Red Cherry Project Bensa Coffee Introduction - Red Cherry Pour-over Coffee Flavor and Taste Profile

FrontStreet Coffee - Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project Cambota Coffee Introduction

Bansa Cooperative - Red Cherry Project Microbatch:

Organic Natural Bensa is another representative of the high-quality coffee that comes out of the Red Cherry Project. It hails from Bansa, a town in the Sidama Zone, an administrative region adjacent to the Gedeo Zone that produces Yirgacheffe. The entire Sidama area comprises ten towns (woredas), such as Dale, Yirgalem, and Aleta Wondo. Beyond being part of the Red Cherry Project, since Trabocca's parent company, Trading Organic, is one of Europe's most prominent organic ingredient manufacturers, the project has also helped farmers in Bansa obtain organic certification.

Within this project, careful women select fully ripe coffee cherries, so 100% are harvested when the cherries are completely mature. This makes a significant difference to the flavor of the brewed coffee, which is why diligent Ethiopian women with keen eyesight and the willingness to work hard are crucial drivers of the Red Cherry Project. The Red Cherry initiative spans washed, natural, semi-washed, semi-natural, and experimental coffees.

Trabocca, the promoter of the Red Cherry Project, has invested all the profits earned in recent years back into the cooperative farms. Trabocca emphasizes that this is a non-profit project, so the company uses only four people, including the boss and secretary, to execute it. Other administrative matters are supported by the parent company to reduce administrative expenses, and all profits are returned to the cooperative farms.

Since 2005 the project has been selecting small-scale coffee cooperatives at high altitudes in what are now the Sidama, Yirgacheffe, and Limu regions. It encourages and assists producers to improve washing, semi-washing, natural, and other experimental processing methods in order to raise quality. Through testing, with professional cuppers also stationed in the producing regions to grasp each coffee's flavor directly, it ensures the quality of every batch produced.

This coffee is a sample bean that FrontStreet Coffee recently acquired. Let's brew it and see what flavors it reveals.

Bansa Cooperative

Grade | Red Cherry Project Batch

Altitude | 1800-1900m

Pour-over parameters: 15g of coffee, V60 dripper, water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, grind size BG 5S (China standard 20-mesh screen pass rate 58%).

Technique: Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then pour quickly with a small stream to 125g in stages. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 227g and stop. When the coffee bed is about to be exposed again, remove the dripper. Total extraction time from the start of blooming is about two minutes.

Flavor profile: Pineapple, jackfruit, mango, and other tropical fruit flavors, ripe cherry, honey sweetness, and the fermented rum aroma of the coffee fruit.

Knowledge extension: Operation Cherry Red (ORC) is a quality-improvement project for small-scale farms. It is a European Union initiative proposed by the Dutch government and led by the Dutch trading company Trabocca BV.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The Red Cherry Project's insistence on 100% fully ripe cherries is precisely why FrontStreet Coffee's own natural-process Yirgacheffe lots taste so vivid. The FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry is built on the same principle, using only fully ripe, sound cherries dried whole on raised beds, and it expresses the classic Yirgacheffe profile with citrus-like acidity, berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness. If you prefer the cleaner, more floral side of the region, the FrontStreet Gutingting Cooperative lot, separated before drying to sharpen its aromatics, shows citrus, lemon, and elegant white florals, while the FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe brings jasmine and bright citrus in a light, tea-like cup. Together they let you taste the full range that careful cherry selection makes possible.