Washed Yirgacheffe Atona Coffee Story and Origin Information Introduction | Atona Coffee Pour-Over Sharing

Washed Yirgacheffe Atona

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Atona, Washed — Lavender, Berries, Orange

The core of contemporary coffee: Yirgacheffe is the heart of Ethiopia, the country where Arabica originated. It is a growing region that any coffee lover — and anyone who hopes to explore specialty coffee — has to get to know properly.

Roasting Yirgacheffe: These beans, prized for their ancient and superior varieties, actually vary widely in size, moisture and composition. Coaxing out their aromatic sweetness and beautiful fruit acidity is a genuine test of a roaster's skill.

The Yirgacheffe flavor profile: Time-honoured Arabica varieties, high-altitude growing conditions, and generations of hard-won experience in cultivation, harvesting and processing together produce a coffee that is silky yet remarkably layered.

Pour-over and Yirgacheffe: Beans from different areas, seasons and processing methods all brew differently, and anyone who has worked with a pour-over will appreciate just how much.

The price of Yirgacheffe: Panama Geisha was once the fashionable choice, celebrated above all for bringing the floral and citrus character of African beans — Ethiopian beans especially — to the Americas. Set against what Geisha commands, calling Yirgacheffe the best value in coffee is no exaggeration.

How to Brew Yirgacheffe [Atona] Well

FrontStreet Coffee pour-over reference: Weigh out 15g of [Atona] coffee and grind it medium — the particles should feel a touch coarser than table salt. We use a BG grinder at 5R (60% passing a standard sieve), water at 90°C, and a V60 dripper.

Begin at the centre of the dripper, pouring from the kettle in clockwise circles. Start the timer as you begin. In the first 15 seconds, pour to 30g and stop. At 1 minute, start the second pour — again working in clockwise circles from the centre, and keeping the stream off the point where the coffee meets the filter paper so you don't create channeling.

When you reach the outermost ring of grounds, hold back one ring and work back in, circle by circle, toward the centre. At 2 minutes 20 seconds, pour to 220g, and the brew is finished.

Japanese Iced Pour-Over [Atona]

FrontStreet Coffee iced pour-over [Atona] reference:

Yirgacheffe [Atona], light-to-medium roast, BG grinder at 5M (67% passing a standard sieve).

20g coffee, 150g ice, 150g hot water. The water should sit 1°C above the usual 90°C for pour-over — in other words, 91°C. Normal grinding uses a Fuji setting of 3.5, while iced pour-over calls for something slightly finer, a Fuji 3.

Bloom with 40g of water for 30 seconds.

Pour in stages: 60g in the first, 40g in the second. Use a relatively thin but tall column of water and stir with some force so the grounds roll over completely — but keep the level from rising too high, and don't let the water hit the edge of the filter paper.

The whole extraction takes about 2.5 minutes, close to the normal time for 20g of coffee.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For anyone new to Ethiopian coffee, FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe is the classic place to start. It is an everyday bean known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a clean tea-like finish — and its friendly price makes it a natural first step into specialty coffee. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia, in Sidama, at roughly 1,700–2,100 metres; local coffee grows above 1,800 metres, making this one of the highest-growing regions in the world. Its signature white florals and lemon-citrus acidity became so influential that the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange separated Yirgacheffe from Sidama in 2010.

Look a little further and you reach the Guodingding cooperative, at the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe in the Worka area. Once part of YCFCU's Worka cooperative, it is now traced as a single origin, still washed in the traditional way and prized for its fresh, bright citrus and jasmine. FrontStreet also offers a natural red-cherry Yirgacheffe, made only from fully ripe fruit that is screened, then dried on raised beds for three to five weeks and turned every two to three hours during the first days. That keeps the region's character while adding tropical fruit, berry-juice texture, honeyed sweetness and a creamy body. For brewing, FrontStreet suggests a V60, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, water at 90–91°C, and an EK43s grind of 10 — about fine-sugar size, with 80% passing a No. 20 sieve. Bloom with 30g for 30 seconds, pour to 125g by about 1 minute, then add the remaining water to 225g by roughly 1 minute 35 seconds, finishing the drawdown at 2:00–2:10.