Understanding the Third Wave of Coffee Through Yirgacheffe's Past and Present (Part 1)

Coffee Guide: Yirgacheffe beans have undoubtedly become a major sensation from Ethiopia in recent years, seemingly representing the third wave of coffee culture. Why did it suddenly surge in popularity? This article will guide you through understanding the third wave of coffee by exploring the past and present of Yirgacheffe.

Nowadays, when mentioning Ethiopian coffee beans, most coffee enthusiasts' first reaction is Yirgacheffe, with other reactions likely including Harrar, heirloom Geisha, Limu, and Sidamo. In the past two years, Yirgacheffe's popularity has continued to grow unabated, making people truly take notice of these small-sized beans.

Regarding Yirgacheffe, it actually entered the domestic market quite early, though at that time it was called Mocha, later categorized by origin as Yirgacheffe, and then began to gain popularity. In the last three to four years, with increasingly refined grading systems, Yirgacheffe has become even more popular. But just how popular is it? Let's take a look at the following images. (Prices have been removed to avoid disputes.)

FrontStreet Coffee Taobao Store

Coffee Workshop Taobao Store

In our two Taobao stores, two out of the top three products are Yirgacheffe, which speaks volumes about its popularity.

Yirgacheffe's fame comes from its signature citrus, lemon, and floral notes brought out by the washed processing method, along with lemon black tea flavors. Nowadays, it's even more praised for its tropical fruit flavors in natural processing. Yirgacheffe, with its easily recognizable flavor profile, has been sought after by many coffee enthusiasts, and has also allowed many newcomers to coffee to experience tastes different from instant coffee and Starbucks.

Of course, Yirgacheffe has also had some minor mishaps.

Since Yirgacheffe beans are predominantly small-sized, they are suitable for medium-light roasting. After all, being heirloom varieties, they cannot be as uniform in size as exported beans from Central and South America. Yirgacheffe's grading is based on a comprehensive score of physical defects and cupping quality. So actually, the heirloom beans are not uniform in size, but the Yirgacheffe beans on the market today are surprisingly consistent in their small size. For reference, looking at Sidamo natural G3 can show you what heirloom varieties actually look like. However, I've also seen green bean supplier data stating that Yirgacheffe's variety is Typica. Logically, with such rich fruity acidity, it should be Bourbon.

Yirgacheffe: A Representative of Third Wave Coffee

As the undisputed representative of third wave coffee, one of Yirgacheffe's characteristics is its easily recognizable flavor profile. The second is its ability to showcase its characteristics at an a* value of 55, compared to traditional Central and South American washed beans that require darker roasting, possibly suitable at an a* value of around 25-40.

As for why this is the case, although some people like to use charts to explain that longer roasting times reduce acidity and increase bitterness, in reality, both coffee's mouthfeel and coffee beans themselves are quite mysterious. It's not that acidity is burned away leaving only bitterness, nor are these aromatic substances fixed and unchanging. What the charts don't tell us is that these lost aromatic compounds can still transform into other substances. The complexity we perceive in our mouths is not simply represented by a few lines on a chart.

Coffee as Fruit: The True Nature of Yirgacheffe

Coffee beans are a type of plant fruit, and also an agricultural crop. The existence of Yirgacheffe better interprets the fruit attribute of coffee. Third wave specialty coffee has always aimed to express coffee's regional flavors. Regarding this issue, looking at Counter Culture Coffee's flavor wheel shows that nearly half of the flavor descriptions are related to fruits. There are also many characteristics that at first glance remind one of fruits, which I won't elaborate on further here. You can compare Yirgacheffe's flavor profile with these descriptions.

Source: Coffee Altar Official Account

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