Flavor and Taste Differences Between Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Sidamo Coffee Beans

For centuries, Ethiopia has provided some of the world's most acclaimed single-origin premium coffee beans, captivating countless people with their complex flavors, unique acidity, and delicate floral aromas. At FrontStreet Coffee, while our bean menu features dozens of options, many customers walk straight in and specifically request a cup of FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian pour-over. Why is this? What characteristics do people associate with Ethiopian coffee?

The Rich and Ancient Ethiopian Coffee Culture

Located in eastern Africa, Ethiopia is situated in a tropical region with high plateaus, resulting in predominantly mild climates throughout most of the year. The people here primarily engage in agriculture and animal husbandry, with coffee being one of the most important economic crops.

Legend tells of a shepherd named Kaldi in the Ethiopian highlands who discovered his goats becoming unusually energetic after eating certain wild red berries. Curious, he gathered some to take home and taste. After consuming them, he felt refreshed and invigorated, so he shared them with villagers. As word spread, coffee beans made their way to the Arabian Peninsula, where cultivation and trade gradually began, marking the start of a centuries-long global journey.

While this may be just a story, Ethiopians have indeed maintained a tradition of drinking coffee since ancient times. A fragrant cup of coffee in the morning is essential to start a refreshing day. In every corner of the villages, the air is forever filled with the aroma of coffee. Here, Ethiopians have preserved coffee's most pristine purity. They use iron pestles to grind charcoal-roasted coffee beans into powder, place it in coffee pots, and as the boiling coffee slowly releases its unique aroma, spices and sugar are often added for flavoring. Finally, it's served alongside traditional bread.

Ethiopians have a historically significant coffee ceremony that begins with roasting raw coffee beans in a flat iron pan until they're done, then crushing them with a mortar and pestle, and finally adding them to a clay pot called a "Jebena" with water for brewing. When the hot water mixed with coffee grounds begins to boil, it means the coffee is ready to be tasted. The ceremony consists of three rounds. The first cup is called Abol, during which the elders say blessings. The second cup is Tona, when people begin to chat about daily life. The third cup, Beraka, symbolizes joy, and only after finishing this cup is the ceremony truly complete.

In the Ethiopian language, coffee is called "bunn" or "buna," and coffee's origin is Kaffa, so coffee is sometimes referred to as "Kaffa bunn." Additionally, the term "coffee bean" is believed to be an English adaptation of "Kaffa bunn," and the English word "coffee" itself originates from the Ethiopian place name "kaffa." FrontStreet Coffee's Frontsteet Kaffa Forest Coffee on our menu derives its name from this origin. Using washed processing, it exhibits distinct jasmine and nut aromas when brewed.

How Do Ethiopians Grow Coffee?

Ethiopian coffee cultivation is primarily concentrated in the western and southern regions, with over half of production following smallholder farming models, also known as garden coffee. This is Ethiopia's main production method. It's estimated that nearly 1.2 million local families rely on coffee cultivation for their livelihoods, with each household farming no less than 4 hectares. Garden coffee refers to farmers managing coffee trees mixed with other economic crops in their backyards, typically planted alongside banana trees, creating unique green landscapes around every home.

Due to the small yields from smallholder farming, there are various farmer cooperatives or processing stations locally responsible for handling raw coffee beans from their regions. During harvest seasons, farmers package their coffee tree fruits and send them to nearby processing stations (cooperatives) built near water sources for unified processing, then sell them under the processing station's name. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Frontsteet Gedeb Cooperative Coffee Beans on our menu are collected from coffee fruits grown within Yirgacheffe town, sent to the town for unified washed processing, and finally produced and sold worldwide under the cooperative's name.

FrontStreet Coffee · Yirgacheffe

This melodious name originates from Yirgacheffe town. Strictly speaking, Yirgacheffe is a sub-region of Ethiopia's Sidamo region, located in the northwestern part of Sidamo. Until the mid-20th century, coffee fruits here were primarily processed using traditional natural methods, similar to other Sidamo towns, and Yirgacheffe coffee didn't yet have outstanding flavor characteristics.

It wasn't until the 1970s that Yirgacheffe town established Sidamo's first washed processing station, simultaneously introducing washed processing technology and equipment from Central and South America. Thanks to this initiative, not only did the quality of raw coffee beans improve significantly, but the inherent citrus and lemon aromas of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee were also enhanced, creating a cleaner, brighter taste and establishing a distinctive flavor profile. Since then, Yirgacheffe has become independent from Sidamo, forming its own school, and Yirgacheffe-flavored coffee has gained global popularity, becoming a classic product passed down among coffee enthusiasts.

