Washed Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Idido Coffee Pour-Over Powder-to-Water Ratio Recommendation_How to Brew Washed Yirgacheffe Well

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Yirgacheffe Coffee - Idido Processing Station Red Cherry Project

In late October 2017, we traveled with our green bean partners from China Tea to Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. We visited renowned producing regions including Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, and Guji through our partner DWD Company from the past two years. DWD Company operates a total of 17 processing plants in the Sidamo region, making it the company with the most processing plants in the existing Sidamo producing area. During our visit to the producing regions, we learned that excessive rainfall in the early period significantly delayed the 2017/2018 harvest season, postponing it by nearly 3 weeks compared to the 2016/2017 season. However, the good news was that the extended ripening period somewhat increased the sweetness of the coffee cherries, giving the new season's Ethiopian coffee more abundant flavors than last year.

When we arrived, we happened to encounter the Dutch company Trobacco sending messages to various processing plants, asking them to specially process some batches of fully red cherries for selection. The selected batches became what everyone now knows as the "Red Cherry Project ORC." However, the processing plants were not enthusiastic about these so-called "projects," mainly due to low return on investment and significant market risks. Once the high-priced fully red cherries were processed but not selected, they could basically only be sold together with other non-fully red cherry batches. Additionally, Trabocca Company's purchase volume was relatively small, and the processing plants' small processing volume was not conducive to cost control. Furthermore, ECX's strict management of exports requires selling to ECX first, then purchasing from ECX, following the first-in-first-out principle, which further reduced the processing plants' willingness to participate.

Upon learning of this situation, our green bean partner China Tea immediately communicated with DWD, hoping they would customize a batch of fully red cherries for us, using three processing methods: washed, natural, and honey processing. We required them to process according to our specified methods, and regardless of the results, we promised to purchase all of them at prices not lower than Trabocca's purchasing price. This year, there are two batches of fully red cherry washed coffee, selected from two processing stations among DWD Company's 17 processing stations: Yirgacheffe Idido and Sidamo Shantawene, for cherry procurement and washed processing. The altitudes of these two processing stations are 1960m and 1950m respectively. The Idido processing station was built in 2012 and covers an area of over 200 mu, making it a large-scale processing plant operated by DWD Company in the Yirgacheffe producing region, about a 30-minute drive from the center of Yirgacheffe town. The processing plant is well-equipped and conducts both washed and natural processing, with sufficient shaded drying beds.

All fully red cherries for the washed batches come from the middle to late stages of the harvest season (early December - early January), ensuring that all harvested cherries come from higher altitude areas (over 2000m). The cherries undergo washed processing on the same day as picking. Since cherries typically arrive at the processing plant in the afternoon, the washed processing is mostly carried out at night.

Fully red coffee cherries are machine-processed to remove the pulp and then enter the washed fermentation tanks for 36-48 hours (adjusted according to temperature and humidity variations), before being placed on drying beds. Generally, after 8-10 days of drying until the moisture content drops to 12%, they are stored in warehouses. At this time, the green coffee beans continue to undergo a controlled humidity and temperature storage "fermentation" period in parchment until dehulling and screening are performed before export sales.

How to Brew Yirgacheffe Coffee [Idido Processing Station Red Cherry Project]?

FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over reference: Weigh 15g of [Idido Processing Station Red Cherry Project] coffee powder and pour into a grinder for medium grinding. The ground particles should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use BG grinder setting 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), water temperature 90°C, and V60 filter cone for extraction.

Pour the hot water from the pour-over kettle in clockwise circles centered on the middle of the filter cone. Start timing when brewing begins. Brew the coffee to 30g in 15 seconds, then stop pouring water. When the time reaches 1 minute, begin the second pour. For the second pour, like before, pour in clockwise circles centered on the middle of the filter cone, ensuring the water stream doesn't hit the area where coffee grounds meet the filter paper to avoid channeling effects.

When brewing the coffee grounds to the outermost circle, leave one circle, then brew circle by circle toward the center. At 2 minutes and 20 seconds, brew the coffee to 220g. The coffee brewing is complete.

Japanese-style Ice Pour-over [Idido Processing Station Red Cherry Project]

FrontStreet Coffee's ice pour-over reference for [Idido Processing Station Red Cherry Project]:

Yirgacheffe Coffee [Idido Processing Station Red Cherry Project], light to medium roast, BG grinder setting 5M (67% standard sieve pass rate)

20g of coffee grounds, 150g of ice, 150g of hot water. The water temperature should be 1°C higher than the normal pour-over recommendation of 91°C. Normal grinding is Little Fuji 3.5 setting, while ice pour-over uses slightly finer grinding - Little Fuji 3 setting.

Bloom with 40g of water for 30 seconds.

Segmented pouring: first segment 60g of water, second segment 40g of water. Use a relatively fine but high water column for pouring, stirring forcefully to ensure the coffee grounds tumble fully. However, be careful not to let the liquid level get too high and avoid hitting the filter paper at the edges.

The entire extraction time is approximately 2.5 minutes (similar to the normal extraction time for 20g of coffee grounds).

Important Notice :

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