Which Coffee Varieties Use Red Wine Processing Methods: Flavor Descriptions and Taste Profiles

FrontStreet Coffee: Coffee Varieties Processed with the Red Wine Method

The red wine processing method, also called wine-like processing, draws its inspiration from winemaking. Today only eight estates in Colombia have successfully brought coffee processed this way to market. From what those eight estates have shared, the method can be roughly sorted into acetic acid fermentation (aerobic fermentation), lactic acid fermentation (anaerobic fermentation) and mixed fermentation (aerobic plus anaerobic).

Selected coffee cherries are placed by farmers in specific containers; when the Australian barista Sasa competed, the beans he used were processed in metal containers. Whatever the container, it should be fitted with something like a wine fermentation lock or one-way exhaust valve. This lets carbon dioxide escape and keeps the air concentration inside under control. At this stage the cherries in the container undergo acetic acid fermentation, producing beans with a relatively bright and clean flavour and a lemon-like acidity.

Washed processing is currently the most popular method, and most specialty beans use it, among them FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian washed Yirgacheffe and FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Assalia. The washed refining sequence runs: harvesting, water tank to remove impurities and unripe beans, pulper to remove pulp and impurities, fermentation tank to break down the mucilage on the parchment, washing channel to select dense, hard beans, drying field or dryer, huller to remove parchment, grading by electronic sorter or by hand and by screen, then export.

Semi-washed processing is also known as honey processing. It is a compromise between the dry and washed methods, dropping the fermentation step that washed coffee goes through. It is popular in regions such as Brazil and Costa Rica, with representative beans including FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian semi-dried Red Bourbon and the Costa Rica Musician Series. The sequence runs: harvesting, water tank to remove impurities and unripe beans, pulper to remove pulp and impurities, washing channel to select dense, hard beans, drying field or dryer, huller to remove parchment, grading by electronic sorter or by hand and by screen, then export.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Of all the processing routes above, washed processing remains the one that shows an origin most plainly, and FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe is the clearest place to taste that. It is the classic introduction to Ethiopia, known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity and a tea-like finish, at a price that has made it a first specialty bean for many drinkers. Yirgacheffe lies in southern Ethiopia's Sidamo area at roughly 1,700-2,100 metres, with trees planted above 1,800 metres, and its white florals and lemon-citrus acidity have made the name shorthand for Ethiopian specialty coffee. It was only in 2010, once the name had grown so strong, that the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange split Yirgacheffe off from Sidamo as its own region.

For a single-lot step up in clarity, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Gedeb cooperative beans come from the Woka area, once part of the Yirgacheffe union and now sought out as a single-origin micro-lot. Traditional washing leaves clean citrus and lemon acidity and jasmine fragrance with none of the bitterness people often expect. If you prefer fruit over florals, the natural red cherry lot is made from fully ripe red cherries only: sorted at the mill, dried on raised beds for three to five weeks with turning every two to three hours in the first days, then hulled and stored. It keeps the typical Yirgacheffe character while adding tropical fruit, citrus acidity, berry-juice body, honey sweetness and a creamy smoothness.

For brewing, FrontStreet Coffee uses a V60 with 15 grams of coffee at a 1:15 ratio and water at 90-91°C, ground to an EK43s setting of 10, about the texture of fine sugar with 80 percent passing a No. 20 sieve. Bloom with 30 grams of water for 30 seconds, pour to roughly 125 grams over about a minute, then when the water level falls to two-thirds of the bed add the remaining water to roughly 225 grams over about 1 minute 35 seconds. The brew finishes drawing down in 2 to 2 minutes 10 seconds.