What is Ethiopia's Red Cherry Project? How Should Coffee Beans from the Red Cherry Project Be Roasted?

Operation Cherry Red

Operation Cherry Red (the Red Cherry Project) is a program dedicated to raising the quality of small-scale farms in Ethiopia—designed to reward farmers and bring pleasant surprises to roasters. Trabocca, the largest coffee merchant in the Netherlands, invites every farm to produce small batches before the harvest season, with a single condition: only 100% fully ripe red cherries are accepted. Since only meticulous picking delivers better flavor in the cup, the careful, sharp-eyed, hardworking Ethiopian women who sort the harvest are the driving force behind the Red Cherry Project. All that extra care in harvesting and selection earns these coffees relatively higher market prices.

After processing at origin, Red Cherry Project beans are immediately packed in plastic inner bags or vacuum-sealed, then transported to Djibouti to await shipment. Real-time monitoring and secure transport safeguard the quality along the way. When Trabocca receives the coffee, it makes further selections: farms whose lots pass cupping tests in both the Ethiopian and Dutch offices at a score of 88 points or above qualify as good coffee under the Red Cherry Project and earn high bonuses. The project's promoters have also returned all profits earned over the past few years to the cooperative farms.

FrontStreet Coffee's Roasting Recommendations

Red Cherry Project

Use a fast-roasting approach: charge the drum at 200°C with the air damper open to 3.5. After 1 minute, reduce the heat to 160°C, keeping the damper unchanged. Make another heat adjustment at 148°C, reducing to 130°C. Roast until 5'03", when the temperature reaches 151°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell disappears completely, and dehydration is done. Then reduce the heat to 105°C and open the damper to 4.

At the 8-minute mark, wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface and the toast aroma clearly transforms into coffee aroma—the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully for it. At 9'07", first crack begins: reduce the heat to 70°C and open the damper fully (be very careful here—don't cut so much heat that the crack stalls), and drop the batch at 194°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the Red Cherry Project's story appeals to you, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project natural coffee is a direct way to taste it: made only from fully ripe cherries, sun-dried with the fruit intact, it shows peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon with the clean, captivating fruit aroma that careful natural processing guarantees. Round out the exploration with FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe—white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish at an everyday price—or, for a more upscale natural, the Huakui from Hambella in Guji, Sidamo, dried 21 days on raised beds, whose medium-light roast reveals light fermented wine aromas, florals, citrus, and mango over a full body and long finish.