To promote coffee industry development, the Ethiopian government registered three coffee regional flavors (including Yirgacheffe Yirgacheffee®) as commercial trademarks in 2004 and established the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in 2008. Coffee is one of the auctioned commodities at the exchange. The government implements quality grading and flavor classification for exported coffee, ensuring buyers can purchase coffee with trademarked flavors. Origins with Yirgacheffe flavor include Yirgacheffe, Wenago, Gelena Abaya, and Kochere.

The so-called "Yirgacheffe flavor" can be simply understood as coffee beans possessing unique citrus and lemon fruit aromas, jasmine fragrance, a clean and bright texture, and well-defined acidity without impurities. According to ECX contract agreements, besides Yirgacheffe town, coffee produced and processed in places like Wenago town in the north, Gelena Abaya in the west, and Kochere town in the south can also be classified as Yirgacheffe flavor coffee regions.

FrontStreet Coffee · Sidamo Flower Queen

In China, whenever FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo coffee is mentioned, most people first think of the recently famous FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen coffee, followed by other single-origin beans from the same region. What has made FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Flower Queen so popular in China, and how did it get the name "Flower Queen"?

FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen refers to a natural processed 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 natural processed batch produced by the smaller Hambella Buku Abel processing station. With its renowned reputation, excellent quality, rich and juicy fruit flavors, affordable price, and extremely high extraction compatibility (particularly easy to brew), the combination of these advantages not only makes Flower Queen stand out among Ethiopian coffees but also makes it the first choice for many friends trying single-origin coffee for the first time.

The impressive stage name "Flower Queen" was actually given by domestic green bean suppliers after this Ethiopian Sidamo bean successfully won the TOH natural processing category championship, combining Chinese cultural context to mean "the best of all flowers." Later, with promotional support from various merchants, it also gained the reputation of being "comparable to Geisha."

In fact, before this Ethiopian Sidamo bean was called "Flower Queen," it only had the English name "Hambella," translated as "Hambella." To put it plainly, what we call "Flower Queen coffee" is actually a traditional FrontStreet Coffee natural G1 coffee bean from the Hambella region, with "Buku Abel" processing station being its more precise traceability information, located in Dimtu town. After Flower Queen became famous, to meet the surge in market demand, DW company established 5 independent raw coffee bean drying processing stations in Hambella Wamena Wereda, all located within the core Dimtu town area. Besides the original Buku Abel, four other small villages—Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, Tirtiro Goye, and Seke Bokosa—also joined natural processed coffee bean production. It's reported that at this time, "Flower Queen" produced annually under DW company had reached tens of millions of tons.

Starting from the 2018 crop season, Flower Queen (FrontStreet Coffee's natural G1 coffee beans) from the same growing region and processing stations already showed some flavor changes. At that time, FrontStreet Coffee's cupping revealed that while the 2018 and 2019 Flower Queen had flavors similar to the 2017 Flower Queen, they were inferior to the "first-generation Flower Queen" in terms of body, aftertaste, and other taste aspects. Therefore, to continue selling this natural processed coffee from Hambella while making some distinction from the original version, domestic green bean trading companies calculated backward from 2017, creating X.0 suffixes for each subsequent 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 which year's batch the Flower Queen we purchased belongs to through this suffix.

Now,不知不觉, it has been 8 years since "Sidamo Flower Queen" debuted, and the latest crop season batch also follows the multi-year naming convention, being launched as "Flower Queen 8.0." Trying the new Flower Queen has become the primary task for "loyal fans." To present the refined floral and fruit flavors of the Sidamo region without losing coffee's caramelization aroma, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster used medium-light roast to present this FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Flower Queen 4.0 coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee · Sidamo Flower Queen 8.0 Coffee Beans

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Sidamo · Guji Region
Altitude: 2250-2350 meters
Variety: Local Landraces
Processing: Natural Processing
Flavor: Floral, Jackfruit, Preserved Fruit, Apricot, Juicy Sensation

Pour-over Suggestions for FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe and FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo Flower Queen 8.0 Coffee Beans

Dripper: V60
Water Temperature: 92-93°C
Dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: Fine sugar size (78% retention rate on #20 standard sieve)
Pouring Method: Three-stage pouring

Three-stage pouring: Use twice the amount of water to wet the coffee grounds, forming a dome for a 30s bloom, then pour in small concentric circles from inside out to 125g for the first segment. Wait until the bed drops to half the dripper's height, then continue with the same fine water flow to pour the third segment to 225g. Remove the dripper once all coffee liquid has filtered through, taking approximately 2 minutes total.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473