Ethiopian Harar Coffee Bean Grade Classification - Are Harar Coffee Beans Expensive?

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The Pride of Ethiopians - Harar Coffee

Harar - a name that reflects the rise and fall of Ethiopia. Harar was once not only the most expensive coffee in the world but also a beautiful legend.

History

Legend has it that around the tenth century AD, on the highlands of Ethiopia in Africa, there was a shepherd named Kaldi. One day he saw his goats suddenly showing extraordinary excitement, jumping around uncontrollably. He found it very strange, but after careful observation he discovered that the goats became excited after eating a certain red fruit. Kaldi curiously tasted some and found that he, too, felt refreshed and excited afterward. He casually picked some of these incredible red fruits and took them home to share with the local people, and so their magical effects spread.

Spread

Ever since shepherds in the Ethiopian desert discovered what people called "devil beans," they began to try chewing the beans and boiling them in water to drink. The trend started in Ethiopia and spread to Arabia, quickly captivating many people, and it subsequently reached the whole world as "coffee." To this day, whenever coffee is mentioned, Ethiopians always proudly say: "Coffee is a gift we give to the world." Ethiopian coffee is known as "coffee of the wilderness," and a cup of it can bring an unprecedented, primitive experience.

Growing Environment

Most Ethiopian coffee grows on plateaus above 2,000 meters. The major producing areas include Jimma, Gimbi, Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, and Harar. The soil conditions, climate, and altitude above 2,000 meters in these regions create an ideal environment for the crop. Among them, the Black Mountain region of Harar remains the only place in the world where wild coffee exists, and the wild coffee from there is auctioned in London every year.

Origin

The most famous of Ethiopian coffees is Harar. Harar is located in eastern Ethiopia. It is an ancient city with a long history and is one of the four holy cities of Islam. The Harar region has the most suitable altitude for growing Arabica coffee and is the highest coffee-producing area in Ethiopia.

Flavor

Ethiopian Harar, like Yemen Mocha, is also a "purely handmade" coffee. Harar has a mixed flavor with a rich taste, moderate or light acidity, and, most importantly, almost the lowest caffeine content, approximately 1.13%. Harar is also a very special coffee. Its flavor is very aggressive, always ready to conquer your taste buds and hard to forget. Its earthy flavor is characteristic of dry-processed coffee and is also why some people love it while others reject it. Because processing methods after picking differ, the taste of Ethiopian Harar also varies. Some lots are heavy, low in acidity, and strongly wine-like, while others are fragrant and smooth with a light fruit aroma. When roasting Ethiopian Harar, you can choose a lighter roast, which best preserves the coffee's fruit fragrance; deepening the roast reduces the fruit flavor while making the spicy flavor more apparent.

Classification

Harar can usually be divided into three types: Longberry Harar, Shortberry Harar, and Peaberry Harar. Among them, Longberry Harar is the most popular and of the best quality. These beans are full, with a rich wine aroma, obvious acidity, and a heavy, rich taste.

Conclusion

When you leisurely drink such a cup of rich Harar coffee, you may not think about the Harar people's persistent pursuit of coffee quality behind it. But when you review the journey of a coffee bean becoming a cup of coffee, perhaps you will understand the Harar people's continuous pursuit of quality and their inheritance of the coffee spirit.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and unknown beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Harar's wild, earthy, dry-processed character is one of Ethiopia's most distinctive profiles, and if you enjoy that handmade, natural style, FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Red Cherry is a good next stop. It uses only fully ripe, defect-free cherries, which are sun-dried on raised beds for three to five weeks with frequent turning early on to prevent uneven heat and over-fermentation. Because the fruit dries with the bean, it keeps the typical Yirgacheffe character while gaining a natural, tropical fruitiness - citrus acidity, a berry-juice mouthfeel, honey sweetness, and a creamy smoothness.

For those who want the cleaner, brighter side of Ethiopia by contrast, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe offers white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish, while the washed Gedingding Cooperative from the Wolka area gives a more precise single-origin expression with no classic bitterness and the same jasmine-and-citrus signature. Tasting a washed Ethiopian next to a natural one like Harar makes the effect of processing on flavor especially clear.

The beans also suit the V60 dripper FrontStreet Coffee recommends for this style. Its 60-degree cone routes water to the center before it drains, lengthening the contact between water and grounds so aromatics and flavor extract fully; FrontStreet Coffee prefers the resin version for its heat retention and consistency. A simple recipe is 15 g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio and 90-91°C water, ground to about fine granulated sugar, blooming 30 g for 30 seconds and finishing the pour by roughly 2:00 to 2:10.