Flavor Characteristics of Ethiopia Guji Hambela Coffee: What Changes in the New Harvest Season Queen Coffee 6.0 Beans

FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Horse Champion 4.0

Country of Origin: Ethiopia

Region: Sidamo Guji Hambella

Processing Station: BUKU

Altitude: 2350m

Variety: Dega

Processing Method: Natural

The Horse Champion coffee bean, with its elegant name and strawberry-like aroma, has attracted countless coffee enthusiasts. This year, Horse Champion has welcomed its 4.0 version. So how does it differ from the previous Horse Champion coffees? FrontStreet Coffee will explore this in this article.

Region Introduction

Hambella is located in Ethiopia's largest coffee producing region, Guji, and administratively belongs to the Oromia region. Hambella is separated from Yirgacheffe's Kochore region by mountains to the west, with a highland area of 3200 meters altitude and approximately 30 kilometers wide blocking the two regions. To the southeast, east, and north, it borders Guji's Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions respectively, making it the highest altitude coffee sub-region in Ethiopia (Harrar is the highest altitude main coffee producing region in Ethiopia).

Currently, there are about 20 processing stations of various scales in the Hambella region. In 2017, a natural batch from DW company's "Buku Abel" processing station won the Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest Competition championship. The Chinese green bean importer named this batch "Horse Champion." At that time, this batch had rich strawberry and cream aromas. Subsequently, DW company increased its processing stations in the core Hambella region from one estate to four: Buku Abel, Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, and Tirtiro Goye, with an annual coffee production of about 1100 tons. FrontStreet Coffee also provides coffee products produced by the Buku Abel processing station.

Buku Abel Processing Station

Buku Abel means "NEW" place in the local Ethiopian language. In this ancient country with over 2000 years of history and a population of 100 million, blocked from Asia by the East African Rift Valley, new virgin lands waiting for development are still being discovered on this plateau. Compared to millennia-old cultures, this is a relatively newly developed land.

Buku Abel is located in southeastern Ethiopia, in an extremely high-altitude primitive tribal area in the Hambella region of Guji, with a population of about 30,000 people. This small village, like most Ethiopian coffee gardens, grows among wild primitive forests. Coffee farmers have passed down their traditions here for generations, cultivating native bananas and interspersing local native coffee varieties among the banana trees.

Are There Real and Fake Horse Champion Coffees?

First, in 2017, Ethiopia's DW green bean company sent their coffee beans to the TOH (Taste Of Harvest) green bean competition hosted by the African Coffee Association. A natural batch from the "Buku Abel" processing station won the Ethiopia TOH championship with its rich strawberry and cream aroma. That year, the green beans from this batch were imported to China by Beijing's green bean trader Hong Shun. In the same year, Li Jianfei used this bean to win the runner-up position in the 2017 World Brewers Cup China region competition. This Ethiopian bean appeared particularly outstanding among many Geisha competition entries, thus earning the name "Horse Champion." (Geisha in Japanese means geisha, while "花魁" means the leader among geishas, indicating the exceptional quality of this bean.)

Therefore, if we narrowly understand Horse Champion coffee, it can only refer to the 2017 TOH natural group champion that entered the country. Of course, if this wonderful name were to disappear like a flash in the pan, it would be a pity. Therefore, Hong Shun continued to import coffee beans from the "Buku Abel" processing station in the Hambella region, naming them Horse Champion 2.0, Horse Champion 3.0, and Horse Champion 3.1 to distinguish them from the previous Horse Champion coffee and represent different batches or harvest seasons. At this time, Horse Champion coffee still maintained certain characteristics, namely being imported by Hong Shun, with the production region still locked to the "Buku Abel" processing station in Hambella. Of course, as an agricultural product, coffee flavors vary each year.

[First Generation Horse Champion G1] Smooth, passion fruit, fermented wine aroma, jackfruit, strawberry.

[Horse Champion 2.0] Overall clean mouthfeel, more prominent berry aroma, with nutty fragrance, richer mouthfeel.

[Horse Champion 3.0] Light strawberry jam, black tea sensation, short sweet aftertaste.

[Horse Champion 3.1] Floral notes, cream, tropical fruits, caramel, persistent sweet aftertaste.

The Horse Champion produced in the 2020 new harvest season was named Horse Champion 4.0 to distinguish it from previous versions. As 2020 marks the fourth year of this coffee bean, its production area has expanded to several times its original size, coupled with more scientific cultivation management. The flavor of Horse Champion 4.0 is even more excellent, receiving praise from numerous coffee enthusiasts. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee also purchased this new season's Horse Champion 4.0 for roasting and cupping. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee believes that to identify whether it's genuine Horse Champion coffee, one should check if it was imported by green bean trader Hong Shun. Therefore, if you pay attention to foreign coffee roasters, you'll find that internationally, they don't know Horse Champion but only know Hambella.

