What is Flower Queen Coffee? What's the difference between Flower Queen 8.0 and 7.0? Is Flower Queen the same as Geisha?

The FrontStreet Ethiopia Sidamo Flower Queen, listed on FrontStreet Coffee's bean menu, has become an essential staple for countless fruit acid coffee lovers. It has now不知不觉 reached its 8th year since debut. The latest batch from the new season follows the long-standing naming convention, being marketed as "Flower Queen 8.0." Tasting the new Flower Queen has become the top priority for loyal fans. So, how does this year's "Flower Queen 8.0" taste? Does it have that "Flower Queen flavor"? For details, please follow FrontStreet Coffee into today's retrospective story~

What is "Flower Queen Coffee"?

FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Flower Queen refers to a sun-dried coffee bean from Ethiopia's Hambella region, with the full English name "Ethiopia Guji Hambella Buku Abel." Broadly speaking, it's a champion bean from Ethiopia's Guji region; more specifically, it's a sun-dried batch produced by the smaller Hambella Buku Abel processing station. In stark contrast to the bumpy origins of Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Flower Queen has been popular in every specialty coffee shop since its launch in 2017, thanks to its distinctive strawberry cream aroma - truly reaching its peak upon debut.

Perhaps due to having semantically similar translated names and both being explosive representatives of floral and fruity flavored coffees, many friends new to the field might mistakenly think that Flower Queen is Geisha, or that Geisha is Flower Queen, even spreading the notion that "Flower Queen is top-grade Geisha." In fact, they are completely different concepts.

Why is it called "Flower Queen"?

Before "Flower Queen Coffee" became "Flower Queen," it was actually an award-winning competition-grade coffee bean from Ethiopia. In February 2017, when Ethiopia's DW Coffee Company participated in the TOH (Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest competition) organized by the African Fine Coffee Association, they submitted a sun-dried coffee bean from the Sidamo region's Hambella Buku Abel processing station. With its rich berry aroma and cream-like texture, it won the championship in the sun-dried category that year.

In the same year, this championship batch was selected by a Beijing green bean trader. Because of its champion status, it was named "Flower Queen" and introduced to the domestic market, symbolizing "the first among hundred flowers, outshining all others." Immediately after, this "Flower Queen" was used as competition beans by a coffee brewing competition participant (China region), defeating many opponents using Geisha on site and winning the runner-up position that year. This was also the first time Flower Queen "made its name" in China.

As the heat from the competition stage continued to rise, this traditional sun-dried bean from the Buku Abel processing station successfully "debuted." Coupled with its affordable price and pleasant flavor, it quickly became widely recognized within the circle as a high-quality Ethiopian coffee.

What does Flower Queen [X.0] mean?

In our impression, coffee bean naming methods usually follow certain patterns, and once established, they don't change. For example, Geisha is a variety, Blue Mountain is an origin, and Gudingding is a processing station. However, FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen from Ethiopia's Sidamo region is particularly special. Like Apple's iPhone, it needs to be given a new "version name" each year before going to market. Why is this?

In fact, before this bean was called "Flower Queen," it only had an English name "Hambella," translated as "Hambella." To put it plainly, what we call "Flower Queen Coffee" is actually a traditional sun-dried G1 coffee bean from the Hambella region, with "Buku Abel" processing station being its more precise traceability information, located in Dimtu town.

During each coffee harvest season (December-January), the Buku processing station organizes farmers to pick fully red coffee cherries with sugar content values reaching above 30. The selected coffee fruits are placed on African raised beds for drying. Due to the large day-night temperature difference locally, farmers take measures to shade from the sun at noon to avoid excessive fermentation from high temperatures, and use plastic covers at night to prevent sudden rain showers. They turn the fruits continuously throughout the day to ensure even drying while preventing sun damage or unpleasant fermentation flavors. After about 18 days of sun-drying processing, the moisture content of the green coffee beans reaches only 13%, allowing machine removal of the outer shell.

After Flower Queen became famous overnight, to meet the surge in market demand, DW Company established 5 independent green bean drying processing stations in Hambella Wamena Wereda, all located within the core production area of Dimtu town. Besides the original Buku Abel, four other small villages - Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, Tirtiro Goye, and Seke Bokosa - also joined in producing sun-dried coffee beans. It's reported that at this time, the "Flower Queen" produced annually under DW Company had already reached tens of millions of tons.

