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Exploring Sidamo Shakiso Coffee: Flavor Profiles, Processing Methods, Varieties, and Regional Characteristics

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Natural-processed Sidamo offers floral notes with subtle earthy undertones, while washed processing reveals nutty fruit flavors with delicate cocoa notes. Both share a smooth, velvety mouthfeel and pleasing acidity. Light to medium roasts excel as single-origin, while medium to dark roasts work beautifully in blends and as espresso bases. Washed Sidamo beans appear light green with moderately sized beans.

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Sidamo Coffee Region

Sidamo's coffee flavors are extremely diverse. Different soil compositions, regional microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties create significant differences and characteristics in the coffee produced by each town area. The Sidamo growing region is located in southern Ethiopia, where agriculture is the main industry. Coffee growing areas are situated around the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.

Sidamo's coffee flavors are extremely diverse. Different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee species contribute to this diversity. The region features towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains with diverse topography. The local geology consists of nutrient-rich, well-drained volcanic soil with depths reaching nearly two meters, with surface soil appearing dark brown or brown. The area's greatest advantage lies in maintaining soil fertility through organic material circulation, using fallen leaves from surrounding trees or plant residues as fertilizer. This creates distinct differences and characteristics in the coffee produced by each town. In the 2010-2012 period, it consistently achieved high scores of 92-94 from the authoritative American coffee evaluation website CR.

This demonstrates the extraordinary nature of green beans from this region. Sidamo grows at elevations between 4,600-7,200 feet in the southernmost Ethiopian highlands (Sidamo Province). It is a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia, bordering Kenya, located southeast of Jimma and directly south of the capital. It typically has distinct sweetness and is favored by many people. The annual production is about 225,000 bags/60kg. The beans are slightly smaller than Longberry, greenish with gray tones. In Sidamo's sun-drying fields, coffee is placed in hemp net wooden racks, where workers take turns manually stirring the coffee under sunlight. Natural process Sidamo is usually exported mostly as G4, while washed Sidamo, due to more refined processing than natural methods, is mostly exported as G2 grade.

Shakisso, located in Guji, southern Oromia region, borders Sidama and Gedeo. This area has many mining pits that were previously used for gold mining, so there are many holes in this coffee growing area.

This makes walking between coffee growing areas dangerous. Shakisso is a unique growing region within Guji/Sidamo, even within Sidamo it's a remote area far from most coffee-producing areas. Another famous local product is gold. Factors such as miners, land, and ethnicity also made the region unstable in 2006. Therefore, the biggest problem facing this area now is the need for manpower to maintain growing areas and harvest coffee. Local small farmers began growing organic coffee in 2001 and work closely with medium-sized coffee producers because they know how to grow forest coffee in highland areas.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee recommends brewing method: Pour-over

Filter: V60

Water temperature: 91°C

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: BG-5R (Chinese standard 58% pass-through rate for #20 sieve)

Brewing technique: 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds, pour to 125g in stages. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the filter cup. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time is about 2 minutes.

The entry has distinct lemon acidity, with jasmine flower notes, cream, cane sugar, and nuts as the temperature slightly lowers. The aftertaste has oolong tea characteristics with a persistent sweet aftertaste. The overall feeling is very sweet and refreshing.

For this coffee from Shakisso, FrontStreet Coffee chooses light roast to preserve its aroma and fruit acidity. Higher temperatures can be used for extraction during brewing!