The Story of Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project: Natural Process Yirgacheffe Coffee Bean Flavor Characteristics

After the coffee beans from the Red Cherry Project are processed at their origin, they are packed immediately in GrainPro bags or vacuum-sealed boxes before being transported to Djibouti to await shipping. Through real-time monitoring, secure transportation, and timely, appropriate processing methods, the project strives to pursue perfect quality. Roasters can also buy high-quality coffee beans through the Red Cherry Project, which helps improve Ethiopia's coffee quality and achieve better prices. Trabocca can then return profits to farmers, enabling continuous improvement and sustained quality enhancement.

FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project

Product Details

Type: FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project

Dry Aroma: Clean and delicate aroma, floral notes, vanilla, peach, honey, cane sugar

Wet Aroma: Vanilla botanical notes, peach, nectarine, floral notes, citrus

Cupping Notes: Extremely clean and delicate, prominent floral aroma, honey, a fine and long smooth texture, vanilla, gentle cherry acidity, honey, premium hazelnut, pomelo flavor, delicate sweetness, and a finish in which honey and cherry fruit acidity blend and linger

Yirgacheffe Region Overview

Yirgacheffe itself is a small town with a population of about 20,000. The three neighboring small producing areas, Wenago, Kochere, and Gelena Abaya, are also classified under the Yirgacheffe region because their coffee flavors are virtually identical to those from Yirgacheffe. Both culturally and geographically, Yirgacheffe is similar to the nearby Sidamo region, but Yirgacheffe seems especially favored with advantageous conditions. Top-quality FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe coffee features floral notes, bright citrus fruit acidity, lemon tonality, and a silky smooth mouthfeel.

Natural Processing Method

Natural/Dried-in-the-Fruit:

After harvesting, the fruits begin the sun-drying process without any processing. This is the oldest existing processing method. Drying typically lasts about 4 weeks. The method must be extremely rigorous to ensure the coffee loses none of its flavor. Natural sun-drying also requires an extremely dry local climate.

About the Red Cherry Project: OPERATION CHERRY RED

Many friends are quite familiar with the name Red Cherry Project. Yet when it comes to what the Red Cherry Project actually entails, only a few people can explain it clearly.

Ethiopia, renowned as the birthplace of coffee, is home to vast areas of excellent traditional coffee varieties. We know that Ethiopia is not a developed country with a high per capita income; the agricultural and pastoral population accounts for 80% of its people. Besides coffee, they also grow rapeseed, beans, and wheat. An average annual coffee production of 200,000 tons makes up Ethiopia's main agricultural force.

To help Ethiopian coffee farmers earn a better income and improve local living standards, in 2007 the Dutch trader Trabocca launched the OPERATION CHERRY RED PROJECT with local farmers. The project was designed purely to motivate farmers to improve bean quality. At the beginning of the harvest season, Trabocca sets harvest plans for microclimate zones, manually harvesting 100% mature red cherries, with yields ranging from 1,500-3,000 kilograms.

In 2008, the Red Cherry Project invested $5,000 to buy new sun-drying racks. In 2009, another $8,000 went toward new sun-drying racks and shade nets. In 2010, a $9,000 generator was purchased, and in 2011 an additional $10,000 was invested to improve some local coffee transportation roads, making coffee transport more convenient and efficient. Trabocca also provides interest-free loans for purchasing new coffee cherry depulpers and bean sorters. To make supplier procurement easier, $14,000 was invested in 2012 to build a high-quality coffee cupping laboratory in Addis Ababa.

Trabocca provides financial loan support, new hardware equipment, and production processing knowledge and technical assistance to help farmers improve their production levels. It commits to purchasing at premium prices as long as the actual output quality meets cupping standards in both Ethiopia's Addis Ababa and the Netherlands' Amsterdam cupping labs. Trabocca's passing standard is set at 88 points.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry is the most direct way to taste the project's goal in the cup. Made from fully ripe red cherries dried on raised beds for three to five weeks, it shows citrus acidity, a berry-juice texture, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness while staying true to the classic Yirgacheffe identity.

To see the washed side of the same region, FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe daily drinker offers white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like body at an accessible price. For a more specific lot, FrontStreet Gotiti Cooperative comes from the Worka area at Yirgacheffe's southeastern edge; its traditional washed processing brings out clean citrus and lemon acidity with an elegant white floral note, bright and delicate from the first sip to the last.