The Best Ethiopian Coffee Brands: How Much Difference Between Washed and Natural Yirgacheffe

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FrontStreet Coffee - Yirgacheffe Coffee Introduction

Ethiopia holds an extremely important position in the world coffee map. This is the birthplace of Arabica coffee beans and one of the recognized highest-quality producing regions, with centuries of coffee cultivation history. Even the name "coffee" originates from the Ethiopian town "Kaffa." For a long time, Ethiopia has only grown local coffee (no exchange of varieties between regions), thus the regional characteristics of various coffees have been preserved - Harrar coffee in the east has red wine and spice flavors, while Yirgacheffe coffee in the south has jasmine and bergamot aromas.

Yirgacheffe is a town in the Gedeo region of Ethiopia, the capital of the Yirgacheffe district, with an altitude of 1700-2100 meters, making it one of the highest altitude coffee producing regions in the world.

Initially, Yirgacheffe's coffee trees were cultivated by monks (somewhat like Belgian monks growing wheat to brew beer - monks would find something to plant when idle, and there is still an Orthodox church in Yirgacheffe town today). Later, they were taken over by farmers or cooperatives. Coffee trees are naturally scattered in forests, fields, and backyards. During the harvest season, the Ethiopian Coffee Trading Corporation comes to town to purchase coffee beans collected by farmers, which are eventually auctioned and exported under the "Yirgacheffe" brand.

The washed Yirgacheffe has rich flavor layers, especially when lightly roasted. Besides the inherent mellow aroma and bittersweetness of coffee, it also carries fruit acid flavors similar to lemon and kumquat. When you taste washed Yirgacheffe with water at 60°C, the fruit acid flavor will instantly bloom on your tongue.

The natural processed Yirgacheffe has limited production, with less fruit acidity. Natural Yirgacheffe has a faint fermented wine aroma, with a stronger bitter taste and a much richer mouthfeel.

Knowledge Point

Ethiopia, one of the world's least developed countries, has been recognized as the birthplace of Arabica coffee, and can even be said to be the birthplace of coffee itself.

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research house that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation, hoping to let more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month, we hold three coffee promotion events with deep discounts because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends enjoy the best coffee at the lowest price. This has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years!

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