How to Brew Yirgacheffe to Reveal its Floral Tea Notes: A Guide to Brewing Washed Yirgacheffe

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FrontStreet Coffee - Washed Yirgacheffe Brewing Guide

Yirgacheffe is synonymous with fruity and floral coffees, with a clean, bright taste and lively fruit acidity that's unforgettable. Yirgacheffe is an excellent growing region with numerous legendary stories and has been one of the most popular single-origin coffees in the specialty coffee market for the past decade. When discussing specialty coffee, Yirgacheffe is inevitably mentioned.

Yirgacheffe is Ethiopia's highest altitude coffee growing region and also a local transportation hub and coffee distribution center. It boasts very advanced and developed coffee processing equipment and human resources, resulting in extremely high coffee quality.

Fully Washed Method

This method uses washing and fermentation to remove the pulp, mucilage, and parchment. Farms using the washed method must build washing pools and have access to a continuous supply of fresh water. During processing, the fermented beans are placed in the pool and moved back and forth, using the friction between the beans and the power of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until they are smooth and clean.

After washing, the coffee beans are still encased in parchment with a moisture content of 50%. They must be dried to reduce the moisture content to 12%, otherwise they will continue to ferment, becoming moldy and spoiled.

The better processing method is sun-drying, which takes 1 to 3 weeks, but yields excellent flavor that is quite popular.

Washed Yirgacheffe

The washed processing brings out brighter acidity, much like citric acid, with a cleaner taste and more pronounced citrus aromas. The finish has some black tea characteristics.

Strberry Dripper

The inner rib design of this dripper features a dot-distributed structure that closely resembles the small seeds on a strawberry. Additionally, the bottom aperture is relatively small, indicating that its flow rate should be relatively slower, thus serving to enhance extraction efficiency.

After adding filter paper, the fit between the dripper and filter paper is not very high due to many raised dots. Water can penetrate the filter paper and flow through the gaps between the raised dots, which helps prevent over-extraction. Furthermore, these raised dots can trap fine powder. As a result, when fine powder is attached to the cup wall, most of the particles soaked at the bottom are relatively coarse, thereby increasing extraction efficiency while greatly reducing the chance of over-extraction.

Parameters & Technique

Coffee dose: 15g; medium-fine grind (BG 5R: 58% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve); water temperature 90°C; coffee-to-water ratio 1:15; bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then pour small water stream in the center to 121g. Continue pouring to 226g when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Remove the dripper when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed again. (Timer starts from the beginning of blooming) Total extraction time: 1'58".

Flavor Profile

Aroma reveals floral and tea notes. The initial taste shows lemon and citrus acidity with a chocolate aftertaste. The mouthfeel is relatively rich and full-bodied.

Important Notice :

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