Starting from the 2018 production season, Flower Queen (FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Sidamo Sun-dried G1 coffee beans) from the same growing region and same processing stations began to show some flavor changes. FrontStreet Coffee discovered through cupping that although the 2018 and 2019 Flower Queen had similar "sun-dried Sidamo flavor" to the 2017 Flower Queen, they were slightly inferior to the "first-generation Flower Queen" in terms of body, aftertaste, and other mouthfeel aspects.

Therefore, to continue selling this sun-dried coffee from Hambella while making certain distinctions from the original version, domestic green bean trading companies calculated from 2017 onwards and established X.0 suffixes for each subsequent year's batch. For example, the 2018 batch was called "Flower Queen 2.0," the 2019 production was called "Flower Queen 3.0 and 3.1"... last year's release was "Flower Queen 7.0," and so on. This way, we can identify through this suffix which year's product the Flower Queen we purchased belongs to and whether it's the latest batch.

What constitutes "Flower Queen flavor"?

Flower Queen, if we only look at the literal meaning, might think it's a coffee with "abundant floral aroma." This is actually not the case. Flower Queen's floral notes are not particularly strong; instead, its fruit aroma is especially prominent, such as cream strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus, blueberry, etc. It possesses the unique mature tropical fruit tonality of FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo sun-dried beans, thus often leaving a deep impression. It was precisely this rich berry fragrance that won "Flower Queen" first place in that year's TOH green bean competition.

But everyone knows that coffee is essentially an economic agricultural crop. The annual yield and quality are first affected by factors such as climate rainfall, altitude soil, fertilization, and weeding. Then, differences in processing details (sun exposure time, temperature, humidity) will present different flavor profiles. Flower Queen is naturally no exception. Therefore, each year's production of Flower Queen beans compared to the previous year will have more or less differences in taste.

So, how does this year's Flower Queen 8.0 taste?

These past few days, FrontStreet Coffee's newly acquired Ethiopia Sidamo Sun-dried Flower Queen 8.0 has finally arrived. Taking advantage of its freshness and having looked forward to it for a year, of course, we must taste it properly. To present the refined floral and fruity flavors of the Sidamo region without losing the coffee's caramelized aroma, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster used medium-light roasting to present this FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo sun-dried bean.

FrontStreet Coffee · Sidamo Flower Queen 8.0 Coffee Beans

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Sidamo · Guji Region
Altitude: 2250～2350 meters
Variety: Local native varieties
Processing: Natural process
Flavor: Floral, jackfruit, preserved fruit, apricot, juicy sensation

The new season's FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen 8.0, in its dry aroma, shows a richer fruit profile than FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen 7.0, with dense aromas of guava, jackfruit, apricot, preserved fruit, citrus, and pink floral notes. When hot water is poured, one can smell sweet aromas of honey, berries, and chocolate.

Through slurping, FrontStreet Coffee first experiences the interweaving of multiple fruit flavors in this FrontStreet Coffee Flower Queen 8.0 - dried mango, jackfruit, orange, passion fruit - with clear acidity and juicy texture, rounded mouthfeel. As the temperature slightly decreases, the light sweetness of peach and the bright acidity of berries begin to emerge. After swallowing, one can experience a sweet aftertaste similar to drinking black tea, with very rich layers.

FrontStreet Coffee Barista Brewing Parameters Sharing

Dripper: V60
Water Temperature: 91-92°C
Coffee Dose: 15g
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: Fine sugar size (sieve through #20 sieve to 80%)

First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. Start timing while pouring. Use a small water stream, pouring from the center point and spiraling outward, ensuring the entire coffee bed is moistened.

After 30 seconds, begin the second pour with a slightly larger water stream, steadily pouring 95g of water. The goal is to raise the entire coffee bed. The water stream needs to be poured vertically and evenly. At this point, the scale shows 125g, and the pour should be completed around 55 seconds.

When the liquid level drops to about halfway, start the third pour of 100g using a small water stream in small circles. Try to control the water stream to avoid too large circles, which can easily disperse the coffee bed and cause under-extraction. The final pour amount is 225g total, with the drip completion time around 2 minutes.

Important Notice :

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Tel:020 38364473