What is the Simon Special Processing Method? What is the Specific Process of Bag Fermentation Coffee Processing?

Whether natural or washed, coffee post-processing originally existed for one simple reason: drying the beans so they could be stored. But once people discovered that different processing methods create dramatically different flavors, ever more creative processes emerged in service of flavor—and today's popular "special" or experimental processes are the new generation of flavor-makers.

Today FrontStreet Coffee is introducing one of them: the Semeon Special Processing Method—a niche but utterly fascinating approach whose beans share one universally acknowledged trait: they're ugly.

As the photo shows, Semeon-processed beans really are unlovely to look at, with pronounced color variation across the batch. Anyone with a tidying instinct would be tempted to sort them for hours. But as the saying goes, never judge a bean by its cover! These odd-looking beans produce rare flavors like watermelon, mint, and guava—and many enthusiasts, won over by that unmistakable watermelon note, have become loyal fans of FrontStreet Coffee's Semeon beans.

Even the name is unusual. Most processing names compress the method's key steps into the label—coffee dried entirely in the sun is "natural," beans pulped and soaked in water are "washed," and semi-natural and wet-hulled processes follow the same logic. This method carries almost no information at all: it's simply named after its creator, Mr. Semeon Abay.

Semeon Abay is Ethiopian, and his life has been every bit as extraordinary as his process. He studied film in his youth, so his first job was as a film actor. He later moved to the United States, where he met his mentor—the owner of Novo Coffee—and somewhat "accidentally" became Novo's head roaster. Just as things were going well, in his fifth year at Novo, he was diagnosed with cancer. With doctors declaring it incurable, he left his job, said goodbye to America, and returned to Ethiopia to wait for the end. Miraculously, he survived! He then rejoined the Ethiopian coffee industry—this time as Processing Director at Ninety Plus (90+)!

You've probably heard of 90+—one of the first companies to apply special processing methods to Geisha. With remarkable talent and relentless effort, Semeon Abay mastered every aspect of 90+'s processing and rose to Processing Director. His instinct for bold experimentation and deep research into fermentation led him to invent several novel processes—and the Semeon Special Processing Method is one of them. It's also known as "Bag Fermentation," because it uses polypropylene bags to assist bean fermentation. (Image for reference only)

The Specific Process

Here's how it works. After harvest, the cherries go straight to the processing plant. First, bad fruit, unripe fruit, and debris are removed by flotation in water. The quality cherries are then packed into plastic bags, sealed, and stacked in a cool, dry place for 5 days. During those 5 days, the bags are turned every 12 hours to shift the beans' positions—moving those at the bottom to the top. With airflow strictly limited inside the bags, lactic acid bacteria proliferate, developing the coffee's distinctive and charming flavors. Because cherries in different positions ferment to different degrees, the finished beans show wildly inconsistent colors: cherries at the top and bottom of the bags ferment more heavily and turn darker, while those in the middle ferment more lightly and stay lighter. After 5 days, the fermented cherries move to raised drying beds and are spread in a thin layer. During the hottest hours of the day, workers cover the cherries to shield them from direct sun, slowing the drying and effectively extending fermentation; at night they're covered again—this time to block moisture—so the coffee dries more evenly.

Drying typically takes about 20 days. Once dry, the coffee is packed into jute bags for storage, and before export it passes through a hulling machine to remove the dried, shriveled husks. At that point, processing is officially complete.

The photo above shows unroasted Semeon beans, with their uneven, highly varied colors. Although fermentation degrees differ, Mr. Semeon deliberately does not sort them. His belief: it's precisely because one batch contains beans of different fermentation levels that the coffee gains richer layers and higher recognizability. And that's exactly the case—though it certainly keeps roasters on their toes. To showcase the explosive fruit notes of this process and boost sweetness, FrontStreet Coffee chose a classic medium-light roast for this lot. Below, a before-and-after comparison of the beans—enjoy seeing the transformation.

FrontStreet Coffee Guji Semeon Processed Landrace

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Guji
Variety: Landrace
Altitude: 2000 meters
Processing Method: Semeon Special / Bag Fermentation
Flavor Notes: Lemon, watermelon, guava, sweet orange, spices

Eight hours after roasting, FrontStreet Coffee cupped this Guji Semeon lot—and discovered that instead of the expected watermelon flesh, the flavor actually leans toward watermelon rind. The dry aroma reveals remarkable layering: rich fermented notes of spice, jackfruit, and dried berries, alongside fresh aromas of lemon and mint. In the mouth, you taste sweet guava, orange, and preserved fruit. After swallowing, a minty coolness appears, followed by the refreshing aftertaste of watermelon (rind) and lemon—and a classic 90+ signature cinnamon-spice note running through it all. The layering is extraordinary!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the Semeon process's wild fruit character is a little too adventurous for daily drinking, FrontStreet also recommends exploring the cleaner, more classic side of Ethiopia: washed specialty beans. Washing is the traditional water-based method—floating, pulping, fermenting to remove the mucilage, rinsing, drying, and hulling—and because the long soak reduces the beans' simple sugars while preserving their intrinsic character, washed coffees tend to be clean, fresh, and brightly acidic, letting the origin's own aroma shine.

Two washed favorites: the FrontStreet Yirgacheffe G1 Worka from the Guodingding cooperative—a skilled processing team from Guodingding village whose coffee, medium-light roasted, shows jasmine florals, bright citrus acidity, and green-tea and honey tones; and the FrontStreet Kenya "Cherry Tomato," a double-fermented washed SL28/SL34 from Thika grown at 1,550–1,750 meters, whose 72-hour double-wash delivers juicy notes of cherry tomato, dried plum, pear, black plum, and yellow sugar. If you'd rather have the balanced, low-acid classic, the FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1—also washed, which is exactly why Jamaica developed the method for its short island sunlight—shows hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel in perfect equilibrium. One bag of each, and you'll taste the full spectrum of what processing can do.