Sun-Dried Konga Cooperative Yirgacheffe Pour-Over Comparison_Japanese-Style Ice Pour-Over Konga Coffee Parameters Sharing

Mr. Abeyot's Yirgacheffe Coffee - Konga

Country: Ethiopia

Town: Yirgacheffe in the Konga region

Area: Gedeo

Trade Name: Yirgacheffe Konga

Estate Owner: Mr. Abeyot

Altitude: 1900-2250 meters

Variety: Mixed heirloom varieties

Processing: Sun-dried and water-washed

Drying: African raised beds, 3 weeks

Grade: Super 90+, G1Q1, G1Q2

Cupping Notes: Intense floral and fruit aromas, prominent blueberry fruit flavor, rich and clean strawberry taste, intertwined with exotic cumin and cardamom spice notes. Elegant lemon acidity.

The first batch of the new harvest's natural process Yirgacheffe coffee shows excellent quality, with impressive cupping performance. The fruit flavors, especially blueberry, are prominent, clean and smooth. Coffee cherries are harvested by local smallholder farmers and delivered to the processing station. To ensure coffee quality, our company pays local farmers a premium of up to 23% to select the finest coffee cherries.

Most cooperatives in the Yirgacheffe region belong to the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU). This coffee is the result of the hard work of 2,400 smallholder coffee farmers from the Konga Cooperative, a member of the union. They have not overlooked any detail in processing: from carefully selecting Ethiopian native varieties from wild coffee trees in the primeval forest and transplanting them to their small courtyards - a process of unimaginable complexity; after harvesting the coffee cherries, the farmers carefully separate ripe red cherries from insufficiently mature ones through multiple hand-sorting stages; then they use a special 5-disc pulping machine to remove the parchment, followed by 24 to 36 hours of wet fermentation. The fermented coffee beans are then washed with clean water according to density and spread on African drying beds for 1 to 2 weeks of drying. During drying, farmers cover the coffee beans with plastic cloth at noon and at night. After drying to the appropriate moisture content, beans larger than 14 mesh are retained through screening.

To fulfill the mission of giving back to the cooperative community, the Konga Cooperative renovated a local primary school and equipped it with brand-new facilities.

Ethiopia washed and natural process Yirgacheffe Grade Q1, world-famous Konga processing station, estate owner Mr. Abeyot.

Ethiopia washed and natural process Yirgacheffe - G1Q1.

This Ethiopia Yirgacheffe comes from the Konga region. Yirgacheffe is a major city in south-central Ethiopia, belonging to the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region's Gedeo Zone, and is a coffee-producing area renowned throughout the country and the world. Thanks to the financing channels available to local farmer organizations, exporters can purchase local coffee through channels outside the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), selecting the highest quality batches.

Natural processing is the oldest coffee processing method, known for producing pleasant fruit tones and rich cupping descriptions. Simply put, natural processing involves drying the coffee beans with the fruit pulp intact. It is quite rare to encounter natural process coffee in the Yirgacheffe region, and we were very excited when we heard about this natural process coffee. We have in fact been tracking the processing of this coffee to obtain the classic blueberry fruit flavor that often appears in Ethiopian Harar coffee, which is extremely rare for Yirgacheffe.

How to Brew Yirgacheffe Coffee [Konga] Well

FrontStreet Coffee Hand-Pour Reference: Weigh 15g of [Konga] coffee grounds and pour into a grinder for a medium grind. The ground particles should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use a BG grinder setting 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), a water temperature of 90°C and a V60 dripper.

Pour hot water from the gooseneck kettle in clockwise circles centered in the middle of the dripper. Start timing when brewing begins, pouring to 30g within 15 seconds, then stop pouring water. When the time reaches 1 minute, begin the second pour. For the second pour, like the first, pour in clockwise circles centered in the middle of the dripper. Avoid pouring water where the coffee grounds meet the filter paper, to prevent channeling.

Leave one circle when pouring to the outermost edge of the coffee grounds, then continue pouring in circles toward the center. At 2 minutes and 20 seconds, the coffee should be poured to 220g, completing the brewing process.

Japanese Ice Hand-Pour [Konga]

FrontStreet Coffee Ice Hand-Pour [Konga] Reference:

Yirgacheffe Coffee [Konga], light-medium roast, BG grinder setting 5M (67% standard sieve pass rate).

20g of coffee grounds, 150g of ice cubes, 150g of hot water. The water temperature should be 1°C higher than the normal hand-pour recommendation of 91°C. A normal grind uses the small Fuji grinder at the 3.5 setting, while ice hand-pour uses a slightly finer setting - small Fuji grinder at 3.

Bloom with 40g of water, bloom time 30 seconds.

Segmented pouring: first segment 60g of water, second segment 40g of water. Using a relatively thin but high water column, stir forcefully to ensure the coffee grounds tumble fully. Be careful not to let the liquid level get too high and avoid pouring onto the edge filter paper.

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

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The blueberry-forward, natural process Yirgacheffe described here is rare, and FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry is the closest match on our shelves. Fully ripe cherries are dried whole on raised beds, keeping the classic Yirgacheffe character while adding tropical fruit aromas, citrus-like acidity, a juicy berry body and honeyed sweetness with a creamy finish.

For the clean, floral side of Yirgacheffe, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe is a natural place to start. Expect white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity and a light, elegant, tea-like cup - a friendly and affordable introduction to the region.