Yirgacheffe Coffee Region Characteristics and Flavor Profile Brewing Guide

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When it comes to black coffee, many people's first impression is bitterness. When they first taste pour-over coffee and discover it can be acidic, they're often surprised: coffee can actually be sour! Of course, many coffee novices with the impression that "coffee is bitter" are dragged to cafés by friends, where they face menus filled with various coffee bean names. They might randomly choose Yirgacheffe and thus fall into the coffee rabbit hole.

Many coffee newcomers, when visiting FrontStreet Coffee stores, feel overwhelmed when faced with the blackboard listing nearly fifty different coffee beans, not knowing where to start to find coffee that suits their taste. But then they remember that the coffee bean that initially pulled them into this deep hole seemed to be called "Yirgacheffe," yet they can't find these four characters on FrontStreet Coffee's bean list.

What is Yirgacheffe?

So what exactly is Yirgacheffe? Next, let FrontStreet Coffee introduce what Yirgacheffe really is.

Specialty coffee has become particularly popular in China in recent years. You can walk into almost any independent café and find Yirgacheffe on the menu. Yirgacheffe is Ethiopia's most famous and important coffee-producing region, and it's extremely popular in the specialty coffee community. Even the global commercial coffee chain Starbucks once coveted the Yirgacheffe name—in 2004, Starbucks attempted to register "Yirgacheffe" as a trademark. The Ethiopian government filed an international lawsuit over this, and it wasn't until 2007 that "Yirgacheffe" was successfully reclaimed.

Yirgacheffe is renowned, and behind these four characters lies a region's unique flavor profile. Yirgacheffe was once a sub-region under the Sidamo region, but because Yirgacheffe coffee carries a delicate, unique white floral aroma, many coffee growers within the Sidamo region began claiming they grew Yirgacheffe coffee. Later, Yirgacheffe became independent from Sidamo and established itself as its own coffee-producing region, ending this confusion.

The Unique Flavor of Yirgacheffe

If you ask how unique Yirgacheffe coffee's flavor is, those who have tasted it deeply understand. Many people visit FrontStreet Coffee's bean display and ask the barista: "I want some coffee beans with floral aroma, but not the taste of special processing methods." At this point, FrontStreet Coffee's barista will either recommend Panama Geisha coffee or introduce Ethiopian Yirgacheffe region coffee beans. The reason Yirgacheffe coffee beans have charming white floral aroma is closely related to the local processing method for green coffee beans.

To solve the problem of green coffee bean quality, Ethiopian authorities introduced the washed processing method from Central and South America in the 1970s. After complete and ripe coffee cherries are harvested and selected, their skin and pulp are removed. The parchment beans with slippery mucilage are placed in water pools with clean water for slight fermentation, then manually stirred to create friction between the parchment beans, cleaning off the mucilage. After the parchment beans are cleaned, they are evenly spread on raised beds, away from soil contamination, and finally dried to 13% moisture content.

Without the sugar substances from the pulp and mucilage layer participating in the fermentation and drying process, washed Yirgacheffe coffee can clearly identify white floral aromas. Yirgacheffe coffee beans are characterized by delicate mouthfeel, just as Han Huaizong mentioned in his book "Specialty Coffee Studies" as "a hundred flowers blooming."

Washed processed coffee beans have clean and bright flavor profiles without excessive embellishment, best highlighting the most basic flavor tones of the region. As a signature specialty coffee-producing region, Yirgacheffe represents Ethiopia in FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series. FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series features seven products, each representing the basic profile of a signature region, allowing coffee novices to quickly familiarize themselves with important terroirs at favorable prices.

Washed vs Natural Processing

Washed Yirgacheffe—clean, bright, delicate—is the go-to coffee bean for many coffee connoisseurs when they're undecided. However, natural processed Yirgacheffe coffee beans are equally distinctive. On FrontStreet Coffee's bean list, Red Cherry and Konga both use natural processing methods.

Natural processing is the most original and traditional coffee processing method. Carefully selected coffee red cherries are completely spread on raised beds to dry in the sun, with the coffee fruits turned periodically to avoid excessive unpleasant fermentation flavors.

Because the entire coffee fruit is used, more sugar substances from the pulp and mucilage participate in the green coffee bean processing, giving the coffee a heavier body, stronger aroma, and more pronounced sweetness.

With so many coffee beans from the Yirgacheffe region on FrontStreet Coffee's menu, which one tastes best? FrontStreet Coffee's bean display regularly features washed Yirgacheffe Gotiti and natural Yirgacheffe Red Cherry as representatives. Frontsteet's Gotiti is fresh and natural, with green tea-like tea notes; Frontsteet's Red Cherry, being natural processed, carries berry-like sweet and sour notes with a hint of fermentation and strong sweetness.

Brewing Parameters

For many coffee enthusiasts, buying coffee beans is easy, but brewing them to achieve their proper flavor is a challenge. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the brewing parameters used by FrontStreet Coffee's baristas when preparing Yirgacheffe coffee.

Dripper: Hario V60
Water temperature: 90°C
Coffee dose: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: 80% pass-through through China standard #20 sieve

Since FrontStreet Coffee ships freshly roasted coffee beans within 5 days, they have already undergone a 4-7 day degassing period upon arrival, with optimal flavor. FrontStreet Coffee recommends performing the blooming step during brewing to promote the release of carbon dioxide from the coffee grounds. This step allows for more complete extraction of aromatic substances from the coffee.

First pour 30g of hot water for a 30-second bloom, then inject with a fine water stream from the center and slowly spiral to 125g. When the water level drops to just above the coffee bed, continue spiraling to 225g. Total extraction time is approximately 2 minutes.

Some people, after falling in love with Yirgacheffe, want to replicate the same aroma at home or in the office, so they purchase drip coffee bags but find the brewed flavor relatively weak and the aroma significantly inferior. They then ask Frontsteet how to brew them properly. Below, using Frontsteet's Red Cherry drip bags and Frontsteet's Gotiti drip bags as examples, let's demonstrate how to brew them into full-bodied Yirgacheffe black coffee.

One bag of Frontsteet drip coffee typically contains about 10g of coffee grounds. After multiple measurements, we found that if you fill a drip bag halfway with hot water, it's about 30-40g, while filling it to nine-tenths full is 60-80g. This way, we can roughly estimate the total water volume based on the number of pours.

If following the pour-over coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15-1:18, you would need to inject 150-180ml of hot water. If you prefer stronger coffee, you can pour in three stages: first pour half to wet the coffee bed, pause for 20 seconds, then pour twice to nine-tenths full. This takes about 1.5 minutes, with total water volume basically falling between 140-160g.

Since both Yirgacheffe varieties use medium-light roasting, and the drip bags responsible for filtering coffee grounds are made of non-woven fabric, the brewed black coffee has almost no oils but expresses a clear, sweet, and sour flavor profile.

Frontsteet's Gotiti drip bag offers citrusy acidity with green tea-like notes and subtle white floral aroma, with a delicate and clean mouthfeel. Frontsteet's natural Red Cherry drip bag is smooth and delicate, with the sweet and sour notes of ripe fruit fully expressed, carrying a hint of fermentation and a honey-like sweet aftertaste.

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