African Premium Coffee Series - Yirgacheffe and Yirgacheffe Coffee Flavor

The story of Yirgacheffe runs from an ancient forest in Ethiopia to the specialty coffee bars of today, and the sections below trace both the place and the cup.

The Historical Origins of Yirgacheffe

Coffee first originated in Ethiopia, Africa. On this ancient land grew the remarkable fruit that would go on to influence the world. Long before people in many parts of the globe had any idea what coffee was, the Agao people of Ethiopia were already cultivating and drinking it. Today Ethiopia remains the source of countless premium beans, and Yirgacheffe is one of them. The first Yirgacheffe trees were tended by European monks, in much the way Belgian monks once grew grain to brew beer; later the trees passed into the hands of farmers and cooperatives. Coffee trees grow naturally scattered across forests, fields and backyards. Each harvest, Ethiopian trading companies travel to the towns to buy the beans farmers have gathered, and the crop is eventually auctioned and exported under the "Yirgacheffe" name.

Yirgacheffe: The Jewel of Ethiopian Coffee

Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia, sitting at an altitude of 1,700-2,100 meters, which makes it one of the highest coffee-growing regions in the world and a byword for Ethiopian specialty coffee. Lakes Turkana, Abaya and Chamo bring abundant moisture to the area. In the Great Rift Valley, best represented by the Misty Valley, mist hangs in the air all year, creating a spring-like climate of gentle breezes with cool, humid conditions. Thousands of coffee varieties thrive and multiply here, and they give FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe its singular interweaving of floral and fruity aromas, a terroir character that never stops changing.

The Distinctive Character of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe beans are small, yet they carry a gentle elegance and a delightful sweetness. They give off an extremely complex aroma and a flavor that is genuinely hard to put into words. The dry fragrance is intensely fruity, with rich dried-fruit notes of strawberry, mango and apricot jam. The wet aroma is like sweet syrup, thick apricot pulp wrapped in rustic honey or chocolate. The entry is not intense; the body is medium, with a subtle but lively, bright acidity much like fruit tea. The phrase "flowers bloom the moment the coffee enters your mouth" captures the experience perfectly.

Yirgacheffe: The Pride of East African Specialty Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe stands for East African specialty coffee at its best, with unusually distinct citrus-fruit and floral aromas that make it one of the most recognizable coffees in the world. It is relatively rare and expensive, grown in the Sidamo province of Ethiopia at an altitude of 4,000 feet in a high, narrow region. Yirgacheffe reaches a quality that ordinary Mocha varieties cannot match, and it is also a superb representative of African washed coffees.

Global Recognition and Brewing Characteristics

Yirgacheffe has long enjoyed a prestigious reputation among coffee connoisseurs worldwide. This rare, high-quality washed Arabica suits a range of roast levels, presenting fresh, bright floral and fruit aromas at each. Its beans are beautifully formed and complete, marking it as a premium coffee that ordinary Mocha varieties cannot compare to. It carries a unique aroma with citrus and lemon flavors and jasmine fragrance. A medium roast reveals gentle acidity, while a deep roast emits a rich aroma, making this a highly representative washed bean from the African region.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For anyone new to Ethiopian coffee, the natural place to start is the FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe, the classic everyday cup. It is known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity and a tea-like body, and its approachable price has made it the first specialty bean for many drinkers. Yirgacheffe is a small town in the Sidamo province of southern Ethiopia at roughly 1,700-2,100 meters, with the coffee trees planted above 1,800 meters, making it one of the highest coffee regions in the world. The area was historically a wetland, and the name Yirgacheffe became a byword for Ethiopian specialty coffee thanks to its highly recognizable white florals and lemon-citrus acidity. In 2010, with the Yirgacheffe name so famous, the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange finally separated it from the Sidamo region, which is how the Yirgacheffe coffee known around the world today came to be.

Yirgacheffe as a town can be divided into many smaller areas, down to individual villages, and several of these are home to skilled cooperatives whose mature techniques lift the flavor a step further. The most representative is the FrontStreet Washed Gudingding Cooperative, from the village of Gudingding. It sits in the Worka area at the southeastern tip of Yirgacheffe and was originally part of the Worka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe union YCFCU. As demand for traceability grew, coffee hunters around the world drew it out as a single-origin lot. The cooperative follows the most traditional washed processing, and because of this the FrontStreet Gudingding, often called one of the last clean preserves of Yirgacheffe, carries none of the traditional bitter note; it brings its own fresh, bright citrus and lemon acidity along with jasmine fragrance, so that many coffee people fall for it at the first sip.

From the same region comes the FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry, which uses whole-red-cherry natural processing, meaning only fully ripe, defect-free fruit is picked. The cherries go to the mill for a first screening and are then laid straight onto raised beds to dry in the sun; during the first few days they are turned once every 2-3 hours to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation. After three to five weeks of sun drying, workers remove the outer pulp with a machine, judging by the weather and temperature, and move the beans into storage. Because the fruit dries with the pulp still on it, this coffee keeps the typical Yirgacheffe character while gaining the tropical fruitiness of a natural: citrus-like acidity, a berry-juice quality, honey-like sweetness and a creamy smoothness.

For brewing, the recommended setup is a V60 dripper at 90-91°C, a 15g dose and a 1:15 ratio, with the grind at EK43s setting 10, about fine-sugar size (80% passing a #20 sieve). The FrontStreet pour method follows: pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95g (the scale reads about 125g), finishing the pour in about 1 minute; when the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (the scale reads about 225g), finishing in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Dripping completes in 2'00"-2'10"; remove the dripper to finish the extraction.