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Yirgacheffe Region Grade Introduction - What Class Level is It? Difference in Flavor Characteristics Between Yirgacheffe and Guji Coffee Beans

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Yirgacheffe town is located in the Sidama region of Ethiopia, at an altitude of approximately 1900 meters, serving as the administrative center of coffee growing areas. Yirgacheffe coffee farmers are typically members of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU), which consists of 23

The town of Yirgacheffe is located in the Sidama region of Ethiopia, with coffee grown at altitudes of 1,700-2,200 meters. It serves as the administrative center for Ethiopia's coffee-growing areas and is one of the regions producing high-quality Ethiopian coffee beans. Since most households in Yirgacheffe town grow coffee as their livelihood and individual coffee production is not particularly large, they sell their harvested fruits to cooperatives' processing plants in town for unified processing. When the coffee beans are exported, they are exported under the name of the cooperatives.

Yirgacheffe coffee farmers are typically members of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU), which consists of 23 different member cooperatives, including over 40,000 farmers. Among the more famous cooperatives are the Konga Cooperative, Woka Cooperative, Guodingding Cooperative, and others. YCFCU members are not restricted by the Ethiopian Coffee Exchange (ECX), which allows them to obtain premium prices for quality coffee, including fair trade and organic certifications.

Some Yirgacheffe farmers may also be members of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU), which typically consists of small farmers from Ethiopia's Oromia region. By integrating processing, sorting, and sales functions, it improves market efficiency and provides better control over the reputation of Ethiopian coffee. It offers farmers more stability through installment payments throughout the year, which largely benefits farmers who have planting and harvesting seasons annually.

Why do so many people love Yirgacheffe coffee beans?

The high altitude brings significant temperature differences between day and night to Yirgacheffe. These temperature differences delay the production speed of coffee fruits, allowing for the development of more flavors. FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee beans feature bright citrus acidity, rich white floral aromas, and honey-like sweet aftertaste. All these floral and fruity aromas bring a very fresh tone to the coffee beans grown in the Yirgacheffe region.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that the reason so many people love FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans is because their rich floral and fruity aromas and bright acidity break the stereotype that coffee only has a bitter taste. It was starting from Yirgacheffe coffee beans that people began to realize that coffee can also have such clear, clean, and layered flavors.

Common Processing Methods for Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans

When people first hear about Yirgacheffe coffee beans, do they hear them accompanied by the words "washed"? And this "washed" doesn't mean that the coffee beans are simply washed and then taken for roasting/brewing, but rather refers to the method of obtaining coffee beans from coffee fruits, which is also known as coffee bean processing methods.

The washed processing method involves using machines to remove the peel and pulp from harvested coffee fruits and placing them in fermentation tanks with clean water sources for 12-36 hours. The acidity produced during fermentation decomposes the pectin, after which they are washed with clean water, and then taken for sun drying. The washed method can remove impurities (stones or garbage, etc.) and defective beans through each step, so the appearance of raw beans is uniform and generally considered to have high quality, with transaction prices higher than coffee beans processed by natural drying methods. However, the more detailed the engineering division, the more procedures in operation and hygiene management, and the higher the risk, so the washed method doesn't necessarily equal high quality. FrontStreet Coffee believes that coffee beans processed by the washed method have more obvious acidity, better cleanliness, medium texture, and the most consistent raw bean quality.

In addition to the washed processing method, natural processing is also a common method for Yirgacheffe coffee beans. The natural processing method is simple: harvested coffee fruits are directly placed on drying beds for sun drying. Natural processing is one of the oldest and most traditional processing methods. Coffee fruits are immediately dried in sunlight after harvesting, common in areas with abundant sunlight or scarce water resources. For example, nearly 70% of coffee fruits in all Ethiopian growing regions are processed using natural methods. FrontStreet Coffee believes that compared to washed-processed coffee, natural-processed Yirgacheffe has lower acidity, higher sweetness, clearer texture, but slightly lower cleanliness. In terms of flavor, it produces more berry-like tones and is more complex.

