Is Guji Coffee Delicious? Comparing Flavor Profiles and Taste Characteristics of Guji and Gesha Coffee Varieties

The full English name of FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen coffee beans available in our stores is: Ethiopia Guji Hambela Buku Abel, which literally translates to Hambela. Chinese green bean traders introduced it to China and named it Flower Queen (Hua Kui) with the intention of competing with Panama's Geisha from La Esmeralda estate. Light-roasted FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen beans exhibit elegant pink floral notes when pour-over brewed, with distinct juice-like flavors of peach, passion fruit, and mango upon entry. The pleasant acidity and sweetness make it a top choice for many lovers of floral and fruity coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen Coffee Originates from Ethiopia

Hambela is located at the junction of Ethiopia's West Sidamo and Guji zones, under the administration of the Guji zone, and is adjacent to Yirgacheffe's Kochere across mountains. The middle mountain range reaches an altitude of 3200 meters, making it Ethiopia's highest-altitude sub-region. Sidamo is located on the fertile highlands south of Lake Awasa in the East African Rift Valley, with abundant rainfall and suitable climate. With elevations ranging from 1500-2200 meters, it's a perfect place for coffee cultivation. The high altitude combined with moderate shade-growing allows coffee cherries to mature slowly in cool temperatures, accumulating more nutrients that transform into flavor compounds.

This FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen coffee was entered by DW company in the 2017 TOH (Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest competition), where it won the championship and thus began to be available on the market. In English, Flower Queen is called Hambella, which is the Hambella region name. Flower Queen coffee consists of natural process coffee beans from the Buku Abel processing station in Guji. The Buku Abel processing station purchases coffee cherries from different areas near the farms for processing and sale.

Characteristics of Natural Process

During the annual coffee harvest season (December-January), the Buku processing station organizes farmers to pick fully red coffee cherries with sugar content above 30 degrees, placing the selected coffee fruits on African raised beds for drying. Due to the large day-night temperature difference locally, farmers use shade covers at noon to avoid excessive heat and over-fermentation, and wrap the beds with plastic at night to prevent sudden rain showers. The fruits are continuously turned around the clock to ensure even drying while preventing sunburn or unpleasant fermentation flavors. After approximately 18 days of natural processing, the moisture content of the green coffee beans drops to 13%, allowing mechanical removal of the outer shell.

As Ethiopia's oldest traditional processing method, the vast majority of Sidamo regions still use this natural drying method for processing green beans. Classic Sidamo flavor is characterized by full-bodied richness from natural process, with complex sweetness, thick and smooth mouthfeel, and rich layers of interwoven spices, flowers, and fruit notes, accompanied by bright aftertaste.

Compared to washed processing, natural process involves longer fermentation time and higher degree of reaction between microorganisms and fruit pulp. When fruits begin to ferment, microorganisms produce more volatile compounds, especially esters. Although most sugars are destroyed during roasting, these compounds transform into other forms of aromatic compounds during caramelization reactions, providing more floral and tropical fruit fermentation notes for roasted coffee beans. This broadens the flavor profile of natural process coffee, making it taste sweeter.

What's the Difference Between Ethiopian Flower Queen and Geisha Coffee?

Geisha is a coffee variety from the Kaffa forest of Geisha Mountain in Ethiopia. In 1931, a British man collected coffee beans from the Geisha Mountain area in southwestern Ethiopia and exported them to Kenya in 1932. It was introduced to Uganda and Tanzania in 1936, to Costa Rica in 1953, and Panama's Finca Deborah's Francisco Serracin introduced the Geisha variety from Costa Rica's CATIE in the 1970s.

