Differences Between Queen Coffee and Gesha Coffee: Awards, Stories, and Brewing Methods

Sidamo: Diversity and Terroir

Sidamo's coffee flavors are incredibly diverse: different soil compositions, regional microclimates, and countless native varieties give each town's coffee its own distinct character. The Sidamo region lies in southern Ethiopia, where agriculture is the primary industry and the coffee-growing areas cluster around the Great Rift Valley.

Hambella: The High-Altitude Sub-Region

Hambella (often rendered "Hanbella") sits inside Guji, Ethiopia's largest coffee-producing zone, administratively part of Oromia state. Its western side faces Yirgacheffe's Kochore across the mountains, separated by a highland area of 3200 meters altitude and about 30 kilometers wide. To the southeast, east, and north it borders Guji's Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions respectively, making it Ethiopia's highest-altitude coffee sub-region (Harrar is the highest-altitude main producing region).

Today there are about 20 processing plants of various scales in Hambella. DW Company runs four estate processing plants in Hambella's core Dimtu area — "Buku Abel," "Buku Saysay," "Haro Soresa," and "Tirtiro Goye" — with an annual coffee output of about 1100 tons.

Among all these estates and washing stations, only the sun-dried coffee from the "Buku Abel" estate and processing plant earns the name "Flower Queen" (Huakui).

Flower Queen's Award-Winning Profile

Cupping notes: passion fruit, rose florals, strawberry jam, berry sweetness and acidity, peach flesh, and a black-tea finish.

Awards and Recognition

2016/2017: Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest Competition - Champion

2016/2017 Harvest Season: Ethiopia Coffee Competition - Champion

2017 Regional Africa Taste of Harvest Competition - Runner-up

2017 Africa Coffee Competition - Runner-up

Processing and Cultivation

The Flower Queen processing plant sits in Buku Abel village at 2200 meters. The site was chosen from the start for its privileged growing environment — fertile, humus-rich reddish-brown soil, with "Enset" trees providing shade cover, so the trees receive ample sunlight and build rich flavors without burning through nutrients, keeping more essence inside the cherry. During the harvest and processing season (December-January), that unique environment and climate shape Flower Queen's distinctive profile. Sun-drying begins only when the sugar content of the harvested red cherries measures above 30. For the first two days on the beds, moisture is deliberately maintained so the fructose can ferment fully. The high altitude drops nighttime temperatures to around 12°C, preventing the off-flavors of over-fermentation in the heat; during warmer midday hours the beds are shaded to keep the cherries from sunburn. Only fully red, completely mature cherries are used, all hand-picked and dried on African raised beds, with the fruit layer kept thin and turned around the clock, 24 hours a day, to ensure even drying and ventilation and tighter control of fermentation.

Brewing Recommendations

For pour-over Flower Queen: use 15g of coffee, ground medium-fine (Fuji ghost-tooth grinder at setting 3.5), in a V60, at 91-93°C. Pour 30g of water for a 27-second pre-infusion, then pour to 105g and pause. Once the bed's water level drops to half, continue pouring slowly to 225g, avoiding the tail section of the drawdown. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15; extraction time 2:00.

Post-Harvest Handling

At night, thick plastic sheeting covers the beds against sudden rain, letting the cherries ferment and dehydrate at relatively low temperatures. After 18 days of sun-drying, once the green beans' moisture falls to around 13%, drying stops. The beans are bagged in jute and rested in natural conditions at 12-22°C and 40-50% humidity for about 50 days to rest and lose further moisture. When green-bean moisture reaches about 10%, they go to the mill for hulling, sorting, and sale.

Coffee Specifications

Producing country: Ethiopia, Africa

Producer: Buku Abel estate, Dimtu, Hambella Wamena district, Guji

Variety: Heirloom, Ethiopian native varieties

Production altitude: 2250-2350m

Quality grade: G1

Process: Natural sun-dried (African raised beds)

Roast level: Light roast | Net weight: 227g | Shelf life: 90 days

Ethiopian Sidamo Shakisso Natural

Country: Ethiopia

Region: Guji Zone

Altitude: 2250-2350m

Process: Natural sun-dried

Variety: Local native Heirloom varieties

Producer: Local smallholder farmers

Flavor notes: Passion fruit, rose florals, strawberry jam

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

People often ask how Flower Queen differs from Gesha, since both trade on florals and fruit. The short version: Gesha is a variety, Flower Queen a name reserved for Buku Abel's natural lots in Hambella — Ethiopia's highest coffee sub-region, where cherries ripen slowly at 2200+ meters and dry for 18 days on raised beds with 24-hour turning. If Gesha is jasmine and bergamot elegance, Flower Queen is passion fruit, strawberry jam, and rose at full volume.

To explore the wider Yirgacheffe neighborhood Flower Queen sits near, FrontStreet Coffee recommends the washed Yirgacheffe house coffee first — white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish, at an easy everyday price. The washed Guodingding from the Worka cooperative in Yirgacheffe's southeast, part of the YCFCU union and dried with fully traditional washing, adds clean jasmine fragrance without any traditional bitterness. For natural lovers, the Yirgacheffe Red Cherry takes only flawless fully ripe cherries, turned every 2-3 hours in the early days of drying; expect citrus acidity, berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and cream-smooth texture.

Brew any of these on the same template we use for Flower Queen: 15g in a V60 at 90-91°C, 1:15, ground to fine-granulated sugar (80% through a #20 sieve). Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 125g over about a minute, then finish with 100g more (225g on the scale) around 1:35, drawing down by 2:00-2:10. Sweet, floral, unmistakably Ethiopian — no wonder the Flower Queen keeps winning.