Washed Yirgacheffe Coffee Bean Flavor Profile & Pour-Over Brewing Parameters

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FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Woka Washed Introduction

Coffee first came from Ethiopia in Africa. On that ancient continent, nature nurtured the remarkable fruit that still shapes the world today. Long before most of the world knew what coffee was, the Agaw people of Ethiopia were already cultivating it and finding ways to drink it. Ethiopia remains the source of many premium coffees, Yirgacheffe among them.

Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe beans are said to be small in size yet gentle and approachable in flavor, with a pleasant sweetness and acidity. The phrase "coffee enters the mouth, flowers bloom" describes Yirgacheffe perfectly, which is why it has become practically synonymous with Ethiopia. But how many drinkers know the difference between a washed and a natural Yirgacheffe?

Different Raw Bean Processing Methods

Washed Processing Method

Washing and fermentation are used to remove the fruit pulp, skin and mucilage. First the beans are washed until clean. After washing, the beans still hold about 50 percent moisture and must be dried down to roughly 12 percent. Otherwise, exposed to air, they would keep fermenting and turn moldy and spoiled. Sun-drying is the most timely method, and it yields a Yirgacheffe of exceptional flavor and rich aroma.

The washed method produces good body, a high concentration of floral notes and a lively, gentle acidity. Yirgacheffe's distinctive style, with citrus and floral notes woven into the cup, is an irresistible taste for coffee lovers.

Woka sits within the Yirgacheffe growing region at an altitude of 1,800 to 2,000 meters. It operates under a garden coffee system and belongs to the Sidamo region, but its unique flavor led it to be separated out as a distinct area. Besides the town of Yirgacheffe, the region also includes three surrounding sub-areas: Wenago, Kochere and Gelena Abaya. Yirgacheffe contains numerous villages, micro-regions, cooperatives and processing stations. In most parts of Ethiopia, coffee farmers still live difficult lives and lack the capacity to build family-run processing workshops, so many processing stations have emerged to buy cherries from surrounding smallholders in one place, process them and sell on to green bean merchants.

Pour-Over Parameters:

90 degrees Celsius, grind level BG 5R (Chinese standard 64 percent pass-through rate on a #20 sieve), 16 g of coffee grounds, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15.

Technique:

25 g of water for the bloom, 30 seconds; the first segment with a small water flow until 127 g; the second segment with a slightly larger flow until 227 g.

Flavor:

A more pronounced and delicate acidity, showing yellow lemon acidity, a light cane sugar sweetness, vibrant sweet-and-sour notes, cream and lemon black tea flavors, with green tea and floral in the aftertaste; smooth in the mouth, full in flavor and with a fairly persistent finish.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Woka is one of the areas where washed Yirgacheffe shows itself most clearly, and FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe is the everyday cup that belongs to it: white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity and a clean tea-like body, at a price that makes it the natural first step into specialty coffee.

For a more refined version of the same region, FrontStreet Coffee's Gotiti Cooperative coffee comes from the Worka production area at the southeastern end of Yirgacheffe, once part of the Woka Cooperative. Because the fruit is stripped before drying, the coffee's own aroma comes through more clearly, giving citrus and lemon notes with an elegant white floral character, bright and delicate overall. It is well suited to pour-over, cold brew and espresso.

If you prefer the fruitier side, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry is a whole-red-fruit natural, dried on raised beds for three to five weeks with the fruit still attached, so it keeps the typical Yirgacheffe profile while adding tropical fruit, berry juice, honey sweetness and a creamy smoothness.