The Unique Shakisso Micro-Region of Ethiopia's Sidamo: Brewing Flavors of Shakisso Coffee Beans

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When mentioning the production areas of Ethiopia's Sidamo, many people are familiar with the Guji region. The Buku processing plant in Guji's Hambella region produces the well-known "Horse Champion" coffee beans. Since the Horse Champion coffee beans from Hambella Buku processing plant won the Ethiopian coffee competition in 2017, although the Horse Champion from subsequent seasons hasn't been as impressive as the 2017 vintage, it hasn't diminished people's love for it. Besides the well-known Hambella in Guji, there's also a micro-region called Shakisso that is unique. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee discovered that although Shakisso is within the Guji region, the coffee flavor from this area differs from that of the Guji region.

Guji Region

The Guji region, formerly part of the Sidamo region, was established as an independent new region by the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in 2010. The Guji region is located southeast of Yirgacheffe and is a complex area with towering mountains, valleys, and plains.

The region's geology consists of nutrient-rich black soil (Vertisol) with a depth of nearly two meters, and an average altitude of over 1800 meters. The significant day-night temperature differences created by its geographical characteristics give the area all the terroir conditions necessary to produce high-quality specialty coffee.

Shakisso Micro-region

Shakisso is located in the Guji region of Sidamo, in the southern part of the Oromia region, bordering Sidamo and Gedeo. This area has many mining pits that were originally used for gold mining, so there are many pits in this coffee-growing area. This makes walking through the coffee-growing areas dangerous.

Shakisso is a unique region in Guji/Sidamo, even within Sidamo it's a remote area far from most coffee-producing regions. Another famous local product is gold mines. Factors such as miners, land, and ethnicity also caused instability in the region in 2006. Therefore, the biggest problem facing this area now is the need for manpower to maintain the planting areas and harvest coffee.

Local small farmers began planting organic coffee in 2001 and worked closely with medium-sized coffee producers because they are familiar with how to grow forest coffee in highland areas. This makes it one of the micro-regions with distinctive regional characteristics in the Sidamo region. Coffee from this area has considerable uniqueness, and the coffee produced has repeatedly gained market attention.

Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee discovered that coffee from this region has bright acidity of lemon and citrus, white grape juice, blackcurrant, and an earl grey tea finish. Compared to the sweetness and body of Guji coffee beans, Shakisso coffee's flavor expression is much more lively and rich. Of course, this is also related to the processing method. Most coffee beans in the Guji region are processed using the natural method. FrontStreet Coffee believes that naturally processed coffee beans have obvious sweetness, soft acidity, and produce more berry-like notes in flavor, while washed processed coffee beans have cleaner flavor expressions and brighter acidity. The Shakisso coffee beans that FrontStreet Coffee acquired are washed processed.

Washed Processing

The washed method can remove impurities (stones or garbage, etc.) and defective beans through each step, so the appearance of green beans is uniform, and they are generally considered to have high quality, with transaction prices higher than those of natural drying processed coffee beans. However, the more detailed the division of labor in the process, the more procedures involved in operation and hygiene management, and the higher the risk. Therefore, the washed method does not necessarily equate to high quality.

Place the selected coffee cherries into a depulper to initially remove their skin and pulp; put the green beans with residual pulp and mucilage into water to ferment for about 18-36 hours; after fermentation, place the green beans with parchment in a flowing water channel to wash away the pulp and mucilage; after washing, dry the coffee beans or use a dryer to reduce the moisture content to about 12%. Finally, remove the parchment from the green beans.

Coffee Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee's Shakisso coffee beans use Heirloom native varieties. Ethiopia has nearly 2000 recorded coffee varieties, including 1927 native varieties and 128 introduced varieties. So judging by appearance alone, Ethiopia's coffee varieties are like a "grand view garden" with everything inside - long, short, thin, fat...

This is because there are too many varieties in Ethiopia. It's like a natural gene bank for Arabica. On one hand, the varieties are numerous and difficult to classify; on the other hand, the Ethiopian government, out of protection considerations, is unwilling to disclose information about these varieties, so they are collectively called Heirloom native varieties.

Region: Sidamo, Guji, Shakisso

Altitude: 1950-2300m

Processing method: Washed

Grade: G1

Variety: Local native varieties

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Experience

To highlight the rich and lively coffee acidity of this bean, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster decided to use a medium-light roast for this bean.

Yangjia 800N, bean input: 300g: When the roaster reaches 170°C, add the beans, open the damper to 3, and set the heat to 100.2; return to temperature point at 1'42", when the roaster temperature reaches 140°C, keep the heat unchanged, open the damper to 3.5; at this time, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage, when the temperature reaches 180°C, reduce to 70, open the damper to 4.

At 7'50", ugly wrinkles and black patterns appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly 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 8'20", first crack begins, reduce the heat to 50, adjust the damper to 5 (be very careful when adjusting the heat, not so low that there's no cracking sound). Develop for 1'28" after first crack, and discharge at 192°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas generally use 200ml ceramic cupping bowls marked with 150ml and 200ml measurement lines. According to SCAA standards, the water TDS is around 150ppm. Too low TDS can easily cause over-extraction, while too high TDS can affect mouthfeel and cause under-extraction. The water temperature used for cupping is 94°C. The grind size is controlled so that 70%-75% passes through a No. 20 standard sieve (0.85mm). Ratio: 11 grams of coffee powder to 200ml of hot water, i.e., 1:18.18, so the extracted concentration falls within the golden cup range of 1.15%-1.35%, with a soaking time of 4 minutes.

Dry aroma: Floral, lemon

Wet aroma: Orange

Flavor: Lemon, jasmine, vanilla, honey, orange, sucrose

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Experience

Dripper: V60 #01

Water temperature: 90-91°C

Dose: 15g

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: Medium-fine/fine sugar size (80% passes through No. 20 sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee brewing method: First wet the filter paper and preheat the dripper and coffee pot. Use 30g of water to bloom for 30 seconds. When injecting water in a small circular motion to 125g, segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue injecting water to 225g and stop. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from the beginning of bloom) Extraction time is 2'05".

Brewing flavor: The entry has a more prominent lemon acidity. When slightly cooler, there are jasmine floral notes, cream, sucrose, and nuts. The finish has an oolong tea sensation with a long-lasting aftertaste.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473