Yirgacheffe Coffee Bean Varieties

Yirgacheffe coffee beans are mostly Ethiopian native varieties. As the birthplace of all coffee beans, Ethiopia has many unnamed coffee varieties locally, and with large populations that are difficult to subdivide, they are all mixed-planting and mixed-harvesting, named as Ethiopian native varieties.

The difference between FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans and FrontStreet Coffee's Sidama Flower Champion coffee beans?

The so-called "Yirgacheffe flavor" can be simply understood as having unique citrus and lemon fruit aromas, with the fragrance of jasmine, a fresh and bright texture, and layered acidity that is clean without impurities. According to ECX contract agreements, besides Yirgacheffe town, coffee produced and processed in places like Wenago town in the north, Gelena Abaya in the west, and Kochere town in the south can also be classified as Yirgacheffe flavor coffee growing regions. If we use coffee beans as examples, Ethiopian varieties like FrontStreet Coffee's washed Guodingding Cooperative, FrontStreet Coffee's natural Red Cherry, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Kochere, and FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Konga are all typical Yirgacheffe representatives.

FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Champion coffee, on the other hand, comes from the larger Sidama growing region. In 2017, DW Company entered it in that year's TOH (Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest competition) and successfully won the championship, thus beginning its market debut. In English, Flower Champion coffee is called Hambella, which is the name of the growing area Hambella. What we call "FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Champion Coffee" is a traditional natural G1 coffee bean from the Hambella region, with "Buku Abel" processing station being its more detailed traceability information, located in Dimtu town.

After "Flower Champion" became famous, to meet the surge in market demand, DW Company added up to 5 independent coffee raw bean drying processing stations in Hambella Wamena Wereda, all located within the core Dimtu town. Besides the original Buku Abel, four small villages including Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, Tirtiro Goye, and Seke Bokosa also joined the production of natural coffee beans. It is reported that at this time, the annual production of "Flower Champion" under DW Company had reached tens of millions of tons.

Starting from the 2018 production season, Flower Champion (natural G1 coffee beans) from the same growing area and processing station already had some changes in flavor. FrontStreet Coffee discovered through cupping at that time, although the 2018 and 2019 Flower Champions had similar "natural Sidama flavor" to the 2017 Flower Champion, they were slightly inferior to the "first-generation Flower Champion" in terms of body, aftertaste, and other taste aspects.

Therefore, to continue selling this natural coffee from Hambella while making certain distinctions from the original version, domestic raw bean trading companies calculated based on the year 2017, creating X.0 suffixes for each subsequent year's batch. For example, the 2018 batch was called "Flower Champion 2.0," the 2019 production was called "Flower Champion 3.0 and 3.1"... last year's was "Flower Champion 7.0," and so on. In this way, we can identify which year's product the Flower Champion we purchased belongs to and whether it's the latest batch through this suffix. FrontStreet Coffee's FrontStreet Coffee Sidama Natural Flower Champion 8.0, which FrontStreet Coffee acquired this year, was also on the shelves a few months ago. This FrontStreet Coffee Flower Champion 8.0 shows richer fruity tones than 7.0 in dry aroma, with dense aromas like guava, jackfruit, apricot, dried fruit, citrus, and pink floral scents. When hot water is added, one can smell sweet aromas of honey, berries, and chocolate.

Is FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Champion SOE good to drink?

As more and more people begin to encounter specialty coffee, everyone is also joining the ranks of making it themselves. Today, Flower Champion coffee has become a daily staple for many enthusiasts, and has also made players with espresso machines at home eager to try their hand at recreating a coffee shop-style Flower Champion SOE latte or SOE Americano—just thinking about it is already delightful.

FrontStreet Coffee's FrontStreet Coffee Flower Champion SOE coffee beans use medium roast. In terms of parameters, 20 grams of coffee powder extracts 40g of coffee liquid in 33 seconds. Drinking espresso directly has balanced aromas of dark berries, dried apricots, caramel, and creamy chocolate. Making it into an Americano allows one to feel fresh citrus fruit acidity, while lattes made with added milk show rich flavors of butter cookies, plums, almonds, and chocolate biscuits.