Pour-Over Coffee: A Guide to the Guava Variety - Flavor Profile and Tasting Notes

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow the official WeChat account: FrontStreet Coffee

Introducing the "Queen of Flowers" Coffee

With the rise of acidic coffees in recent years, FrontStreet Coffee believes everyone has heard of the "Queen of Flowers" coffee. Just from its name, you can tell this is something special. Its bright citrus and berry notes, along with the pleasant sweet-sour balance reminiscent of fruit juice, leave a lasting impression. This article will help you get acquainted with this exceptional coffee.

The Rise to Fame

In 2017, Ethiopia's DW company submitted a natural processed batch from the "Buku Abel" processing station, which won the championship in Ethiopia's National Taste of Harvest competition (TOH) with its intense strawberry and cream aromas. That same year, at the China regional competition of the World Brewers Cup, Beijing CREMA Coffee Training's Li Jianfei used the "Queen of Flowers" coffee to defeat competing Geisha varieties, securing the national runner-up position in the brewing competition. From then on, "Queen of Flowers" coffee began appearing on café menus everywhere.

In an interview, brewing runner-up Li Jianfei revealed that he believed this Ethiopian coffee's outstanding performance could compete with Panama's Geisha varieties on equal footing. He hoped this Ethiopian coffee could become the ultimate "Geisha," thus naming it "Queen of Flowers." The "Queen among hundreds of flowers, enchanting and graceful" – this is the origin of our coffee's name. The English name for "Queen of Flowers" coffee is simply its growing region: Hambella.

Guji Region

As one of Ethiopia's main specialty coffee producing regions, Sidamo is located in the southern part of Ethiopia, spanning the highlands south of Lake Awasha in the East African Rift Valley. With altitudes ranging from 1500-2200m, the significant temperature difference between day and night extends the maturation period of coffee beans, allowing them to absorb more nutrients and resulting in coffee with rich layers of sweetness and acidity. The diverse terrain and varied soil types, combined with numerous microclimates, contribute to the exceptional flavor diversity of Sidamo coffee.

The Guji region was originally part of the Sidamo region. Due to its relatively remote location and underdeveloped infrastructure, Guji coffee's rise to fame came later. Initially, it wasn't as renowned as regions like Yirgacheffe or Harrar, but it was later established as an independent region due to the exceptional quality of its coffee beans. This area features fertile black soil with an average altitude of over 1800 meters, creating unique geographical characteristics that form ideal terroir conditions for coffee tree growth.

Hambella Region

Hambella is a sub-region within Guji, currently home to about 20 different-sized raw coffee processing stations. The "Queen of Flowers" coffee beans come from the Buku processing station in Guji. Hambella is actually a coffee farm belonging to the locally renowned METAD Agricultural Development PLC. It serves as both an independent coffee farm and the main processing station for nearby growing areas, processing coffee from surrounding plantations and selling it as independent batches. As an Ethiopian coffee export company, METAD was founded by Aman Adinew in 2013, with coffee produced in the Gedeo Zone, Gedeb District of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR), as well as the Guji Zone and Hambella Estate in the Oromia Region.

Aman comes from a coffee-growing family. His grandmother established coffee farms in Ethiopia's Harrar and Sidamo regions back in the last century. Aman himself previously served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). After leaving government service, he established his own company METAD to help modernize the local coffee industry, collaborating with thousands of small farmers in Yirgacheffe and Guji.

The entire Hambella farm covers 200 hectares, located approximately 75 kilometers from Yirgacheffe, in the heart of Ethiopia's best coffee-growing area. Its processing stations are already quite professional and well-equipped in terms of equipment, management, and scale. Additional factors such as fertile volcanic soil, natural organic farming practices, and relatively mature post-processing methods have all contributed to making this area one of the most popular sub-regions in recent years.

Natural Processing

During the annual coffee harvest season (December-January), the Buku processing station only harvests fully ripe cherries, selecting coffee cherries with sugar content above 30 and placing them on African raised beds for drying. Due to the significant day-night temperature difference, farmers provide shade during midday to avoid excessive fermentation from high temperatures, while at night, plastic sheeting is used to protect against sudden rain showers. The cherries are continuously turned around the clock, ensuring they don't pile up too thickly, which allows for uniform drying while preventing sunburn or unpleasant fermentation flavors. After approximately 18 days of natural processing, the moisture content of the raw coffee beans reaches 13%, at which point they can be bagged and stored.

Coffee Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee often hears customers in our café wondering, "What exactly are Heirloom varieties?" Ethiopia has an enormous number of coffee varieties,可以说是阿拉比卡的天然基因库, with numerous variety types that are difficult to classify definitively. Additionally, the local government protects these varieties by not disclosing detailed information about them, hence they are collectively referred to as "Heirloom" varieties. This is also why Ethiopian heirloom coffee beans appear uneven in size and shape.

Queen of Flowers Coffee Beans

After DW company gained fame with the "Queen of Flowers," they expanded to four processing stations: "Buku Abel," "Buku Saysay," "Haro Soresa," and "Tirtiro Goye." However, strictly speaking, only the natural processed coffee from the "Buku Abel" estate and processing station can be called "Queen of Flowers." The naming convention for Queen of Flowers follows chronological order from 2017 onwards. For example, the 2018 batch is called "Queen of Flowers 2.0," the 2019 batch is "Queen of Flowers 3.0," and the 2021 batch is called "Queen of Flowers 5.0." FrontStreet Coffee has also added it to our menu for everyone to taste, so let's take a closer look at this exceptional coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee: Ethiopia Queen of Flowers 5.0
Region: Sidamo, Guji
Altitude: 2250-2350m
Variety: Local heirloom varieties
Processing method: Natural processing

Brewing Suggestions

To fully appreciate the rich aroma of Queen of Flowers, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing, which better preserves the coffee's aromatic compounds. The coffee beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee are all freshly roasted within 5 days, and considering the shipping time, customers receive the coffee during its optimal flavor window, ready for immediate brewing enjoyment. (The degassing period for coffee beans is 4-7 days, with the optimal flavor period generally being 4-30 days. After receiving fresh beans, you can also observe the flavor changes according to the roast date.)

FrontStreet Coffee uses medium-light roasting to highlight the floral notes and tropical fruit characteristics of this coffee. Due to the lower water absorption of high-altitude hard beans after grinding, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a medium-fine grind size and higher water temperature with a V60 dripper to emphasize the layered fruit and floral notes.

Dripper: V60
Water temperature: 92°C
Grind size: 80% passing through a #20 standard sieve
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Coffee dose: 15g

The ground Queen of Flowers coffee has a honey-like sweetness. Pour the coffee grounds into a V60 dripper and wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as coffee. Let it bloom for 30 seconds, then use a small water stream to pour in concentric circles from inside to out until reaching 125g, creating a segmented pour. Wait until the water level drops to halfway in the dripper, then continue with the same fine stream for the third pour until reaching 225g. Remove the dripper once all the coffee liquid has filtered through, with a total brewing time of approximately 2 minutes (±10 seconds).

The initial taste reveals intense sweetness from tropical fruits like passion fruit and mango, with berry and citrus acidity. The mouthfeel is creamy and smooth, while a black tea-like aftertaste lingers throughout the palate.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473