What is Sidamo Mocha Coffee? How Should You Drink Sidamo Coffee?

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Ethiopia: The Birthplace of Coffee

Ethiopia is where coffee was first discovered, and even today many wild coffee plants can be found in its original forests, harvested by farmers. The country has faced poverty, drought and persistent conflict, yet it remains one of the most important coffee-producing nations in terms of both quality and output, and in recent years it has stood among the very finest origins in the world.

Premium Coffee Regions

Ethiopia has two finest coffee-growing regions: Yirgacheffe and Sidamo. Sidamo lies in a highland area of southern Ethiopia, and most Mocha coffee is generally roasted to a city roast. Sidamo delivers balanced acidity and a fitting body. In Ethiopia, a cup of Mocha coffee for breakfast is a familiar way to replenish energy for the day ahead.

Coffee Grading System

Because Ethiopia's grading system is relatively simple, coffee is sorted by grade into Special, usually meaning washed Yirgacheffe and Sidamo, followed by Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4 and Grade 5.

Processing Methods and Flavor Profiles

Washed coffee beans have a gentle, subtle aroma, a soft, restrained lemon acidity and high flavor consistency, and they excel in mouthfeel. Naturally processed beans, by contrast, have an intense, prominent aroma, less obvious lemon acidity and complex, varied flavors, with floral or fruity notes as their specialty.

Natural Process Considerations

Ethiopian natural beans often carry impurities such as small stones or twigs, so special care is needed when grinding, though these small flaws do not affect the taste. Most notably, Sidamo's Mocha coffee has an extremely low caffeine content, making it a naturally low-caffeine coffee. Once you have enjoyed the mild taste of a washed coffee, trying a purely natural coffee now and then to experience that wild, untamed desert character can be an excellent choice.

Ethiopia's Coffee Development

Ethiopia is currently the fastest-growing country in coffee production and development. Different regions create variation not only through different processing methods; even the same method can produce different aromas and mouthfeels thanks to differences in technique, which often creates an illusion of great complexity. Yirgacheffe and Sidamo natural beans, for example, have quite different aromas. Yirgacheffe natural beans hold more moisture and are mostly small in size, with a lower, more stable aroma and a thicker mouthfeel, while Sidamo natural beans have an intense, overflowing strawberry aroma that is genuinely impressive, though their mouthfeel is thinner.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee recommends brewing with water at 89-90°C, which brings out cocoa and chocolate aromas and a caramel-cake sweetness, with a rich, smooth and pure mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Start with FrontStreet Coffee's Sun-Dried Red Cherry to see what a natural Yirgacheffe can do. It is a whole-red-cherry natural: only fully ripe, sound cherries are picked, screened at the processing station, then dried directly on raised beds, turned every two to three hours in the first days so they dry evenly and do not over-ferment. After three to five weeks in the sun, the outer fruit is machine-scraped and the beans are stored. Because they dry with the fruit still attached, the beans keep the classic Yirgacheffe character alongside a natural's tropical fruit, showing citrus acidity, berry juice, honeyed sweetness and a creamy smoothness.

For a washed coffee, tried and trusted since the beginning, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe daily bean is the classic. Known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish, its friendly price has made it the first specialty coffee for a great many drinkers. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia's Sidama province, at about 1,700-2,100 meters, with coffee planted above 1,800 meters, placing it among the world's highest coffee regions; it was a wetland in ancient times, and its unmistakable white florals and lemon-citrus acidity made "Yirgacheffe" a synonym for Ethiopian specialty coffee. In 2010, its reputation grew so large that the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange separated it from the Sidamo region, creating the Yirgacheffe coffee we know today.

Between the two sits FrontStreet Coffee's Gutingting cooperative, one of the finest washed lots from the region. Yirgacheffe town is made up of many small zones and villages, and some of them are home to experienced cooperatives with mature processing skills; the washed Gutingting cooperative is the most representative of them. Located in the Worka area at the southeastern end of Yirgacheffe, it began as part of the Worka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Union (YCFCU), and as the demand for traceable green coffee grew it was singled out as a "single origin." Gutingting sticks to traditional washed processing, so the cup has no traditional bitterness, just fresh, bright citrus and lemon acidity and jasmine fragrance. A V60 at 90-91°C, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio and a grind of EK43s setting 10, about the size of fine sugar and 80% passing a #20 sieve, brings it out beautifully: a 30g pour and 30-second bloom, then 95g to about 125g over about a minute, and when the water falls to two-thirds of the bed, the remaining 100g to about 225g by 1:35, finishing at 2:00-2:10.