Ethiopia New Harvest Guanhua 5.0 Coffee Beans vs. Small Bean Guanhua Coffee Beans Review Comparison

The new 2021 harvest season of Guji Uraga Coffee 5.0 has arrived, and FrontStreet Coffee has been paying close attention to this. In April, when the first batch of Guji Uraga 5.0 arrived at the store, FrontStreet Coffee immediately began roasting and cupping it, and specially compared it with the small-bean Guji Uraga coffee beans that FrontStreet Coffee particularly loves.

How to Distinguish Guji Uraga Coffee Beans?

If you open a search engine and search for Guji Uraga coffee beans, you'll find Guji Uraga 2.0, 3.0, 4.0... FrontStreet Coffee will briefly help everyone understand the differences between these Guji Uraga coffee beans.

Let's go back to 2017, when a natural coffee bean from DW company's "Buku Abel" processing station won the TOH natural category championship. At that time, Chinese green bean importers introduced this champion bean to China and named it "Guji Uraga." This coffee bean had rich strawberry and cream aromas. Additionally, in the same year, Beijing's Li Jianfei won the runner-up position in the 2017 World Brewers Cup China region using this Guji Uraga coffee (other competing beans that year were Geisha). This also added considerable fame to Guji Uraga coffee beans. Note that at this time, Guji Uraga coffee beans carried the title of 2017 TOH champion bean.

Subsequently, DW company expanded to 4 processing stations in the Guji Uraga region: Buku Abel, Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, and Tirtiro Goye. Then in 2018, they launched Guji Uraga 2.0, in 2019 launched Guji Uraga 3.0 and 3.1, in 2020 launched Guji Uraga 4.0, and in 2021, this year, launched Guji Uraga 5.0.

Therefore, it's not difficult to see that the Guji Uraga X.0 naming convention is based on the year, so when you see Guji Uraga 3.0, you know it's coffee beans from the 2019 harvest season, and when you see Guji Uraga 4.0, you know it's from the 2020 harvest season. Besides this yearly pattern, the 2017 Guji Uraga coffee was only natural processed coffee beans from the Buku Abel processing station, while DW company gradually expanded processing stations and increased production. Its flavor profile also shows distinct differences from the 2017 Guji Uraga. Strictly speaking, only natural processed coffee beans from the Buku Abel processing station can be called Guji Uraga coffee beans.

The flavor and aroma of small-bean Guji Uraga are very similar to the 2017 Guji Uraga. Initially, FrontStreet Coffee found flavors similar to the 2017 Guji Uraga in the 2018 and 2019 harvest batches, but they didn't match the 2017 Guji Uraga in body and aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee discovered that the main source of the 2017 Guji Uraga's aroma was some particularly small-bean varieties among the Guji Uraga coffee beans, and similar small coffee beans were also found in the 2018 and 2019 harvest batches. Starting from 2020, the processing station began processing the small-bean Guji Uraga separately. Therefore, small-bean Guji Uraga does not belong to the [X.0] series. Starting from 2020, DW company separated and processed the small-bean variety individually, forming small-bean Guji Uraga coffee beans.

Comparison Between Small-Bean Guji Uraga and Guji Uraga 5.0 Coffee Beans

First, let's observe the comparison photos of small-bean Guji Uraga and Guji Uraga 5.0's raw and roasted beans. Both are coffee beans from the new 2021 harvest season. The small-bean Guji Uraga coffee beans are significantly smaller than Guji Uraga 5.0 beans. The proportion of small-bean coffee beans is significantly higher than in Guji Uraga 5.0.

After obtaining Guji Uraga 5.0, FrontStreet Coffee immediately roasted it and conducted cupping comparisons with small-bean Guji Uraga coffee. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that small-bean Guji Uraga coffee beans have deeper and richer strawberry aromas as well as berry sweetness, while the 2021 Guji Uraga 5.0 coffee has more vibrant berry acidity and brighter acidity.

Small-bean Guji Uraga: Creamy strawberry, citrus, passion fruit, fermented wine aroma

Guji Uraga 5.0: Berries, citrus, honey, mango, floral notes

From the cupping perspective, small-bean Guji Uraga's flavor profile is closer to the 2017 Guji Uraga coffee beans, while Guji Uraga 5.0 leans toward the Guji region's flavor profile (berry acidity, floral notes, juice).

Pour-Over Flavor Comparison

Now let's look at the pour-over flavor comparison. Both coffee beans use the following brewing recipe:

Filter: V60#01

Water Temperature: 90-91°C

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Grind: Medium-fine grind (China standard #20 sieve 80% pass rate)

Brewing Method: Three-stage extraction. Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. When the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed, continue pouring in a circular motion with a small water flow to 125g, then segment. When the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed again, continue pouring to 225g and stop. Remove the filter cone when the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed (timing starts from the beginning of blooming). Total extraction time is 2'00".

Flavor Comparison

Small-bean Guji Uraga: Sweet berry aroma, creamy strawberry, passion fruit, rich fruit sweetness, full mouthfeel.

Guji Uraga 5.0: Floral notes, berries, citrus, sweet and sour plum, mango juice, honey, with a sweet black tea aftertaste.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473