Flavor Description of Red Cherry Project Sidamo Coffee Beans: Introduction to Origin Region, Varieties, and Taste Profile

Red Cherry Project: FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo Coffee Beans Flavor Description

Origin, variety, and taste profile introduction

The Red Cherry Project

The Red Cherry Project is a quality-improvement initiative that pays farms to invest extra effort in bean selection and sorting — and the resulting coffees command noticeably higher prices. The program spans washed, natural, semi-washed, semi-natural, and experimental coffees, drawn from production regions including Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Bench Maji (Bonga Forest), Lekempti, Kembata, Illubabor, Harar, and Limu, with the Golocha region near Harar added in 2011. Every one of these coffees carries a unique flavor that showcases what Ethiopian coffee can be.

When the coffee arrives, Trabocca performs an additional selection of its own. Farms that pass cupping tests run by both the Ethiopian and Dutch offices — and meet the standards — earn substantial bonuses. Only coffees cupping above 88 points qualify as quality coffee under the Red Cherry Project. Trabocca, the project's founder, pours every profit earned over recent years straight back into the cooperative farms. The company stresses that this is a non-profit venture: it runs the entire Red Cherry Project with just four people — including the owner and a secretary — while the parent company absorbs other administrative work to keep overhead down, so that all profits return to the cooperative farms.

Kebecha Cooperative

Kebecha is a small coffee cooperative in a little town inside the Darra production area of Sidamo province. Its hundreds of smallholder farmers average a cultivation area of about 0.6 hectares each. Growing altitudes reach nearly 2,000 meters, where wide temperature swings and fertile soil create an outstanding environment — and the green beans themselves give off rich aromas of raisin and fermented wine.

By appearance, the yellowish-brown beans are not large — they're the slender type — yet they feel substantial in the hand. After roasting, they reveal bright berry aromas or a rich, chocolate-like aftertaste, so this FrontStreet Coffee Sidamo performs impressively whether roasted light or dark.

Flavor Profile

Flavors: berry, tropical fruit, fermented wine aroma, jujube, tea-like notes, milk chocolate. Medium body with a cocoa aroma in the finish that carries hints of spice and tea fragrance — complex and persistent. As the cup cools, it tastes cleaner and the balance steps even further forward.

Processing Methods

Washed-processed coffees rarely carry wild flavors; they run pure and refreshing, suited to City through Full City roasts. The very finest Ethiopian washed beans can reveal rising lemon and citrus-essential-oil notes, jasmine fragrance, and honey, with more pronounced acidity and a lighter body.

Natural-processed Mochas, by contrast, carry wild flavors in their baseline profile — to varying degrees — and express themselves best at Full City to Vienna roast levels. Exceptional natural Mochas finish with obvious dark chocolate, and some even offer delightful blueberry-like fermented fruit flavors with a red-wine texture.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To taste the sun-dried side of Ethiopian coffee at its best, try the FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry: only fully red-ripe, defect-free cherries are picked, sorted at the station, and laid out on drying beds — turned every 2-3 hours for the first few days to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation, then dried for three to five weeks before the pulp is stripped. The result keeps classic Yirgacheffe character while adding tropical fruit: citrus acidity, berry juiciness, honey sweetness, and a cream-smooth body. For the washed counterpoint, the FrontStreet Washed Idido Cooperative brings clean, bright citrus-lemon acidity and jasmine florals — a lovely side-by-side comparison with the Red Cherry natural.