An Introduction to Major Coffee Growing Regions in Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia - Starbucks' Recommended Roast Level, Flavor Profile, and Characteristics of Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans

When tasting pour-over Yirgacheffe coffee, we can experience distinct white floral notes, green tea, and citrus flavors, reminiscent of a fruit tea. Some have described it as "coffee enters the mouth, a hundred flowers bloom."

Introduction to Yirgacheffe Coffee Region

In Africa, many countries grow coffee. As the origin of world coffee, Ethiopia boasts a rich coffee culture, long history, and numerous varieties, making it a vast coffee gene bank. Ethiopia's vast high-altitude regions, abundant rainfall, and fertile soil provide excellent natural conditions for coffee cultivation. Sidama, Yirgacheffe, Guji, and Harar are all familiar coffee-growing regions to us.

The name Yirgacheffe originates from the town of "YIRGACHEFFE," situated at an ultra-high altitude of 1,700-2,100 meters. During the day, the town is shrouded in mist and enjoys spring-like weather year-round. Coffee farmers plant coffee trees alongside other crops in their backyards or front fields. Strictly speaking, Yirgacheffe is a sub-region within Ethiopia's Sidama province, located to the northwest of Sidama. Later, because the coffee produced here had a unique flavor and gained worldwide fame, it separated from Sidama to become its own distinct category.

With the rise of the third wave coffee movement, consumers became willing to pay higher prices for coffee with specific regional flavors. For example, Sidama coffee offers sweetness and floral notes; Yirgacheffe coffee has medium body with sweetness and aromatic sweetness; Harar coffee features exotic aromas and high-intensity berry notes. To protect these renowned coffee regions, the Ethiopian government decided in 2004 to register three famous coffee-producing areas as commercial trademarks, including Yirgacheffe Yirgacheffe®. Today, when we refer to Yirgacheffe, we're more often referring to a trademark for coffee flavor.

If you're new to the coffee world, FrontStreet Coffee recommends a washed Yirgacheffe as an everyday coffee bean, selected from local Ethiopian heirloom varieties and roasted to medium-light level. FrontStreet Coffee's everyday bean series allows newcomers to the coffee world to experience the fundamental flavors of coffee regions at affordable prices, with small packaging designed to avoid waste from unfinished coffee. If you want to experience the classic aroma of Yirgacheffe, FrontStreet Coffee believes that pour-over extracted black coffee is most suitable.

Characteristics of Washed Yirgacheffe

The reason Yirgacheffe can possess such a distinctive style is largely due to washed processing, in addition to its natural terroir conditions. Ethiopia generally has high altitudes and abundant sunlight, making it quite suitable for sun-drying coffee cherries. Traditional natural processing was rather crude—each coffee farmer could process it in their small courtyard, spreading the cherries directly on roofs or ground to dry. These crude methods brought many unpleasant flavors and caused inconsistent coffee quality.

In 1972, the Ethiopian government introduced more advanced washed processing technology and related equipment from Central and South America. Farms using the washed method must build washing pools and have access to continuous flowing water, resulting in higher production costs. During processing, fermented beans are placed in pools and moved back and forth, using the friction between beans and the power of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until they are smooth and clean. Each step removes impurities and defective beans, resulting in more uniform green bean quality, and the final trading price is higher than naturally processed coffee. Washing not only significantly reduces the defect rate of coffee but also gives Yirgacheffe its fresh citrus notes and elegant white floral aromas, with overall bright, delicate, and clean flavors.

Why Are Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans Medium-Light Roasted?

In the past, most of the coffee we drank was dominated by bitter flavors. The reason coffee was strong and bitter was mainly because roasters roasted the coffee beans dark. The caramelization reaction eliminated many light flavor compounds, and the main flavor direction tended toward nuts, dark chocolate, and caramel.

With the emergence of specialty coffee concepts, producers launched various medium-roast coffee beans with floral and fruity flavors to cater to public taste. To preserve more acidity, roasters only roast Yirgacheffe coffee to an appropriate light level. Light-roasted Yirgacheffe exhibits pleasant fruit acidity and white floral notes, which can be said to have opened the "new era of fruity acidic coffee." Preferring sweetness and fearing bitterness恰恰 happens to match public taste, which is also one of the reasons why Yirgacheffe is so popular worldwide. FrontStreet Coffee hopes everyone can experience the unique regional flavors, so many Ethiopian coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's menu use lighter roast levels to present the classic orange and honey notes.

Pour-Over Recommendations

Many friends consult FrontStreet Coffee for brewing suggestions after purchasing coffee beans. In fact, every bag of FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans includes brewing references on the label. Here, FrontStreet Coffee will use the washed Bonga cooperative as an example to explain FrontStreet Coffee's extraction approach according to store standards.

Since Yirgacheffe coffee beans grow at high altitudes and have a hard texture, FrontStreet Coffee uses high-temperature water at 92-93°C for extraction to bring out more floral and fruity flavors in the coffee. FrontStreet Coffee recommends a medium-fine grind size (78% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve). Too coarse a grind cannot extract body compounds, resulting in thin coffee. Too fine a grind can easily lead to over-extraction at high water temperatures, making the coffee prone to bitterness.

During cupping, FrontStreet Coffee noticed that this bean exhibits different flavors at different temperature stages, so the brewing method uses three-stage extraction to allow different flavor compounds to better express themselves during the gradual heating of the coffee bed. To highlight the fresh and charming aroma of washed Yirgacheffe, FrontStreet Coffee uses a V60 dripper for brewing. The spiral rib design of the dripper allows coffee grounds to degas better, maximizing the volatilization and dissolution of acidic aromatic compounds.

Brewing Parameters:

• Dripper: V60
• Water Temperature: 92-93°C
• Coffee Amount: 15g
• Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
• Grind Size: Fine sugar size (78% pass rate through #20 sieve)
• Three-Stage Pouring: Use twice the coffee weight in water to moisten the coffee bed, forming a dome and bloom for 30s. Then use a small water stream to pour in circles from inside to outside until reaching 125g, then pause. Wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the dripper's height, then continue with the same fine stream to pour the third stage until reaching 225g. Remove the dripper once all coffee liquid has filtered through, taking about 2 minutes total. After the coffee from the dripper flows into the server, remove the dripper, then gently swirl to evenly mix the coffee liquid in the server, and you can begin tasting Yirgacheffe's flavors starting from high temperature.

Flavor Description of Pour-Over Washed Yirgacheffe

When washed Yirgacheffe coffee beans are ground into powder, you can smell the fresh aroma of honey and jasmine. When FrontStreet Coffee pours hot water, it begins to release hints of berry flavors. The pour-over black coffee enters with bright lemon, citrus, and green tea notes. As the temperature changes, there are berry, cream, and sugarcane aftertastes, with obvious sweet aftertaste and a clean, sweet mouthfeel.

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Important Notice :

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