Introduction to Queen Coffee Beans: A Brief Guide to Sidamo Queen Coffee Characteristics

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FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Sidamo Flower Queen

Sidamo grows in the southernmost Ethiopian highlands at altitudes between 4,600-7,200 feet (Sidamo Province). It is a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia, bordering Kenya, located southeast of Jimma and directly south of the capital. Typically, it has distinct sweetness and is preferred by many people. Its annual production is approximately 225,000 bags of 60kg each. The beans are slightly smaller than Longberry, greenish with gray tones. In Sidamo's sun-drying fields, coffee is placed in hemp net wooden frames, where workers manually stir the coffee under sunlight exposure. Sun-dried Sidamo is usually exported as G4 grade, while washed Sidamo is mostly exported as G2 grade due to its more refined processing compared to sun-drying.

Sidamo coffee flavors are extremely diverse. Different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties create distinctive characteristics. The region features towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains with diverse topography. The local geology consists of fertile, well-drained volcanic soil with depths of nearly two meters, with surface soil appearing dark brown or brown. The region's greatest advantage lies in maintaining soil fertility through organic matter circulation, using fallen leaves from surrounding trees or plant residues as fertilizer. This creates obvious differences and characteristics in coffee produced by various towns. From 2010 to 2012, it consecutively achieved high scores of 92-94 from the authoritative American coffee evaluation website CR. This demonstrates the extraordinary quality of green beans from this region.

Sidamo coffee green beans are slightly grayish, with some areas coarse and others fine. They possess both gentle and bright acidity, appropriate body intensity, sweet and spicy flavors, making them one of the garden coffees from the southern Ethiopian highlands. Unlike typical African coffees, Sidamo has clear fruit acidity, smooth mouthfeel, and delicate floral and herbal aromas.

Why is it called "Flower Queen"?

Hambella (commonly translated as "Hanbella") is located in Ethiopia's largest coffee region, Guji, and administratively belongs to the Oromia region. Hambella's west faces Yirgacheffe's Kochore across mountains, with the two regions separated by a highland area of 3,200 meters altitude and about 30 kilometers width. To the southeast, east, and north, it borders Guji's Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions respectively, making it Ethiopia's highest-altitude coffee sub-region (Harrar is Ethiopia's highest-altitude main coffee region). Currently, there are about 20 processing plants of various scales in the Hambella region. DW company's Hambella core region Dimtu has four estate processing plants: "Buku Abel," "Buku Saysay," "Haro Soresa," and "Tirtiro Goye," with an annual coffee production of about 1,100 tons. Among all these estates and processing stations, only the sun-dried coffee from the "Buku Abel" estate and processing plant is called "Flower Queen."

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