Sweet Black Coffee Recommendations: Ethiopia Sidamo Guji Natural "Lion King" - Rich with Fruity Sweetness

FrontStreet Coffee - Ethiopia Sidamo Guji Lion King Natural G1 Introduction

Lion King comes from Sidamo, one of Africa's two famous specialty coffee producing regions. Grown at altitudes between 1400-2100 meters, it is processed naturally. That method not only highlights its strong fruitiness and ripe berry aromas but also gives it a rich, lingering, complex aftertaste. With a clean and balanced mouthfeel, the aroma of wild ginger flowers and a peach-like sweetness, it evokes lions roaming the African savannah in an orchard.

Ethiopia Sidamo Guji Lion King Natural G1

Origin: Guji, Sidamo, Ethiopia

Variety: Heirloom

Processing Station: Shilicho Cooperative

Altitude: 1800-2000m

Processing Method: Natural

Flavor Notes: Tropical fruits, honey, citrus, berries

Produced near Dilla town by the Shilicho Cooperative. Established in 1976, the cooperative is now a member of the Sidamo Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU). These beans were screened a second time, and this batch was selected for its exceptional flavour, leaning toward honey, citrus and coffee flower aromas.

The flavours of Sidamo are extremely diverse. Different soil types, microclimates and countless native varieties create distinct characteristics in the coffee of each town. From 2010 to 2012, coffees from the area consistently scored 92-94 on the authoritative American coffee review site CR.

That speaks to the extraordinary quality of green beans from this region. The terrain is towering and varied - mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys and plains - and the local geology is nutrient-rich, well-drained volcanic soil that can run nearly two meters deep, with topsoil in dark brown or brown. The area's greatest advantage is that fertility is maintained by the cycling of organic matter, with fallen leaves from surrounding trees or residual plant roots serving as fertiliser.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The best first step into Ethiopian specialty coffee is FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe, a clear introduction to the region's jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia, cool and misty year-round, where thousands of coffee varieties flourish and give the cup its characteristic interweaving of floral aroma and fruit acidity, light and elegant with a tea-like body - like a clean, refreshing lemon tea.

FrontStreet Gutingding Cooperative shows how far that style can go. Located in the Gotiti village in the Woka district at the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe, it was once part of the YCFCU's Woka cooperative; as buyers pursued traceability, it emerged as a single origin in its own right and was formally established as the Gutingding Cooperative in 2012 with about 300 member farmers. Because the fruit is stripped before drying, the bean's inherent aromas come through more clearly, producing citrus and lemon notes with an elegant white floral character and a bright, fine overall profile.

For a natural counterpart, FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry passes over damaged or mouldy fruit, then dries the cherries in the sun for two weeks until the sugars and essence of the fruit have permeated the bean and moisture falls to 12%; the hardened fruit, mucilage layer and pod are then scraped off by machine. The beans are sorted by density and colour, defective beans are removed and workers hand-pick any stragglers. The result is a clean, refined cup with rich, captivating fruit aroma - peach, cocoa, honey and lemon.