I believe many coffee lovers have heard that Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and the local coffee culture is very strong. Ethiopian people are world-famous for their love for coffee. The various coffee shops dotted in the streets and alleys seem to remind you that this is the birthplace of coffee.
The story of shepherds and coffee
According to legend, on the plateau of Ethiopia, a shepherd named Carl accidentally discovered that his goats became extremely excited after eating some kind of wild red fruit while grazing. Curious, he picked some and tasted them at home. After eating them, he felt refreshed and very excited, so he shared them with the villagers. As the news spread, coffee beans came to the Arabian Peninsula, cultivation and trade gradually began, and coffee beans began a global journey that lasted for hundreds of years.
In Ethiopian language, coffee is "bunn" or "buna". The origin of coffee is Kaffa. So coffee is sometimes called "Kaffa bunn", or coffee from Kaffa. Therefore, the term "coffee bean" is often considered to be the Anglicization of "Kaffa bunn". The English word coffee comes from the place name "kaffa" in Ethiopia. Here, coffee is more like a cultural belief of the locals. The Ethiopian people have well preserved the original purity of coffee. They use the most primitive iron pestles to grind the charcoal-roasted coffee beans into powder and put them into the coffee pot. The boiled coffee slowly emits a unique aroma and is tasted with traditional bread.
Yirgacheffe isSynonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee
Coffee cultivation in Ethiopia is mainly concentrated in the western and southern regions, with small farmer families accounting for 90% of the total planting. Nearly 1.2 million small farmer families make a living from coffee cultivation. Administratively, coffee is grown in five major states in Ethiopia, including Harar coffee,Yirgacheffe coffeeand Sidamo coffee are the most famous. Among them, Yirgacheffe is a very small town, but it produces thousands of tons of specialty coffee every year. This shows that the Yirgacheffe production area plays an important role in Ethiopia.
The coffee production system in Ethiopia is divided into four types: forest coffee, semi-forest coffee, pastoral coffee and large plantations. Pastoral coffee is the most common, with each household planting no less than 4 hectares. Since the yield of coffee grown by small farmers is small, there are large and small coffee cooperatives and processing plants in the local area, which are mainly responsible for the processing of green coffee beans in the area. Farmers send the coffee beans they harvest to a nearby treatment plant built near the water source for unified treatment, and then sell them under the name of the treatment plant.
The Fruit Tintin Cooperative was originally part of the Woka Cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Union YCFCU. But later, as people pursued the traceability of green coffee beans, independent "single production areas" were unearthed one by one by coffee hunters around the world. Therefore, in 2012, a production team with about 300 farmers was independently established as the "Guo Ding Ding Cooperative". Among those who come to Front Street to drink coffee, if they want to drink washed fruit-flavored coffee, the baristas at Front Street Coffee will give priority to recommending the Guodingding Cooperative Coffee on the bean rack. The water-washed Dingding Coffee not only lacks the bitterness of traditional black coffee, but also has fresh and bright citrus, citric acidity, and the fragrance of jasmine, making many coffee drinkers fall in love with it as soon as they drink it.
Traditionally, farmers would place the coffee berries directly on the terrace or flat on the ground after harvesting, and expose them to direct sunlight to dry them. The coffee berries have a moisture content of only about 12% before they can be sent for shelling and packaging. Coffee beans processed in this way are prone to earthy, over-fermented and rotten fruit flavors. In order to improve the defective flavor caused by this exposure method, Ethiopia introduced water-washing processing technology from Central and South America. During the washing process, there are multiple steps to remove defective beans, showing cleaner acidity in the flavor and enhancing the aroma of Yirgacheffe.
Guodingding Cooperative Coffee Hand Brew Flavor Description
Front Street ThinksYirgacheffeIt has fruit acidity as its main representative flavor and is more suitable for light roasting, highlighting the bright fruit acidity of Yirgacheffe. The freshly baked Yirgacheffe will be cupped and tasted by Front Street as soon as possible. The dry aroma of Washed Fruit Cooperative Coffee exudes fresh passion fruit, citrus, and sour berry aroma. The wet aroma is citrus, berries, the acidity of citrus in the entrance, the sweetness of berries, almonds, tea, and the sweetness of honey in the aftertaste. Low body, bright acidity, clean and refreshing.
After the coffee beans are roasted, they will have 4-7 days to exhaust and grow, and then they will enter the best tasting stage. As the storage time increases, the aroma of the coffee will evaporate more quickly, and the flavor and taste will be greatly reduced. In order to ensure that the coffee you drink has the best flavor, Front Street will ensure that only freshly roasted beans within 5 days are shipped, so that the coffee beans you receive have the best aroma.
due toYirgacheffeGrown at high altitude and roasted lightly, the internal texture of the coffee beans is not altered that much. In order to release more rich aroma, Front Street will use higher water temperature and finer grinding degree for extraction, and use V60 filter cup. The body of the V60 filter cup has diversion ribs connecting the top and bottom and a large round hole in the center, which speeds up the flow rate of water falling. The spiral-shaped exhaust groove design lengthens the water flow path and increases the contact time between coffee powder and hot water. Each stream of water flows along the groove to the center of the filter cup. The pressure on the coffee powder is concentrated, and the extracted coffee has a richer layered texture.
YirgacheffeBrewing parameters:
Filter cup: V60
Water temperature: 92-93 degrees Celsius
Powder amount: 15g
Pink to water ratio: 1:15
Grinding degree: the size of fine sugar (sifted in a No. 20 sieve bowl to 78%)
In the first stage, 30 grams of water is injected and steamed for 30 seconds, then 95 grams (the electronic scale shows about 125 grams) is injected, and the injection is completed in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the powder layer, the remaining 100 grams (the electronic scale shows about 225 grams) is injected, and the injection is completed in about 1 minute and 35 seconds. 2’10” drip filtering is completed, remove the filter cup and complete the extraction.
Washed Fruit Cooperative Flavor: The entrance has the aroma of jasmine, lemon, citrus, and green tea. As the temperature changes, there is an aftertaste of berries, cream, and sugar cane. The aftertaste is obvious and the taste is clean and sweet.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
