Introduction to Coffee Bean Red Cherry Project: Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Pour-Over Coffee Sharing

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FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee Brewing Guide

What Is the "Red Cherry Project"?

If you work as a barista or simply love coffee, you've probably come across Ethiopia's "FrontStreet Coffee Natural Red Cherry." If you haven't, you might assume it's a variety of coffee bean — but it actually refers to beans produced under the "Red Cherry Project."

The "Red Cherry Project" (ORC) is a program designed to raise the quality of coffee from smallholder farms. Its core aim is to encourage Ethiopian coffee farmers to grow top-quality beans and, in turn, bring pleasant surprises to roasters. Concretely, the project pays a premium for high-grade green coffee, motivating farmers to be more careful and meticulous at every step of harvesting and processing. The result is better beans with superior flavor profiles that earn stronger recognition on the end market — recognition that justifies, and ultimately pays for, the higher purchase prices.

In 2007, Trabocca, the largest green coffee trader in the Netherlands, launched the Red Cherry Project in pursuit of Ethiopia's finest coffees. The project's requirements went beyond merely picking fully ripe red cherries: harvesting had to be done entirely by hand — and that was only the baseline requirement.

At its heart, the Red Cherry Project is a way of improving farm economics. Its deeper purpose is to encourage growers to put real thought and care into bean selection and sorting. Beans handled this way can command higher prices, which means better returns for the farmers who grow them.

The Red Cherry Project spans washed, natural, semi-washed, semi-natural, and experimental coffees. Major participating growing regions include Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Bench Maji (Bonga Forest), Lekempti, Kembata, Illubabor, Harar, Limu, and Golocha (which joined in 2011 and lies near Harar). Beans from these regions each carry their own distinct flavor signatures, together showcasing the remarkable diversity of Ethiopian coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Natural Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Brewing Recommendation:

Use 15g of coffee grounds with water at 89°C, grind setting 4 on a Fuji grinder, V60 dripper, and a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio. First pour 30g of water and let it bloom for 30 seconds. For the second pour, add 104g of water then pause, then continue pouring until reaching 225g total. Avoid the final tail section of the extraction. Total extraction time should be around 2 minutes and 2 seconds.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Red Cherry comes from the Yirgacheffe region and is made exclusively from fully ripe, defect-free cherries. After a first round of sorting at the processing station, the whole fruit is dried on raised beds, with workers turning the cherries every 2–3 hours during the first few days to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation. After three to five weeks of sun-drying, the outer pulp is stripped off by machine, weather permitting, and the beans are moved into storage.

Because the cherries dry with their pulp intact, this coffee has the classic Yirgacheffe character while also carrying the tropical fruit aromas that natural processing brings: citrus-like acidity, a juicy berry quality, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness. If you want to taste how far a natural Yirgacheffe can go, the Red Cherry lot is the one to try.