Where is Ethiopia's COE Specialty Coffee Sidamo Region Arsi Area Located? Natural Process Sidamo Coffee Bean Flavor Notes.

In the 2020 COE (Cup of Excellence) competition, nine farms from Ethiopia's West Arsi region made the international finals — and four of them finished in the top ten. In a typical year fewer than 30 coffees reach the finals at all, which made West Arsi the breakout star of the 2020 COE.

West Arsi is a secondary administrative zone in western Oromia, about 300 kilometers northeast of the famous Yirgacheffe region and bordering Sidamo. Altitude runs from 1,900 to 2,200 meters, with temperatures swinging between 15°C and 25°C — a range wide enough to slow the beans' growth dramatically. The soil is natural humus formed from decaying leaves of the surrounding vegetation, allowing the coffee cherries to synthesize more sugars as they mature.

The Dominance of Typica Variety

Every coffee from West Arsi in this competition was of the Typica variety — the first coffee to spread from Ethiopia to plantations around the world. Typica is known for its delicate purple-tinged florals and wine-like acidity, along with its low yield and vulnerability to disease.

Marketing Strategy and Regional Recognition

Looking at the packaging of FrontStreet Coffee's COE22 beans, you might wonder why "Sidamo" appears on it, when geographically the two are merely neighbors. It's marketing, plain and simple. Sidamo beans have long enjoyed a strong international reputation, while West Arsi was virtually unknown — so to sell West Arsi coffees, merchants habitually labeled them as Sidamo, which only deepened the region's obscurity. Without the spectacular 2020 COE results, many coffee drinkers would still assume West Arsi lies inside Sidamo province.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If West Arsi's story makes you curious about Ethiopian coffee generally, start with the most classic expression of the region next door: FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe everyday lot. Grown at 1,800 meters and above around the small town that gave the region its name, it shows white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a clean tea-like finish at a very approachable price — the first bean many people ever call their favorite.

To taste the same region at a higher level, try the FrontStreet washed Idido Cooperative from the Worka area, water-processed the traditional way with no trace of bitterness — just luminous citrus, lemon, and jasmine. And for natural-process character, the FrontStreet Red Cherry Project dries fully ripe cherries whole on shaded beds, turning them every 2–3 hours at first over three to five weeks, yielding citrus acidity, juicy berries, honeyed sweetness, and a cream-smooth body — the Yirgacheffe signature amplified by the sun. To brew any of them: V60, 15g of coffee, 1:15 ratio, water at 90–91°C, a 30g bloom for 30 seconds, then pours to 125g and 225g, finishing around 2 minutes 10 seconds.