suitable for dark roasting—roasting is the caramelization process of coffee fructose. During World War II, a Japanese soldier tasted this coffee in Sumatra and introduced it to Japan after the war. Using dark roasting techniques, it was exported to Taiwan and East/Southeast Asian regions. This company is the renowned Japanese UCC Ueshima Coffee Co. This excellent coffee variety's bitterness dominates, causing other flavors to almost completely disappear. If you prefer strong flavors, this would be quite suitable for you. Similarly, certain instant coffees that are popular in China—if you can taste flavors like aroma, sweetness, acidity, and richness from them, I would bow to you in admiration. The raw materials for these instant coffees use low-grade commercial beans, including insect-damaged beans and weak beans, employing dark roasting techniques. Dark roasting brings heavy caramelization, which removes off-flavors from insect-damaged and weak beans, retaining only bitterness. To enhance richness, milk, sugar, and other additives are deliberately added, reducing costs while improving mouthfeel, though consumers remain unaware. Of course, insect-damaged and weak beans aren't inedible—they just don't taste very good. Moreover, ladies who care about their appearance and drink instant coffee for extended periods can easily gain weight, so be careful.

In China, coffee production techniques are generally not high, and Chinese people typically taste coffee either in coffee shops or through instant coffee, leading to today's concept that coffee only has bitterness. There are places in China with high-level coffee production techniques—due to historical and geographical conditions, high-level production techniques are mostly concentrated in Hong Kong and Macau. Some Hong Kong and Macau manufacturers even participate in setting international coffee production standards, especially Macau. Macau people are naturally content, earning what they need without greed, so traditional production techniques have been passed down with minimal use of additives, perfectly preserving coffee's authentic flavors. Brands like Macau's "Chengpin" and "Yanhuangzi" might not be familiar to mainland Chinese people, but before the handover, several Macau governors were loyal customers, and they exported to Portugal and Brazil. Exporting to Portugal might not be significant, but exporting to Brazil demonstrates their advanced production techniques, because Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer, providing 30% of the world's coffee. Hong Kong and Macau manufacturers are also very particular about their raw materials—the vast majority of raw beans are famous varieties with certificates of origin. Interested friends might want to try them.

China's Yunnan province also produces coffee beans, but the quality is generally not high. The reason is small-scale farming by individual households, resulting in inconsistent raw bean harvests. Unlike major coffee-producing countries like Brazil and those in Africa, which have large plantations where batches of raw beans have consistent quality, making them preferred by merchants. It is recommended that Yunnan adopt large-plantation-style production and cultivation to strengthen China's coffee industry foundation and revitalize Yunnan's coffee industry—"making the world fall in love with Chinese-made products."

Recommended Ethiopian Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Ethiopian coffee beans—washed Yirgacheffe G1 [Kochere]—have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value for money. A half-pound (227 grams) package costs only about 75 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams per pour-over coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each single-origin coffee costing only about 5 yuan. Compared to coffee shops selling cups for dozens of yuan, this represents extremely high value for money.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473