What Are Coffee Cooperatives? Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Coffee Cooperative Coffee Beans Brewing Parameters

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

The Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia includes many large and small cooperatives. Coffee cooperatives are non-profit organizations where all members participate voluntarily, with the aim of helping members access resources more easily when producing or supplying coffee. Although the coffee flavors produced by many cooperatives in Yirgacheffe may be similar, each cooperative's coffee has its own unique story behind it. This time, FrontStreet Coffee wants to talk about the Banko Gotiti Cooperative in FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe.

Yirgacheffe

Yirgacheffe has always been one of Ethiopia's most important coffee-producing regions. It was formerly part of the Sidamo coffee region but later became an independent coffee-producing region due to the unique flavor of Yirgacheffe coffee beans. It can be said that Yirgacheffe is not just a coffee region name but also a term describing specific coffee flavors.

The Yirgacheffe coffee region is considered a high-altitude coffee-producing area with an altitude of about 2,000 meters. The Yirgacheffe coffee region has more than 40 cooperatives, mainly managed through family-operated models for coffee cultivation. Under the Yirgacheffe coffee region are many well-known micro-regions, such as Kochere, Fog Valley, Gedeb, etc. These micro-regions all have excellent cooperatives, and the Yirgacheffe coffee beans they produce each have their unique flavor characteristics.

Banko Gotiti Cooperative

The Banko Gotiti Cooperative, located in the Woka region at the southeastern end of Yirgacheffe, was originally part of the Woka Cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Union YCFCU. Later, with the pursuit of traceability of raw coffee beans, "single-origin" coffees were discovered one by one by coffee hunters from around the world.

In 2012, Banko Gotiti, with about 300 member farmers, independently established the "Banko Gotiti Cooperative." Banko Gotiti village was one of the first village areas to become independent, and many small farmers were originally members of the Woka Cooperative, so their coffee production skills are excellent. The Banko Gotiti Cooperative is known as the last pure land of Yirgacheffe, so it also uses very traditional raw bean processing methods (washed and natural processing methods).

Coffee Bean Varieties

Yirgacheffe coffee varieties are local native varieties, small-grained types, with a more rounded appearance and very small beans, mostly between 14-15 mesh. However, FrontStreet Coffee found that in this year's COE competition held in Ethiopia, Ethiopia has also started categorizing coffee varieties, with the 13th place being the Kurume variety from the Yirgacheffe region. KURUME is actually a common non-coffee plant in the southern production regions of Ethiopia. This plant is quite abundant and has relatively small fruits, sharing the same characteristics as a local coffee variety, so local coffee farmers call coffee with these characteristics KURUME. The coffee bean varieties from FrontStreet Coffee's Banko Gotiti Cooperative are local native varieties.

Coffee Bean Processing Method

FrontStreet Coffee's Banko Gotiti Cooperative coffee beans use the washed processing method. First, a pulping machine is used to remove the pulp/flesh from the berries, then they are left in fermentation tanks for 18-36 hours until the mucilage layer decomposes (the duration depends on local temperature and humidity conditions). Next, the parchment beans are scrubbed through washing channels for 30-60 minutes.

At this time, through channel design combined with water flow, beans with low specific gravity and poor quality can be removed. The high-quality parchment beans are then placed on African-style raised beds to dry for about 14 days. After drying is complete, they are first stored in the processing plant's warehouse. Before export, the parchment beans are transported to a Dry Mill for hulling and go through a series of complex screening processes including foreign matter removal, silver skin removal and polishing, gravity screening, color sorting, and finally bagging for export.

Origin Information

Region: Yirgacheffe, Gedeo Zone

Altitude: 1900-2300m

Variety: Heirloom

Processing Method: Washed

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Suggestions

FrontStreet Coffee's roaster considers that FrontStreet Coffee's Banko Gotiti bean is mainly characterized by fruity acidity, making it more suitable for light roasting, which will highlight the clean taste, bright fruity acidity, and obvious sweet aftertaste of FrontStreet Coffee's Banko Gotiti.

Using Yangjia 800N, with 480g of beans: Heat to 175°C before adding beans, damper set to 3, heat at 120; Return to temperature at 1'32", heat remains unchanged at 140°C, damper opens to 4; At this point, the bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage. At 166°C, heat reduces to 100, at 176°C, heat reduces to 80, damper remains unchanged. At 8'28", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast smell obviously turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'38", first crack begins, adjust damper to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, not too small to stop cracking sounds). After first crack, develop for 1'30", drop at 193.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after sample coffee bean roasting. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas typically use 200ml ceramic cupping bowls marked with 150ml and 200ml measurement lines. According to SCAA standards, water TDS is around 150ppm. Too low TDS can easily cause over-extraction, while too high TDS affects mouthfeel and can cause under-extraction. Cupping water temperature is 94°C. Grind size is controlled to 70%-75% pass-through rate on a #20 standard sieve (0.85mm). Ratio: 11g of coffee powder to 200ml of hot water, i.e., 1:18.18, so the extracted concentration falls within the 1.15%-1.35% golden cup range, with a 4-minute steeping time.

FrontStreet Coffee's washed Banko Gotiti has a dry aroma of fresh passion fruit, citrus, and berry acidity. The wet aroma is citrus and berries. On tasting, there's citrus acidity, berry sweetness, almond, tea-like notes, with a honey-like sweetness in the aftertaste. Low body, bright acidity, clean and refreshing.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Experience

Dripper: V60 #01

Water Temperature: 90-91°C

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: BG6m/fine sugar size (80% pass-through on #20 sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Method: First pour 30g of water for 30 seconds of blooming, then pour 95g (scale shows about 125g), finishing in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows about 225g), finishing in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Drip completes at 2'10", remove the dripper, extraction complete.

FrontStreet Coffee's Banko Gotiti coffee flavor after brewing: Initial notes of citrus and black tea, with cream, caramel, and almond aftertaste as temperature changes, with obvious sweet aftertaste and clean, sweet mouthfeel.

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473