Dega Coffee Bean Variety

This year, Ethiopia hosted its first Cup of Excellence (CoE) competition, where the detailed classification of coffee varieties among the top 28 finalists surprised everyone. The 21st ranked Dega has two very different versions regarding the origin of its name. One version says Dega's name comes from a type of firewood, and Dega's aroma during roasting is very similar to the burning aroma of this firewood. Another version explains that "dega" is the root word for "highland and shady places" in the Ethiopian language, and Dega often grows in high-altitude areas. Unfortunately, since Dega didn't rank among the top 14 in this COE competition, no flavor descriptions were collected for it. The Horse Champion 4.0 that FrontStreet Coffee acquired this year is precisely Dega variety coffee beans.

Green Bean Analysis

This batch of Horse Champion 4.0 that FrontStreet Coffee purchased shows that Horse Champion 4.0 beans are smaller than the other two Horse Champion 3.0 beans, which is due to the different varieties. Horse Champion 3.0 is made from Ethiopian native variety coffee beans, while Horse Champion 4.0 is Dega variety. Additionally, we can see that the two Horse Champion 3.0 beans are relatively uniform in size because they were screened after harvesting, while Horse Champion 4.0 was not screened, so the beans appear to be of varying sizes.

Coffee Processing Method

Natural drying processing is the most traditional method, where fruits are naturally dried in the sun after harvesting, with the following steps:

1. Coffee farmers place harvested cherries directly on drying patios to dry in sunlight;
2. During drying, cherries need to be turned and stirred appropriately to avoid uneven drying or fermentation;
3. After several days, dry to completion;
4. Use a hulling machine to remove pulp and skin from the dried green beans to extract the green beans.

Advantages: Natural processed coffee retains its mucilage during processing, and the mucilage itself is sweet. During the natural drying process, sugars transfer to the coffee beans, so the processed coffee has relatively stronger sweetness, rich mouthfeel, and more complex layers.

Disadvantages: There may be more defective beans, inconsistent bean appearance, and容易 to absorb odors and earthy flavors from the ground.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee reviews the flavor descriptions provided by the green bean supplier and checks the bean's moisture content. The freshly received green beans have a fermented wine aroma of coffee flowers, completely different from the grassy aroma of typical green beans. Moreover, Horse Champion green beans are of varying sizes, with many pointed ends (Ethiopia Heirloom - Ethiopian native variety), with good moisture content around 11%, but not the very hard SHB beans. Due to the high density and hardness of the beans, the initial dehydration time is extended, entering first crack with increased temperature, trying to preserve the loss of small molecular aromatic substances like floral notes.

FrontStreet Coffee uses a Taiwan Yangjia 800N machine, adding beans at 190°C, completing dehydration and yellowing in nearly 6 minutes (yellowing at around 150-153°C). First crack begins at about 9 minutes and 50 seconds (Horse Champion's first crack is later than typical beans, and the cracking sound is weak). The development time after first crack is recommended not to exceed 1 minute 30 seconds, nor less than 1 minute (it's recommended to open the air damper and reduce heat to control speed). Smelling with a sampling spoon, at about 193°C, you can smell strawberry jam aroma, at which point you can finish roasting. The total time is best controlled within 11 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Guide

FrontStreet Coffee uses higher water temperature and finer grind size to fully extract the rich layers of Horse Champion coffee beans, but to avoid over-extraction due to high temperatures, uses faster flow rate drippers like the V60. The V60 dripper has a 60° conical shape, which allows coffee grounds to be concentratedly distributed, and during pouring, the water flow automatically converges toward the center of the dripper, ensuring sufficient contact time between water and coffee grounds, thus achieving appropriate coffee extraction. Additionally, the ribs on the inside of the V60 dripper extend clockwise in a spiral from bottom to top, creating enough space between the filter paper and dripper, allowing good water flow. Combined with the large hole at the bottom, the water flow rate is relatively faster than many drippers.

Brewing parameters: V60 dripper, water temperature 90°C, water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, coffee amount 15g, fine sugar grind size (80% pass rate on China #20 standard sieve)

Using FrontStreet Coffee's three-stage brewing method: first preheat the coffee pot and dripper, pour in 15g of coffee grounds, gently tap flat. Pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, not recommended to extend the bloom time too long to avoid astringency.

In the second stage, pour 120g of water in concentric circles from center outward, completing in about 1 minute. When the coffee bed is almost visible, pour the final stage in the same pouring method, adding 90g of water. Remove the dripper when all water has flowed into the lower pot, ending extraction. Total brewing time is 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

Flavor description: Citrus acidity, full berry juice sensation, lemon black tea character, persistent sweetness.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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Tel:020 38364473