Is Ethiopian Sidamo Coffee Acidic? What Are the Characteristics of Sidamo Coffee - Balanced Flavor and High Sweetness

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Sidamo Coffee Characteristics

Sidamo Coffee is named after its origin region.

The Sidamo administrative region is located in southern Ethiopia, bordering Kenya. Sidamo, Harar, and Limu are the main premium coffee-producing regions in Ethiopia. Although the Yirgacheffe area is administratively part of Sidamo, its unique natural geographical environment—including soil composition and moisture content—creates distinctive aromas and flavors that are well-known in the specialty coffee world. For this reason, you'll often hear "Sidamo" and "Yirgacheffe" referred to separately in the market. [Similar to the relationship between "Yantai apples" and "Xixia apples"]

Sidamo: Altitude ranges from 1,400 to 2,200 meters, belonging to the garden coffee system. Like Yirgacheffe, specialty coffee beans from Sidamo are grown organically and hand-picked to ensure the health and premium flavor of the coffee. Notably, Sidamo coffee has lower caffeine content and is also known as natural low-caffeine coffee.

The main growing areas of Sidamo coffee are located around the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, with an annual production of approximately 225,000 bags (60kg each). Sidamo coffee beans are medium-sized, oval-shaped, and typically processed using both washed and natural methods.

Washed Sidamo green beans appear light green in color, with distinct citrus flavors and subtle berry notes upon tasting, along with pleasant elegant sweet and sour notes, grape sweetness, and a chocolate aftertaste.

Natural processed Sidamo beans, on the other hand, have a yellowish-green color and less uniform appearance, often with chipped beans. In Sidamo's natural drying fields, coffee is placed in wooden frames with mesh nets, where workers manually turn the beans under sunlight to ensure even heating.

Properly processed natural Sidamo delivers uncompromised flavor. Beyond the citrus notes found in washed beans, it offers an intense berry fragrance. This is related to the coffee beans drying and fermenting within the fruit pulp for up to two weeks—a flavor that washed beans typically lack. However, if natural processing is mishandled, it can easily develop earthy flavors, losing its elegant aroma. Natural processed beans that don't exhibit rich fruit flavors cannot be considered premium.

Sidamo offers balanced flavor with higher sweetness. Its body is also fuller compared to Yirgacheffe, especially the acidity and sweetness similar to red wine produced during the natural pulp fermentation process, combined with coffee's inherent cocoa bitterness, gives certain batches of Sidamo an intoxicating chocolate liqueur-like flavor.

In Brief

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