Flavor Profile and Characteristics of Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans: Taste, Grind Settings, Origin, Variety, and Processing Method

Many beginners ask FrontStreet Coffee for recommendations on beans to practice with, as they are new to specialty coffee. FrontStreet Coffee typically recommends FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans.

What is Yirgacheffe?

"Yirgacheffe" is a small town in Ethiopia, commonly translated as "耶加雪菲" in Chinese, though some places translate it as "耶加雪啡". The elevation here ranges from 1700 to 2100 meters, making it synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee. This area has been wetland since ancient times. In the local language, "yirga" means "to settle down" and "cheffe" means "wetland," thus Yirgacheffe means "to settle and make a living in this wetland."

Initially, Yirgacheffe was a sub-producing area of Ethiopia's Sidamo province, located in the northwest of Sidamo and one of Ethiopia's highest-altitude coffee-producing regions. Because the production methods and flavors here are so outstanding, Ethiopian coffee farmers competed to be proud that their coffee had Yirgacheffe characteristics. Therefore, it separated from the Sidamo producing area to become Africa's most renowned producing area. (In the future, more producing areas will become independent based on flavor orientation.)

Subsequently, around 1995, Ethiopia made changes to its administrative divisions. The biggest impact on coffee regions was that the original Sidamo was divided into the new Sidamo (occupying a small part of the original) and most of it was incorporated into Oromia. The original Yirgacheffe, which belonged to Sidamo province, is now incorporated into the new Gedeo zone.

Among the Ethiopian coffee items currently circulating in the market, there may be mixed situations named after new and old regional names. Here we use the new regional division as the basis.

Most of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee cultivation belongs to the garden coffee model, where coffee farmers plant coffee trees near their living areas, harvest them themselves during the harvest season, and then send them to nearby processing plants built near water sources for unified processing (or uniformly purchased by middlemen).

Except for a small number of plantations that have the strength to independently grow, harvest, and process raw coffee beans, coffee beans from different regions and varieties are concentrated at processing plants and then sent to auction houses for official evaluation and grading.

This is also why many of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans are named and distinguished by processing plants or cooperatives. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Gedeb comes from the Gedeb Cooperative.

FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb Coffee Beans

The Gedeb Cooperative was originally affiliated with the Worka Cooperative. Later, international coffee hunters found Gedeb village and discovered that the coffee produced here had excellent jasmine floral aroma and citrus acidity. Therefore, they signed a bean purchase contract separately with the Gedeb Cooperative. In 2012, 300 coffee farmers who originally belonged to the Worka Cooperative broke away to establish the Gedeb Cooperative and independently engage in fair trade.

The Gedeb Cooperative produces both sun-dried and washed processed coffee beans, while FrontStreet Coffee purchases the washed processed version of FrontStreet Coffee's Gedeb coffee beans. Because FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed processed coffee beans best reflect FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe's excellent floral aroma and citrus notes.

FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gedeb
Origin: Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative
Altitude: 2000-2100 meters
Variety: Local native varieties
Processing Method: Washed processing

FrontStreet Coffee's Gedeb Washed Processing

In Ethiopia, if a single coffee farmer wants to perform washed processing, it's impossible because it requires expensive washing equipment and space. Therefore, if you want to perform washed processing in Ethiopia, you must establish a washed processing plant. So washed processing is a very expensive processing method in Ethiopia, and the quality produced is also very high.

Since its establishment, the Gedeb Cooperative has had its own processing plant and can independently process the coffee beans it produces. First, a pulping machine is used to remove the skin and pulp of the coffee beans. Then the coffee beans are soaked in fermentation tanks for 24 hours. After that, channels are used to wash away the mucilage attached to the surface of the coffee beans. Then the coffee beans are dried to dryness, which takes about 2-3 weeks.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Suggestions

To express the floral aroma and citrus notes of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Gedeb, FrontStreet Coffee adopted light roasting.

FrontStreet Coffee uses a Yangjia Feima 800N semi-direct fire roaster, with a batch size of 500g. The drum temperature is set to 200°C when beans are loaded, the damper is opened to 3, and the heat is set to 160. The damper remains unchanged. The return point is at 1'32". When the drum temperature reaches 151°C, the damper is adjusted to 3.5. When the drum temperature reaches 140°C, the heat is adjusted to 180, with the damper unchanged. At this point, the surface of the beans turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, and it enters the dehydration stage.

At 8'35", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the toasted bread smell clearly turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, you must listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack starts at 8'53", the heat remains at 180 unchanged, the damper is adjusted to 4, and the development time after first crack is 1'45", with the beans discharged at 195°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-Over Brewing Suggestions

If you want to experience the rich flavors of coffee to the greatest extent, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing. The coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all roasted within 5 days, because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that the freshness of coffee beans has a great impact on flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," so that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when they receive it. The coffee's resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it is at the optimal flavor time.

When brewing this coffee bean, FrontStreet Coffee will choose a V60 dripper to increase the sense of layers. When brewing a single serving, 15 grams of coffee beans are selected, with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, meaning 225 grams of water are injected. The water temperature is 90°C, the grind size is medium-coarse, with a pass rate of 80% through a 0.85mm standard sieve.

The first segment injects 30 grams of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds, to release an appropriate amount of carbon dioxide. The second segment injects water to 125 grams. Wait until the coffee liquid drops to half before injecting the third segment of water. Finally, inject water to 225 grams. The extraction time is 2 minutes. As soon as 2 minutes are up, remove the dripper to end the extraction.

This FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb coffee has obvious citrus notes, yellow fruit flavors, and a smooth mouthfeel, with floral and tea-like notes in the middle.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's personal WeChat, WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

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