What is the Representative African Coffee Bean? The Sun-Dried Yirgacheffe Process Creates a Rich and Full-Bodied Flavor

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Yirgacheffe

Yirgacheffe represents the finest specialty coffee from East Africa, with distinctive and unusual citrus-fruit aromas and floral notes that make it one of the world's most unique coffees. Relatively rare and expensive, it is produced on the high plateau region of 4,000 feet in Ethiopia's Sidamo province, within a fairly high and narrow area. Yirgacheffe reaches a quality that general Mocha varieties cannot match.

Coffee trees originated in Ethiopia, where they first grew wild. The name "coffee" comes from the Ethiopian town of Kaffa. The beans growing on these trees are full and plump, with a slight wine-like aroma.

Humans may have known how to cultivate coffee trees as early as the 9th century. Ethiopia has a legend that coffee was first used by monks to stay awake during evening prayers. Today Ethiopia is an important coffee-producing country, with around 12 million people involved in coffee.

Coffee beans must be processed right after harvest, or they begin to ferment and develop off-flavors. There are two processing methods, natural and washed, and each produces a different flavor profile.

Natural Processing

After harvesting, the fruit begins sun-drying with no treatment at all. This is the oldest processing method still in existence, and drying usually lasts about 4 weeks. The method must be very rigorous to make sure the coffee keeps all of its flavor.

Flavor Profile

Citrus, a light wine aroma, honey sweetness, spices, and a rich, full-bodied texture.

Knowledge Point

Most coffee grows in the equatorial belt between 25 degrees north and south of the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The growing belt and country of origin have a tremendous impact on flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mission

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall happy to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation, only hoping more friends fall in love with coffee. We also hold low-discount coffee activities three times every month, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more friends to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest price. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To experience the sun-dried Yirgacheffe style directly, FrontStreet's Natural Red Cherry is a natural fit. It selects only fully ripe, defect-free cherries, spreads them on raised beds and turns them every 2-3 hours over the first days so they dry evenly, then after three to five weeks removes the dried fruit before storage. Because the fruit dries with the bean, the cup keeps the classic Yirgacheffe character while gaining tropical fruit: citrus acidity, a berry-juice body, honey sweetness and a creamy smoothness.

For a cleaner, brighter expression of the same region, FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe staple is the classic introduction, known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity and a tea-like body, and sold at a price that makes it an easy first specialty bean. FrontStreet's Gudingding Cooperative, from the Worka area in southeastern Yirgacheffe and processed with the traditional washed method, adds jasmine fragrance and bright citrus and lemon acidity with no trace of bitterness.