Ethiopia Washed Sidamo G1 Honey Import Micro-Batch Specialty Coffee Bean Variety Cultivation Market Price

This micro-lot is made up of 100% Red Cherry, hand-selected at the start. The coffee is then processed with Agared equipment to remove skin and pulp. The beans, still carrying their mucilage, ferment in tanks for 36 hours, followed by a 4-hour soak. After drying on 30x1.8 meter beds, the coffee is hulled and hand-sorted to G1 grade, then packed in GrainPro bags with jute sacks as outer packaging.

Oromia Region: The Birthplace of Coffee

Oromia is one of the world's coffee origins. The indigenous Oromo people here were among the first anywhere to use coffee as food, going back to the 5th century AD. Oromia lies roughly between 3°-15° north latitude and 33°-40° longitude, and is world-renowned for its primitive plant species and biodiversity. This is where coffee was born. For the local Oromo, coffee is not only a beverage but also food, an important part of their trade, their stimulant, and at the same time an important tool for keeping the peace.

Flavor Profile

Distinct notes of wild ginger and bergamot, with black currant underneath. The aftertaste carries the sweetness of raisins, and the overall profile is reminiscent of Earl Grey tea.

Coffee Information

Region: Ethiopia Oromia
Variety: Ethiopian Indigenous
Altitude: 2000m
Processing Method: Washed

Manufacturer: Coffee Workshop
Address: No. 10 Bao'an Qian Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, FrontStreet Coffee
Manufacturer Contact: 020-38364473
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Roasted coffee beans
Sugar Content: Sugar-free
Origin: Ethiopia
Roast Degree: Light roast

Ethiopia's Coffee Cultivation

Ethiopia grows coffee in every way imaginable: extensive wild coffee forests, semi-developed land, traditionally managed small plots and modern plantations. Roughly 50% of the crop is grown above 1,500 meters. By those production methods, Ethiopia divides into nine major coffee-producing regions - five specialty regions, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harar, Limmu and Kaffa, and four general commercial bean regions, Jimma, Illubabor, Tepi and Bebeka. Each region uses natural or washed processing, and the method shapes the flavor. Today natural processing accounts for about 80% of the crop and washed for about 20%.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Ethiopia is the world's best-known specialty coffee origin and, because it is the birthplace of coffee, it holds a seemingly endless supply of native varieties - a treasure house for drinkers who want to follow a flavor faithfully. For an entry point into Ethiopian specialty, FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe is the first pick, showing clear jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity. Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia where spring-like weather, drifting mist and a cool, damp climate let thousands of coffee trees flourish, producing that interwoven floral and fruit-acid character, a light, elegant palate with a tea-like quality - like a clean, refreshing glass of lemon tea.

Most Ethiopian coffee is grown in the garden-farming style, with smallholders delivering their harvested cherry to a village-level processing station and selling under the production team's name, which is why cooperatives of every size exist - FrontStreet Gutingding, FrontStreet Worka, FrontStreet Konga among them. Gutingding Cooperative sits in the Worka area at the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe; it began as part of the Worka cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers' Cooperative Union, but as the market's appetite for traceable green beans grew and coffee hunters kept uncovering individual single-origin lots, Gutingding's roughly 300 member farmers struck out on their own in 2012. Because the pulp is removed before drying, FrontStreet Gutingding's inherent aromatics come through more clearly, with citrus and lemon accents and elegant white florals, bright and fine overall.

Natural processing gives a different picture. FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry starts by discarding broken or moldy fruit, then dries the rest in the sun for two weeks until the sugars and essence of the fruit have seeped fully into the bean and moisture has fallen to 12%. Only then is the hardened fruit, mucilage and pod scraped away, and the resulting beans still pass density and color checks to eliminate defects, with workers picking out any stragglers by eye - layer after layer of screening. The result is bean after bean of specialty quality, clean and refined with a rich, captivating fruit aroma: peach, cocoa, honey and lemon. Then there is FrontStreet Natural Huakui, from the Hambella area of Guji in Sidamo. The farm covers 200 hectares and uses traditional natural processing. To keep the cherries from molding or picking up off-notes of earth during drying, workers spread the ripe fruit on raised beds for 21 days, turning constantly for even drying and manually removing defective or moldy beans every three to five days. Once the fruit skin has dried hard it is removed in a huller, and after the green beans are obtained the farmers sort one final time in pursuit of a flawless cup. Because the fruit and skin stay on throughout drying, a medium-light roast yields a light ferment and wine-like aroma, florals, citrus and mango, with a far denser and more complex palate of honey sweetness, a cocoa note and a touch of spice, a full body and a long finish.

Also from Sidamo, FrontStreet Hamasho Natural comes from a processing station whose consistent quality and distinctive flavor have made it a fixture on Ethiopian green bean competition lists. It focuses on the disease-resistant 74 series released by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center, and 74158 in particular has smaller beans with striking floral and fruit aromas. FrontStreet Hamasho 74158 has an inviting perfume that recalls perfume lemon, strawberry and star fruit, and the entry brings very clear strawberry, star fruit and green grape, with soft florals rising behind them. Finally, FrontStreet Kafa Forest represents wild coffee rather than the garden-farming model: the trees grow in shade at 1,400-2,100 meters, where a pristine forest, microclimate, red soil and plentiful rain create ideal conditions. Roasted medium-light, the grounds carry pronounced white florals, and the cup shows bright lemon acidity with sweet orange and bergamot, a finish of faint melon and nut, and an overall green-tea-like texture.