Famous Ethiopian Coffee Regions: Guji Coffee Beans' Irregular Shape Delivers Exceptional Flavor

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FrontStreet Coffee - Sidamo Guji Region Introduction

We all know that Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee, and Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe is its calling card, but today we're going to talk about a region: Sidamo! Geographically, Sidamo is Ethiopia's southernmost coffee growing region, with elevations ranging from 4,600 to 7,200 feet, bordering Kenya.

In Sidamo's sun-drying fields, coffee is placed in hemp nets on wooden racks. Workers take turns manually stirring the coffee under the sun's exposure. Natural processed Sidamo is typically exported as G4, while washed Sidamo, due to its more refined processing compared to natural processing, is mostly exported as G2 grade.

Sidamo grows in the highlands of southern Ethiopia at elevations between 4,600-7,200 feet. It is a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia, bordering Kenya, located southeast of Jimma and directly south of the capital. It typically has distinct sweetness and is more popular with many people.

Sidamo coffee offers extremely diverse flavor profiles. With different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties, this region features towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains - diverse topography. The geology consists of nutrient-rich, well-drained volcanic soil, providing such excellent growing conditions that the coffee quality is self-evident.

The Guji region has gained significant attention in recent years, achieving remarkable results in both flavor expression and quality. The Guji region was formerly part of the Sidamo region but was established as an independent new region by the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in 2010. Located southeast of Yirgacheffe, the Guji region borders Sidamo and the Gedeo zone, featuring complex topographical changes with towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains.

The region's geology consists of nutrient-rich black soil (Vertisol) with depths reaching nearly two meters and an average elevation of over 1,800 meters. The geographical characteristics create significant day-night temperature differences, providing the local area with all the terroir conditions necessary to produce high-quality specialty coffee.

The region's greatest advantage lies in maintaining soil fertility through organic matter recycling, using fallen leaves from surrounding trees or plant residues as fertilizer. This results in coffee produced by different towns having distinct differences and characteristics. From 2010-2012, it continuously achieved high scores of 92-94 on the authoritative American coffee evaluation website Coffee Review, demonstrating the exceptional quality of green beans from this region.

Sidamo green coffee beans are slightly grayish, with some being large and others small. They possess both gentle and bright acidity, appropriate body thickness, sweet and spicy aromas, making them one of the garden coffees from Ethiopia's southern highlands. Unlike typical African coffees, Sidamo has clear fruit acidity, a smooth mouthfeel, and delicate floral and herbal aromas.

Knowledge Point: Flower Queen (Hambella), located southeast of Yirgacheffe in the Sidamo region, is administratively part of Oromia Region → Guji Zone → Shakisso Woreda → Hambella.

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