Ethiopian Coffee Beans | Ethiopian Coffee Growing Regions | Yirgacheffe ECX Select Washed G1

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

Ethiopia Yirgacheffe - ECX Speciality Washed G1

2017 Dec. New season beans

Variety: Heirloom

Region: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

Processing Method: Washed

Grade: ECX Speciality G1

Altitude: 1,800 - 2,000 m

Flavor Description: Wild ginger flower aroma, spiced Earl Grey tea, cocoa notes, sweet and juicy, smooth texture

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) is an agricultural market where buyers and sellers gather to trade, ensuring quality, delivery, and payment. ECX's vision is to transform Ethiopia's economy by becoming the preferred destination for global commodity markets. ECX's mission is to connect all buyers and sellers in an efficient, reliable, and transparent market by leveraging innovation and technology, based on a commitment to continuous learning, fairness, and excellence.

ECX has established regional warehouses throughout Ethiopia that provide crop collection, grading, and storage services before entering a unified trading auction platform for ECX members to conduct trading activities. Buyers here are actually private exporters. Since 2008, Ethiopia has required all private exporters to conduct coffee bean trading through ECX. Its main issue is the inability to meet current buyers' requirements for coffee traceability. Coffee traded through ECX is only classified by region and cannot tell you which processing station it came from, or it may come from many different processing stations mixed together and packed in burlap bags for auction in large batches. But believe that after the following strict selection of Speciality G1, would you still question its quality?

Ethiopia's old grading method simply classified based on defect count. The highest grade for washed coffee was Grade 1 - G1, while the highest grade for natural coffee was Grade 3 - G3. The current grading system is established by ECX, combining physical attribute characteristics with cupping flavor characteristics for scoring to determine grade levels.

All coffees are defined by processing method (natural or washed) into three types:

a. Speciality (washed & unwashed): Few defects, high cupping quality;

b. Commercial (washed & unwashed): Does not reach specialty grade but is higher than domestic consumption grade;

c. Local/Domestic (washed & unwashed): Coffee with many defects (unripe beans), off-season, and poor storage resulting in relatively poor flavor.

Among these, Specialty and Commercial are for export to international markets, while Local is for coffee sold in the domestic market.

The specific grading and scoring standards of ECX are as follows:

A. Scoring Definition for Washed Processing Method

1. Physical characteristics account for 40%: Defect count (20%), appearance size (10%), color (5%), aroma (5%)

2. Cupping quality accounts for 60%: Cleanliness (15%), acidity (15%), mouthfeel (15%), flavor characteristics (15%)

B. Scoring Definition for Natural Processing Method

1. Physical characteristics account for 40%: Defect count (30%), aroma (10%)

2. Cupping quality accounts for 60%: Cleanliness (15%), acidity (15%), mouthfeel (15%), flavor characteristics (15%)

C. Overall Summary:

1. All coffees are first classified by processing method into: natural, washed;

2. Each is then scored into 9 grade levels G1-G9 according to physical characteristics and basic cupping quality;

3. G1-G3 among them undergo additional cupping according to SCAA standards, with more detailed assessment of flavor attributes. G1 and G2 not scoring below 85 points are graded as Q1;

4. G1, G2, and G3 scoring between 80 to 85 are graded as Q2, while all G1, G2, and G3 scoring below 80 points are graded as G3;

5. Q1 and Q2 are classified as Specialty Grade for export. G4-G9 maintain their original grading unchanged and are classified as Commercial Grade for export along with G3.

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee): A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop 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