Pour-Over Natural Sidamo Guji Shakiso Coffee Brewing Techniques - How to Pour Water for Shakiso Coffee

About Shakisso

Natural Sidamo Coffee Guji Shakisso G1

Origin: Sidamo, Guji, Shakiso

Variety: Ethiopian Heirloom

Growing Altitude: 1800-2200m

Processing Method: Natural

Roast Level: Light

Region Introduction

Shakisso, in Guji, has quite distinctive coffee characteristics, and the coffee it produces has repeatedly drawn the market's attention. The legendary bean "Nekisse" from Ninety Plus, a company that sells coffees scoring 90+ points in cupping, originally means "nectar from Shakisso," and both its production region and its name come from Shakisso.

It is the most noteworthy micro-region in the Guji area. With its superior location, average altitude of 1800-2200m, fertile black soil and pronounced day-night temperature swings, it has the terroir for producing high-quality specialty coffee. As a result it scored an excellent 95 points in Coffee Review in 2014.

Tasting Experience

Dry Aroma: Floral notes, light fermented wine aroma, blueberry, wine fragrance, rich tropical fruits

Flavor: It keeps the character of local regional coffee but lands between Yirgacheffe and Sidamo. It has citrus and coffee blossom aromas and appropriate sweetness, like a drop in the mouth where a hundred flowers bloom, which is quite wonderful. Honey and cocoa fill the whole mouth, with a full body and a long aftertaste. Prepared as iced pour-over, the flavours become even clearer, leaving you lingering over the taste.

How to Brew Sidamo Coffee [Guji Shakisso] Well?

FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over reference: weigh 15g of [Guji Shakisso] coffee and grind it medium. The particles should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use BG grinder setting 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), a water temperature of 90°C and a V60 dripper.

Pour hot water from the kettle in clockwise circles with the centre of the dripper as the focal point. Start the timer as you begin. In 15 seconds, brew to 30g, then stop pouring. When the clock reaches 1 minute, pour the second time, again in clockwise circles centred on the middle. Keep the stream off the seam where the coffee bed meets the filter paper, to avoid channelling.

Leave one circle when you reach the outermost edge of the coffee bed, then pour back toward the centre circle by circle. At 2 minutes and 20 seconds, pour to 220g to finish the brew.

Iced Brew [Guji Shakisso]

FrontStreet Coffee's iced brew [Guji Shakisso] reference:

Sidamo Coffee [Guji Shakisso], light to medium roast, BG grinder setting 4B, grinding level 3, 20g of beans, 87°C water temperature, pre-infusion for 3 minutes in a Chemex, then ice-brew with ice water, total water volume 200ml

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Since this lot is a natural-process Ethiopian coffee, the closest match in FrontStreet Coffee's range is the sun-dried Red Cherry, which takes the same fruit-forward approach. FrontStreet picks only fully ripe, sound cherries for an all-red-cherry natural, sorts them once at the mill, then dries them directly on raised beds, turning them every 2-3 hours in the first days so the fruit dries evenly instead of over-fermenting. After three to five weeks under the sun, the outer pulp is removed and the beans rest in storage. Because the fruit dries with the pulp on, the cup keeps the classic Yirgacheffe character alongside the tropical fruit of a natural process: citrus-like acidity, a berry-juice quality, honey sweetness and a creamy smoothness that echoes the honey and cocoa body of a Guji Shakisso.

For a cleaner, more floral counterpart, FrontStreet Coffee's Gutingding Cooperative is a single-origin washed Yirgacheffe from the Worka area at the southeastern end of Yirgacheffe. It follows traditional washed processing and carries fresh, bright citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine fragrance and no traditional bitterness, a good counterpoint if you want to taste how processing changes the same region's fruit.