Compared to other varieties, the most significant characteristic of Geisha coffee is its extremely low yield. Its morphological features include long internodes on coffee branches, large distances between nodes, and fewer flowers and fruits on coffee trees. Geisha coffee beans are slender and elongated, pointed at both ends, with full, plump middles. The Geisha variety is quite "picky" about its growing environment, requiring cultivation at high altitudes, in areas with frequent clouds or significant tree shade, and in fertile soil to develop rich, captivating floral notes, refined, elegant fruit acidity, and tea-like aftertaste. If you're tasting Geisha coffee for the first time, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with Geisha from its famous origin region of Panama. Panama's coffee estates have more cultivation experience with the Geisha variety, and their unique Geisha flavors are more representative.

Meanwhile, the Flower Queen variety belongs to Ethiopian local heirloom varieties. You can typically see that the bean sizes and shapes are not uniform, as they may contain multiple varieties without individual separation. This is because Ethiopia, as a treasure trove of coffee bean genetics, has too many varieties. Additionally, local farmers have limited resources, making classification difficult. The local government also chooses not to disclose this variety information for protection reasons, so they are collectively referred to as "heirloom varieties."

As everyone knows, coffee is an agricultural product, and flavor is not only influenced by variety but also by terroir factors, post-processing, roasting, and brewing methods, all of which affect coffee taste to varying degrees. Furthermore, Flower Queen and Geisha are two different coffee varieties, so their flavors will certainly differ.

Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee discovered that high-altitude FrontStreet Coffee Geisha coffee beans, regardless of processing method, always exhibit captivating floral notes, bright citrus acidity, and oolong/Tieguanyin tea sensations; while FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen coffee beans, as a natural process Ethiopian heirloom variety, gain fermentation notes and sweetness from the natural processing method. While preserving the rich floral and fruity notes of heirloom varieties, it adds full sweetness, making FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen coffee taste like berries/tropical fruits with sweet and sour juice sensations, and the aftertaste carries oolong tea notes.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Next, FrontStreet Coffee uses two regular contenders from our stores (FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen 8.0 coffee beans and FrontStreet Coffee Panama Boquete Washed Geisha coffee beans) as brewing subjects, then tastes and compares their flavor and mouthfeel differences.

Everyone knows that both Ethiopian Flower Queen and Panama Geisha are world-famous for their rich floral notes and complex fruit profiles. FrontStreet Coffee hopes to preserve more of their quality fruit acidity, so we choose medium-light roasting (with slight adjustments for different batches). This roast level doesn't overly alter the bean quality from high altitudes, therefore brewing requires increased extraction rates to present fuller flavor layers. This involves using higher water temperatures and finer grind sizes, paired with a standard V60 dripper for extraction, thereby stimulating more aromatic compounds.

Dripper: V60

Water Temperature: 91-92°C

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Fine sugar consistency (80% passes through #20 sieve)

Three-stage extraction: First stage uses 30g water for bloom for 30 seconds, evenly circular pouring to form a dome. Second stage injects 95g hot water. When the coffee bed drops to halfway, begin the third stage with 100g water until all coffee drips through. Note to start pouring from the center point, using gentle small water flow throughout with circular movements to avoid uneven extraction. Finally, after coffee drips through, gently shake to mix, and you can begin tasting their flavors from high temperature.

FrontStreet Coffee · Panama Washed Boquete Geisha Coffee: At high temperature, the coffee exhibits distinct white floral notes. Upon entry, you can feel the clean acidity of citrus, lemon, and bergamot, with cream-like smooth mouthfeel when swallowing. The finish features the sweetness of Longjing green tea and honey with salivation. As the temperature slightly decreases, the fruit acidity becomes more complex with distinct layers.

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Sidamo Natural Flower Queen 8.0 Coffee: Even before tasting, FrontStreet Coffee can smell an intense fruity sweetness, reminiscent of roasted sweet potatoes in winter. Upon entry, there are multiple intertwined sweet and sour notes of dried mango, jackfruit, orange, and passion fruit, with clear juice-like sensations and rounded mouthfeel. As the temperature slightly decreases, the delicate sweetness of peach and bright acidity of berries begin to emerge. After swallowing, you can experience an aftertaste similar to drinking black tea, with extremely rich layers.

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