Ethiopia Sidamo Organic Cultivation | Adem Chilcho Xielike G3 Natural Process Longberry

Ethiopia Sidamo Organic | Adem Chilcho Natural G3 Longberry Flavor Profile

Ethiopia's Sidamo region produces some of the world's finest natural coffees, including many truly memorable lots. That said, past cupping scores are no guarantee for this year's purchases — small-scale variations in regional climate determine the quality of each harvest. Because these trees grow semi-wild and the cherries are gathered by hand, cutting corners anywhere in the process means the quality simply won't be there.

Sidamo lies in southern Ethiopia, where agriculture dominates the local economy and the coffee-growing areas cluster around the Great Rift Valley. The largest town in the province is Hawassa, an important hub for coffee exports. Sidamo coffees are remarkably diverse: differences in soil composition, regional microclimates, and countless heirloom varieties mean that coffee from one town or district can taste distinctly different from its neighbors.

The Ardi cooperative sits in the Guji zone of the Oromia region in the south, bordering Sidamo and Gedeo. This particular lot comes from small villages near the towns of Michicha (also spelled Chilcho) and Kelenso Moconissa in Guji, within the greater Sidamo basin. The Ardi cooperative is made up of 700 smallholder farming families and takes its name from "Ardi," the 4.4-million-year-old female hominid fossil discovered in 1992. Its natural processing is exceptionally meticulous: after the ripe cherries are hand-picked, they are dried for three full weeks on raised African drying beds. Throughout those three weeks, workers rake and turn the cherries every two hours, stirring them constantly by hand each day to ensure even drying and a consistently high-quality final product.

Adem Chilcho natural coffee is produced using traditional methods, with defective beans removed by the sharp eyes and diligent hands of Ethiopian women — a decisive factor in the quality of any naturally processed coffee.

Coffee Information

Name: Adem Chilcho

Region: Sidamo, near the town of Dilla

Country: Ethiopia

Grade: G3

Altitude: 1,700 meters above sea level

Harvest Period: October to January, annually

Certification: Organically grown

Soil Type: Red-brown laterite soil, pH 5.2–6.2

Coffee Characteristics

Variety: Heirloom cultivars — traditional local landrace varieties of the Yirgacheffe area

Processing: Dry-processed (natural)

Appearance: Longberry shape, screen size 16–18

Roast Level: Cupping roast, 60 seconds after first crack (cinnamon roast)

Aroma/Flavor: Almond jam, licorice, black tea, guava, vanilla, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, and a note of sweet fermented rice wine; a lively, pleasant fermentation character along with lemon, passion fruit, orange, and a tartaric acidity

Complexity & Other: Wild grassland aromatics, very full sweetness, and a mellow winey ferment; the finish moves from a slight natural-process astringency into a sweet, lingering aftertaste

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing Method

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Medium-fine (Fuji Royal grinder at setting 3.5)

Brewing Technique: Use a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio with 15g of ground coffee. Start with a 25g bloom for 25 seconds. For the second pour, bring the water up to 120g, pause until the coffee bed drains to about half, then continue pouring slowly up to 225g total. Total extraction time is roughly 2:00.

Analysis: Three-stage pouring makes it easy to distinguish the coffee's front, middle, and finish. Because the V60's deep ribs drain quickly, the pauses between pours help stretch out the contact time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Explore More Ethiopian Naturals at FrontStreet Coffee

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, home to countless native heirloom varieties and an endless source of distinctive lots for specialty coffee lovers. If this Guji natural appeals to you, FrontStreet Coffee offers a few more Ethiopian coffees worth exploring. The entry-level FrontStreet washed Yirgacheffe delivers clear jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity — the classic Yirgacheffe profile from a small highland town in southern Ethiopia where spring-like mist and cool, humid weather nurture thousands of coffee trees, producing a light, elegant, tea-like cup reminiscent of a clean lemon tea.

For another natural, try the FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project natural: cherries are sorted first, sun-dried for two weeks until the sugars and pulp essence soak into the bean and moisture drops to 12%, then hulled, density- and color-graded, and hand-sorted again, yielding an exceptionally clean cup with rich fruit character — peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon. FrontStreet's natural Guji Hambella "Flower Princess" (Hua Kui) comes from a 200-hectare farm where cherries dry on raised beds for 21 days and are hand-sorted every three to five days; after a medium-light roast it shows a gentle fermented wine note, florals, citrus, and mango, with rich honeyed sweetness, cocoa, and spice over a full body and long finish. FrontStreet also carries the Hamasho (Hama Xiu) washed lot from Sidamo, built on compact-bean JARC 74-series varieties like 74158, with perfumed lemon, strawberry, and star fruit sweetness followed by soft florals.