Flavor Characteristics of Ethiopian Coffee Beans and Recommendations for Premium Ethiopian Coffee Brands

Introduction to FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopian Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopian coffee is processed using both natural and washed methods, with significantly different flavor profiles between the two processing methods. Overall, FrontStreet Coffee washed Sidamo, FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe and Lim coffee have slightly lower body and earthy flavors, while natural processed coffee has a more wild taste. However, FrontStreet Coffee has also found that each batch of FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopian coffee may have different taste characteristics, which requires frequent cupping to find truly excellent coffee.

Ethiopia is an extremely popular coffee-producing country, with the most famous regions being Sidamo and Yirgacheffe. Because Ethiopian coffee flavors are very unique, many coffee enthusiasts who are just starting out like to choose Ethiopian coffee beans as their introduction.

Selecting Ethiopian Coffee Beans

Of course, Ethiopia as the birthplace of coffee has earned its reputation. Ethiopia has numerous coffee varieties, and both washed and natural processed beans are abundant. FrontStreet Coffee has sourced many Ethiopian coffee beans, such as FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb, FrontStreet Coffee Guji, FrontStreet Coffee West Arsi, FrontStreet Coffee TOH group washed champion, FrontStreet Coffee Worka, and more. How should everyone choose a suitable Ethiopian coffee bean for themselves?

FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the best-selling Ethiopian coffee beans currently in the store.

Featured Ethiopian Coffee Varieties

Last year, FrontStreet Coffee launched FrontStreet Coffee natural Typica from Ethiopia's Cup of Excellence (COE) 22nd place, along with FrontStreet Coffee West Arsi coffee beans. The biggest difference between these two coffee beans is their variety - FrontStreet Coffee COE22's variety is Typica, while FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopian West Arsi's variety is local heirloom.

What are local heirloom varieties? This is also a characteristic of Ethiopia as a coffee-producing country - most Ethiopian varieties are named this way. This is actually because Ethiopia has too many varieties; it's like a natural gene bank for Arabica. On one hand, there are numerous varieties with difficult identification and classification, and on the other hand, the Ethiopian government,出于保护考虑, is unwilling to disclose information about these varieties, so they are collectively called "Heirloom" varieties.

Therefore, when purchasing Ethiopian coffee beans, you can pay attention to the packaging bag. You'll find that the variety section will be labeled as local heirloom, while coffee beans from other producing countries will be labeled with specific variety names such as Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, and Catimor.

Both of FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian coffee beans use natural processing, which is also the oldest coffee bean processing method. Well-processed natural coffee beans have excellent taste characteristics - full body, noticeable sweetness, and abundant aroma. However, if not processed well, they can easily pick up earthy flavors, and the brewed coffee will have an earthy taste.

Cupping Analysis

So how does FrontStreet Coffee distinguish the flavor profiles between FrontStreet Coffee COE22 and FrontStreet Coffee West Arsi coffee beans? Whether recommending coffee beans to customers or when FrontStreet Coffee lists each coffee bean in the store, they conduct cupping to determine the flavor profile of each coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use 200ml standard cupping bowls, with a grind size that passes through a #20 standard sieve at 70%-75%, using 11.3g of coffee grounds, and water temperature of 94°C. First, they grind and smell the dry aroma, then add water to fill the bowl to confirm the wet aroma. After 4 minutes, they break the crust and remove the grounds for flavor evaluation. Below is FrontStreet Coffee's cupping results for FrontStreet Coffee COE22 and FrontStreet Coffee West Arsi Ethiopian coffee beans:

COE22:

Dry Aroma: Citrus
Wet Aroma: Citrus, Camellia
Flavor: Citrus, Lychee, Honey, Cream, Wine Aroma, Mango, Strawberry

West Arsi:

Dry Aroma: Berries
Wet Aroma: Fruit Jam
Flavor: Plum, Berries, Cranberry Jam, Nectarine, Mango, Honey

When FrontStreet Coffee uses pour-over brewing for these two coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee West Arsi has a berry juice-like taste at high temperatures, gradually revealing plum, nectarine, mango, and honey notes as it cools. The brewing flavor of FrontStreet Coffee COE22 features the sweet and sour of strawberry and lychee, fermented wine aroma, creamy smoothness, and honey-like aftertaste.

This is the charm of FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopian natural coffee beans. Besides natural coffee beans from the Sidamo region, FrontStreet Coffee also recommends FrontStreet Coffee natural red cherry coffee beans from the Yirgacheffe region.

FrontStreet Coffee's FrontStreet Coffee natural red cherry coffee beans are the result of collaboration between local Ethiopian producers and Dutch green coffee merchants. The Red Cherry Project is actually led by the Dutch company Trabocca, encouraging and assisting producers to improve coffee quality by doing their best to enhance washed, semi-washed, natural, or other experimental processing methods.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe natural red cherry coffee has very high quality and excellent taste, with bright berry aroma or rich chocolate-like aftertaste. The brewed coffee has strawberry, berry, cream, and spice flavors.

Washed Ethiopian Coffee Recommendations

All of the above recommendations from FrontStreet Coffee are FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopian natural processed coffee beans. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will recommend several FrontStreet Coffee washed Ethiopian coffee beans from the Yirgacheffe region.

The flavor profile of the Yirgacheffe region mainly features rich jasmine aroma, lemon-citrus notes, and a subtle tea fragrance. Yirgacheffe didn't always use washed processing methods for green coffee beans; initially, natural processing was used. However, in 1972, Ethiopia introduced Central and South American washed processing technology to improve coffee quality, making FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe's jasmine and citrus aromas clearer and brighter. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the most fundamental difference between washed and natural processing is that washed processing presents the most basic flavors of coffee, directly reflecting the unique characteristics of the producing region, while natural processing adds sweetness and fermentation notes on top of these basic flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's most recommended FrontStreet Coffee washed Yirgacheffe beans are FrontStreet Coffee washed Gedeb cooperative and FrontStreet Coffee washed Worka coffee beans. The flavor profiles of these two coffee beans are more suitable for people who prefer acidity, with more prominent fruit acidity and a clean, bright taste.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473