What is Coffee Bean Red Cherry Project: Introduction to Natural Red Cherry Brewing Methods, Flavor, and Taste Characteristics

Fully mature coffee cherries are the first requirement of specialty coffee. How can there be talk of specialty coffee if the cherries themselves are not up to standard? The Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry that FrontStreet Coffee obtained meets that requirement, because it comes from a specialty coffee variety program called the "Red Cherry Project." Its purpose is to require farmers to harvest only fully ripe cherries, safeguarding quality from the very beginning. The project was proposed by the largest green bean merchant in the Netherlands. It is a meaningful plan with a story behind it, so let's explore what it means together with FrontStreet Coffee.

Operation Cherry Red (ORC)

Operation Cherry Red (ORC) is a project to improve the quality of small-scale farms, with the main aim of encouraging farmers and bringing pleasant surprises to roasters. Trabocca, the largest coffee green bean merchant in the Netherlands, invites Ethiopian farms to produce small lots of about 1500-3000 kilograms (25 to 50 bags) before the harvest season. The pickers — women, who are allowed to select only 100% fully ripe red cherries — make a significant difference to the flavor of the brewed coffee. Meticulous, sharp-eyed, hardworking Ethiopian women are therefore crucial to the Red Cherry Project.

The Red Cherry Action is also a way to push farms to spend more effort on selecting and picking beans, and these coffees command a relatively higher price. It covers washed, natural, semi-washed, semi-natural, and experimental coffees. The main producing areas are Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Bonga Forest, Lekempti, Kembata, Illubabor, Harar, and Limu, with the Golocha area near Harar added in 2011. All of them have unique flavors that fully showcase the taste of Ethiopian beans. After receiving the coffee, Trabocca makes further selections. Farms that pass the cupping quality tests at both the Ethiopian and Dutch offices and meet the standard receive high bonuses. The qualifying cupping score must be above 88 points to become coffee in the Red Cherry Project. Trabocca invests all the profits of recent years back into the cooperative farms. It stresses that this is a non-profit project, so the company uses only 4 people, including the boss and a secretary, to run it; other administrative matters are handled by the parent company to reduce overhead, and all profits are returned to the cooperative farms.

FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry - Brewing Notes

FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry

• Origin: Yirgacheffe
• Altitude: 2000-2200m
• Processing Method: Natural Process
• Variety: Local Landrace
• Grade: G1

FrontStreet Coffee Natural Red Cherry - Strawberry Dripper

The ribs on the inside of this dripper are arranged as a pattern of dots, closely resembling the small seeds on a strawberry, and the bottom hole is relatively small. That tells you the flow rate should be on the slower side, which helps raise the extraction rate.

Once the filter paper is added, the many protruding points between the dripper and the paper mean the two do not fit tightly. Water can pass through the filter paper and escape through the gaps between those points, which guards against over-extraction. The points also catch fine particles. With the fines clinging to the wall, the particles soaking at the bottom are relatively coarser, so the extraction rate rises while the risk of over-extraction drops sharply.

FrontStreet Coffee Parameters & Technique: 15g of coffee; medium-fine grind (BG 6T: 58% pass rate through China standard 20-mesh sieve); water temperature 90°C; coffee-to-water ratio 1:15; bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then a small, center-focused pour to 120g, continuing to 226g as the water level drops and the coffee bed is about to be exposed, removing the dripper at that point. (Timing starts from the bloom.) Extraction time is 1'50".

Flavor: Floral notes on the nose, with citrus and sweet orange acidity on entry. As it cools it reveals honey and preserved fruit sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee Natural Red Cherry - Origami Dripper

The Origami dripper has many relatively deep longitudinal grooves on its sides and a fairly large outlet hole at the bottom, so its flow rate tends to be faster. The ceramic Origami also conducts and retains heat relatively well.

For this brew FrontStreet Coffee chose conical filter paper. Because conical paper narrows toward the bottom, the coffee bed is thicker in the middle and thinner at the sides. The fit between conical paper and dripper is also poor, so the grounds degas fairly freely during brewing; if the water level is high, water will readily escape through the gap between paper and dripper.

FrontStreet Coffee Parameters & Technique: 15g of coffee; medium-fine grind (BG 6T: 58% pass rate through China standard 20-mesh sieve); water temperature 90°C; coffee-to-water ratio 1:15; bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then a small, center-focused pour to 120g, continuing to 226g as the water level drops and the coffee bed is about to be exposed, removing the dripper at that point. (Timing starts from the bloom.) Extraction time is 1'55".

Flavor: Citrus and lemon acidity on entry, with sandalwood aroma and honey sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry — Like the lot above, this is a Yirgacheffe bean given a whole-red-cherry natural process: only fully ripe, sound cherries are harvested, given a first sorting at the station, then laid out on raised beds to dry, turned every 2-3 hours early on to prevent uneven heat and over-fermentation. After three to five weeks, the outer fruit is machine-scraped off and the beans are moved to storage. Dried with the fruit still on, it keeps the classic Yirgacheffe character while gaining tropical fruit, showing citrus acidity, a berry-juice body, honey sweetness, and creamy smoothness.

FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe Everyday Coffee — The classic first stop for anyone exploring Ethiopia. Known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like quality, and helped by its friendly price, it has become the bean most people try first when they enter specialty coffee. Yirgacheffe is a small town in Ethiopia's Sidamo region at roughly 1700-2100 meters, with trees planted above 1800 meters, making it one of the highest coffee regions in the world.

FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gudingding Cooperative — Because local farmers produce small quantities, they send cherries to a cooperative for shared processing; Gudingding, a team from Gudingding Village in the Woka area, is one of the finest. It follows the most traditional washed processing, often called Yirgacheffe's last pure corner, and its coffee carries no traditional bitterness but fresh, bright citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine fragrance.