Horse Champion Coffee Bean Origin Introduction and Flavor Characteristics Description - What's the Difference Between New Horse Champion Coffee Beans and Horse Champion 6.0

The Story of Guanhua Coffee: From TOH Champion to Specialty Coffee Favorite

Many coffee enthusiasts have probably heard of "Guanhua Coffee Beans" when exploring specialty coffee. Since becoming an overnight sensation at the 2017 TOH (Taste of Harvest) competition, to being brought to competitions by Chinese baristas and winning championships, Guanhua from that year "dominated" the Geisha variety and left an unforgettable impression on those who tasted it.

The reason Guanhua coffee has become so popular is that the 2017 TOH Natural Process Champion Guanhua coffee beans possessed incredibly enticing flavors - creamy smoothness like strawberry cream, rose aromatics, and tropical fruit-like fermentation notes. Although Guanhua X.0 coffee beans from subsequent harvest seasons weren't as astonishing as the 2017 Guanhua, their full juicy mouthfeel and black tea-like aftertaste characteristics, combined with extremely high cost-performance ratio, allowed many beginners to discover for the first time that coffee isn't just bitter - it can be as fresh and enticing as fruit tea.

The Evolution of Guanhua Coffee

"So are the current Guanhua X.0 series coffee beans different from the 2017 Guanhua coffee beans?" Yes, the flavor profiles are definitely different. Coffee, as an agricultural product, has its fruit development and flavor formation influenced by multiple factors including climate, soil, and environment. A year of exquisite coffee flavor doesn't guarantee exquisite flavor every year. Therefore, when launching Guanhua coffee beans, DW Green Bean Company used X.0 to distinguish each harvest season - meaning 2018 production was Guanhua 2.0... and 2022 production was Guanhua 6.0.

The Origin and Naming of Guanhua

"Why can't Guanhua coffee beans be found abroad?" Because "Guanhua" is a name given by the Chinese! Abroad, they are known as Natural Process coffee beans from the Hambella region. After winning the championship in 2017, DW Company increased the number of processing stations in the core Dimtu area of Hambella, including "Buku Abel," "Buku Saysay," "Haro Soresa," and "Tirtiro Goye," with an annual coffee production of about 1,100 tons. In terms of growing region and processing stations, only those from the "Buku Abel" processing station's processing area cover the original small production area that produced the "Guanhua" natural process coffee beans.

Strictly speaking, only natural-processed Ethiopian native variety coffee beans from the Buku Abel processing station can be called "Guanhua X.0" when new seasonal Hambella region coffee beans are released each year. When FrontStreet Coffee cupped each new season's Guanhua coffee beans, they found that the overall body and aftertaste of subsequent Guanhua X.0 coffee beans couldn't match the 2017 Guanhua. However, in 2018 and 2019, some smaller coffee beans from Hambella's Buku processing station revealed flavors similar to the 2017 Guanhua coffee beans.

The Discovery of Small Bean Guanhua

By comparing different batches of Guanhua, FrontStreet Coffee realized that the main source of the 2017 Guanhua's aroma came from some particularly small-sized varieties among the Guanhua coffee beans. These small coffee beans weren't abundant - among ten burlap bags of Guanhua X.0 beans, there were only a few bags of these small beans. After two years of cupping in 2018 and 2019, FrontStreet Coffee confirmed that the main aroma source of Guanhua coffee beans came from these small Guanhua beans and shared this information with the green bean supplier. Therefore, starting in 2020, Guanhua split into two varieties: 4.0 and Small Bean Guanhua. Consequently, Small Bean Guanhua doesn't belong to the "X.0" series. Similarly, in 2022, the two beans were named Small Bean Guanhua and Guanhua 6.0 respectively.

Understanding Ethiopian Native Varieties

At this point, we can understand that "Guanhua" is just a name changed by domestic green bean suppliers, while in reality, it's the natural-processed native variety from Hambella's Buku processing station. Ethiopian native varieties don't refer to a specific variety. As the birthplace of coffee varieties, Ethiopia has too many coffee varieties - it's like a natural gene bank for Arabica. On one hand, there are numerous varieties making identification and classification difficult; on the other hand, the Ethiopian government, considering protection, is unwilling to disclose information about these varieties, so they are collectively called Ethiopian native varieties.

Precisely because of the variety complexity, there's mixed planting and mixed harvesting, so Ethiopian native variety beans will vary in size. This is also why there are some smaller-sized coffee beans even within the same Guanhua X.0 batch.

Natural Processing Method

As one of the most traditional coffee bean extraction methods, the natural process involves harvesting and selecting coffee fruits, then drying them whole until reaching 13% moisture content before removing the fruit skin, pulp, and mucilage. Therefore, during the drying process, the sugars in the coffee fruit pulp and mucilage will ferment under high temperatures, transferring some sugars and fermentation aromas into the coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee believes that naturally processed coffee beans have noticeable sweetness and pleasant light fermentation aromatics.

Roasting and Brewing Recommendations

When roasting Guanhua coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses light roasting to highlight their floral and fruit flavor characteristics. Therefore, the coffee beans' structure doesn't change significantly. Formed under the high-altitude environment of Ethiopia's Hambella region, the large temperature difference between day and night extends the coffee beans' growth time, making the bean structure denser and harder, with substances less likely to dissolve in water during extraction.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using medium-fine grinding (75%-80% pass-through rate with China #20 standard sieve) when brewing Guanhua coffee beans, paired with 90-91°C water temperature, and a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio for brewing. Once everything is ready, use a three-stage pouring method: start timing, first pour to 30g water for 30s pre-infusion; then begin the second stage with small water circular pours to 125g, wait until the water level drops to half before continuing, then continue small circular pours to 225g, and after complete drip-through, the total extraction time should be around 2 minutes 20 seconds to 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Flavor Profile of Small Bean Guanhua

FrontStreet Coffee's Small Bean Guanhua Coffee Beans Flavor Notes: Passion fruit, fermented wine aroma, strawberry, jackfruit, black tea.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473