What Coffee Beans are Suitable for Beginners? The Heartbreaking Story Behind Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry

FrontStreet Coffee - Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Reko Estate Introduction

Operation Cherry Red is a quality-enhancement project for smallholder farms launched by the Dutch trading company Trabocca BV and partially funded by the Dutch government since 2005. The project aims to raise coffee production capacity and quality in remote areas of Ethiopia by providing producers with professional technical assistance and related support. Since 2005, it has focused on selecting small coffee cooperatives at high altitudes in the regions of Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, and Limu.

It encourages and assists producers to improve washed, semi-washed, natural drying, and other experimental processing methods in order to raise coffee quality. Through testing - professional cuppers are also stationed in the producing areas to assess flavor directly - it ensures the quality of each batch. Before the harvest season, Trabocca invites selected smallholder organizations and producers to take part in producing micro-batch coffee (roughly 1500-3000 kg), with careful hand-picking of 100% ripe red cherries in batches, which is where the name Operation Cherry Red comes from.

Trabocca provides financial loans, new equipment, and production know-how to assist the farmers. They promise to buy at favorable prices as long as the actual quality meets cupping standards in both the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Amsterdam, Netherlands, cupping rooms. Operation Cherry Red beans are packed immediately after processing at origin in plastic inner bags (GrainPro bags or vacuum-sealed bags), then shipped to Djibouti to await ocean freight. Through real-time monitoring, safe transport, and timely and appropriate processing, they pursue perfect quality.

Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Reko Estate

• Region: Yirgacheffe, Reko Estate
• Project: Operation Cherry Red
• Altitude: 1800-2000m
• Grade: Natural G3
• Rating: 93 points
• Variety: Local indigenous varieties (Heirloom)
• Flavor: Rich strawberry, ripe peach, papaya, cantaloupe, delicate fruit acidity, purple berry notes

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a specialty coffee research hall that loves to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation just to help more friends fall in love with coffee, and we hold three low-discount coffee activities every month. This is because FrontStreet Coffee wants more people to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest price, which has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The Reko Estate lot above is a natural-processed Yirgacheffe, and if that style appeals to you, FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry is a natural next step. In the same region, it uses a full red cherry natural process - only fully ripe cherries with no quality problems are picked, sent to the processing station for a first round of sorting, then placed straight on raised beds to sun-dry. In the first few days, the cherries are turned every 2-3 hours to prevent uneven heat and over-fermentation. After three to five weeks of sun-drying, workers remove the outer pulp with a machine, depending on the weather and temperature, and move the beans to storage. Because the fruit dries with the pulp still on, the coffee keeps the typical Yirgacheffe character while gaining the tropical fruit notes of a natural process: citrus-like acidity, a juicy berry texture, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness.

If you are new to the region and want a clean, easy starting point, FrontStreet's Washed Yirgacheffe is the everyday bean to try first. It is known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like quality, and its friendly price has made it the first specialty coffee for many drinkers. To brew it, FrontStreet suggests a V60 dripper with water at 90-91°C, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, ground to the size of fine sugar (an EK43s setting of 10, about 80% passing a No. 20 sieve). Pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then add 95g (about 125g on the scale), finishing that pour by around 1 minute. When the water level drops to two-thirds of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (about 225g on the scale), finishing by around 1 minute 35 seconds. Dripping completes at 2:00-2:10; remove the dripper and the extraction is done.