The Origin Story and Flavor Characteristics of Ethiopia's Guji Coffee Beans

The Rise of Flower Champion

In 2017, Li Jianfei won the China division of the World Brewers Championship with this natural processed Flower Champion coffee, and its popularity has climbed ever since. FrontStreet Coffee would go so far as to place it at the very top of the specialty coffee list. Flower Champion broke the Geisha legend and became a coffee capable of competing with Geisha.

What Makes Flower Champion Distinctive

There is no disputing that Flower Champion beans are singular. For a long time Guji coffee was bundled together with Yirgacheffe and Sidamo, but rapid commercial and cultural development lifted Guji into a coffee-producing region in its own right, with growing recognition worldwide.

Where the Name "Flower Champion" Comes From

In traditional Chinese culture the top three places in the ancient imperial examinations were known as zhuangyuan, bangyan and tanhua. Few people realize that Flower Champion, from the Hambella area of the Guji district in Sidamo, also has a Chinese origin. Look closely and you notice that the Chinese name "Hua Kui" and the English name of the bean do not correspond directly. Chinese speakers call it Hua Kui, while the English name is more often Hambella. FrontStreet Coffee takes a brief look at how the name came about.

Flower Champion literally means "leader of all flowers." When Chinese green bean importers first met the Hambella lot from the Guji district of Sidamo, they were captivated by its vanilla cream character. As long as processing continued to improve, they believed it had the potential to become the next Geisha. So they gave this natural processed Guji coffee the title of Flower Champion, a name that expressed their high hopes for it.

FrontStreet Coffee reminds everyone that not every natural processed coffee from the Guji district of Sidamo qualifies as Flower Champion. Generally, only natural processed coffee produced and processed by the Buku Abel estate earns the name, which is why Buku Abel is also known as the Flower Champion estate. The growing area is surrounded by sugarcane and banana trees, and under high-altitude conditions this gives Flower Champion a smooth mouthfeel, with passion fruit acidity and the fermented wine notes that natural processing brings.

Unlike the lemon and citrus tones so popular in Yirgacheffe, beans from Guji carry more intense floral aromas. When Guji beans are natural processed, the aroma and sweetness of Flower Champion rise to another level. Because the profiles of these two regions are so distinct and so outstanding, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange eventually listed them separately.

Natural Processing at Flower Champion

The unique flavor of Flower Champion is inseparable from its natural processing. According to FrontStreet Coffee, farmers harvest the fruit each year from December to January, and the sugar content of the red cherries must reach over 30% before the natural process can begin. The work is meticulous: for the first two days the humidity of the red cherries must be maintained so their fruit sugars can ferment fully. When midday temperatures climb, the cherries need shading on time to prevent sun damage that would harm fermentation. At night, thick plastic sheeting guards against sudden rain.

Natural Processing in Detail

According to FrontStreet Coffee, the coffee trees at the Buku processing station are all planted on the mountainside at 2,250–2,350 meters. Farmers only start the natural process once the harvested fruit reaches over 30% sugar content, and during the first two days the humidity of the red cherries has to be maintained so fermentation has enough time to complete.

Night temperatures here fall to around 12 degrees, which keeps the red cherries from over-fermenting. After 18 days of natural processing, once the fruit skin and pulp are fully dehydrated, the green beans inside can be removed easily. The beans are then packed and stored at 12–22°C and 45–55% humidity for about 50 days of resting and further dehydration. When moisture content falls to around 11%, the beans are hulled and sorted for market.

Flavor Profile of Flower Champion

One more point FrontStreet Coffee must mention: in the strict sense, only the 2017 TOH (Taste of Harvest) natural processing champion that entered China can be called Flower Champion. Because the flavor is so good, Hongshun Company continues to import beans from the Buku Abel processing station in Hambella each year, labeling them Flower Champion 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1 to distinguish batches and harvests. Even so, Flower Champion keeps certain fixed characteristics: it is procured and imported by Hongshun, and the production region remains locked to Buku Abel in Hambella. Of course, as an agricultural product it changes with the climate from year to year, so the flavor profile varies.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the floral, citrus and juicy fruit character of Ethiopian coffee is what you are after, FrontStreet Coffee has several lots worth trying.

FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe Daily Bean — the most classic introduction to the Ethiopia region. It is known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity and a tea-like body, and its friendly price makes it the first specialty coffee for many drinkers. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia within the Sidama zone, at roughly 1,700–2,100 meters, with the trees planted above 1,800 meters — among the highest coffee regions in the world. Thanks to its unmistakable white florals and lemon-citrus acidity, the name became shorthand for an entire style of Ethiopian specialty coffee, and in 2010 the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange formally separated it from Sidama.

FrontStreet Gedingding Cooperative — Yirgacheffe town contains many smaller zones and villages, and more than a few cooperative processing stations with mature techniques whose coffee reaches another level. The best-known example is FrontStreet's washed Gedingding Cooperative, located in the Worka area at the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe. It began as part of the Worka cooperative under the YCFCU union, and as demand for traceability grew it was uncovered by coffee hunters as a single-origin lot. Gedingding follows traditional washed processing, and the result carries no classic bitterness, instead offering clear citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine fragrance.

FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry — also from Yirgacheffe, this lot uses a full red-cherry natural process: only fully ripe, sound fruit is picked, sorted a first time at the processing station, then dried directly on raised beds. In the first few days the cherries are turned every 2–3 hours to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation. After three to five weeks of drying, workers remove the outer pulp by machine according to weather and temperature and move the beans to storage. Because the fruit dries with the pulp still attached, the cup keeps the typical Yirgacheffe profile while gaining tropical fruit from the natural process: citrus-like acidity, berry juice, honeyed sweetness and a creamy, smooth texture.

FrontStreet's brewing suggestion for Yirgacheffe: a V60 dripper, 90–91°C water, 15g of coffee, a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and a grind of 10 on an EK43s (fine sugar size, 80% passing a #20 sieve). The method: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then pour to 95g (about 125g on the scale) over roughly one minute; when the water level drops to two-thirds of the bed, add the remaining 100g (about 225g on the scale) over about 1 minute 35 seconds. Drawdown finishes at 2:00–2:10, then remove the dripper.