Yirgacheffe Natural Aricha Specialty Green Coffee Beans - Yirgacheffe Aricha 2015 New Crop

FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Aricha Coffee Bean Details:

Country: Ethiopia

Grade: G1

Region: Yirgacheffe Gediyo

Altitude: 1900-2100 meters

Processing: Natural

Variety: Heirloom

Producer: Kebel Aricha

Flavor: Light fermented wine aroma, sweet orange, spices, honey sweetness

Origin Story

This batch of FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe is produced at the Kebel Aricha processing station, where approximately 650-700 small coffee farmers from nearby areas deliver their ripe cherries for processing in exchange for cash. After the station screens the usable cherries, they are placed directly on drying racks for sun exposure. During the first few days of drying, the cherries are turned every 2-3 hours to prevent over-fermentation. After four to six weeks of natural processing, workers remove the outer pulp by machine depending on weather and temperature conditions, then transport the beans to Addis for storage. Naturally processed beans are typically stored in parchment form until just before export to protect green bean quality. This batch of FrontStreet Coffee natural Aricha has been rated G1, the highest grade by ECX, showing excellent quality from green bean appearance, consistency, and freshness through to dry aroma and flavor. If you love bright acidity and rich berry flavors, you absolutely cannot miss this.

Flavor Profile

Light fermented wine aroma, jujube, sweet orange notes, dark berries, lychee, starfruit, peach, nectarine, longan red date aroma, honey sweetness, cocoa with subtle spice notes, full body with a persistent aftertaste

About Project Origin

Sasa Sestic, the 2015 World Barista Champion, launched a green bean sourcing project called Project Origin three years ago with his business team ONA Coffee. The project works directly with coffee farming families in impoverished countries and regions, improving their production conditions and offering them purchase prices 20% higher than fair trade prices.

The project's original vision also includes strengthening the connection between roasters and coffee farmers while guiding farmers to cultivate high-quality beans. To date, Sasa has established relationships with coffee growers in eight countries, including Brazil, Panama, India, Ethiopia, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Aricha is a natural Yirgacheffe, and the best way to appreciate what that process adds is to taste it against the washed side of the same region. FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe daily drinker is the classic starting point, known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like body—priced affordably enough to become many people's first specialty coffee bean. Yirgacheffe (Yirga cheffe) is a small town in Ethiopia's southern Sidamo province at roughly 1,700-2,100 meters, with the coffee trees planted above 1,800 meters, making it one of the world's highest coffee-growing regions. The area has been wetland since ancient times, and the name has come to stand for a highly recognizable white floral note and lemon-citrus acidity; in 2010, because the Yirgacheffe name had grown so famous, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange finally separated it from the Sidamo region, which is why Yirgacheffe coffee is now so widely known.

Within the town are many smaller areas and even individual villages, and several experienced cooperatives there—with mature production methods—push the flavor up another level. The most representative is the FrontStreet washed Gedeb Geding Cooperative, from Geding village. Located in the Woka area at the southeastern end of Yirgacheffe, it was originally part of the Woka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe union YCFCU, and as demand for traceable green coffee grew it was uncovered as a "single origin" by coffee hunters around the world. Its processing follows the most traditional washed method, and the cooperative is often called Yirgacheffe's last pure land: FrontStreet's Gedeb Geding has none of the traditional bitter note, carrying instead fresh, bright citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine fragrance—the reason many coffee people fall for it on the first cup.

For the fruit-forward side, FrontStreet's Red Cherry beans use whole-ripe-cherry natural processing, taking only fully ripe, sound cherries: a first screening at the mill, then straight onto raised beds to dry, with a turn every 2-3 hours over the first few days to prevent uneven heat and over-fermentation. After 3-5 weeks of sun-drying, workers scrape off the outer pulp by machine according to the weather and temperature and move the beans to storage. Because the cherry dries with the fruit still on it, the coffee keeps the typical Yirgacheffe character while gaining tropical fruit from the natural process—citrus acidity, berry juice, honey sweetness, and a creamy smoothness. For brewing, FrontStreet suggests a V60 dripper at 90-91°C, 15g of coffee, and a 1:15 ratio, with a grind of EK43s setting 10, or fine-sugar size (80% passing a #20 sieve): a first stage of 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then 95g more (the scale reads about 125g), finishing in about 1 minute; when the water level drops to two-thirds of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale about 225g), finishing in about 1 minute 35 seconds; the drawdown completes in 2 to 2 minutes 10 seconds, at which point remove the dripper.