The well-known production areas in Ethiopia include Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, among which Front StreetYirgacheffeIt was originally a small town in the Sidamo production area, but because of its unique citrus and lemon acidity, it was separated from Front Street.Sidamo coffeeThe production area has become an independent production area, so what is the difference in flavor between them? Next, this article about FrontStreet Coffee will discuss it with all coffee fans.
Sidamo coffee producing area
FrontStreet Coffee often says that if you want to understand a coffee bean, you must start with its production area, variety, and processing method. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee will focus on these three factors to introduce it to coffee fans.
The Sidamo coffee production area is located in the south of Ethiopia. The altitude of the production area is about 1400-2000m. The industry here is mainly agriculture. Coffee is mainly planted around the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. Due to the different soil types and microclimates in Sidamo, plus Ethiopia itself has countless local native coffee species, the coffee flavor of Sidamo is very diversified. The coffee produced in each town of Sidamo will also have obvious differences and characteristics.
Among them, the most famous coffee producing areas in Sidamo are the Guji producing area and the Arsi producing area. For example, FrontStreet Coffee stores have coffee beans produced in these two producing areas for coffee fans to choose from.
Sidamo coffee beansTreatment method
According to Front Street, 70% of the production areas in Ethiopia use the sun-drying method, and the Sidamo production area is no exception. Most use the sun-drying method to process coffee fruits. The aroma of sun-treated coffee beans will be more fragrant than washed coffee beans in terms of flavor, and have a fermentation aroma. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the coffee beans in the Sidamo production area have a rich fruity aroma and a smooth taste.
Solar treatment process:
1. The first step is to pick mature coffee fruits, and then manually select the coffee fruits that are defective, overripe or insect-eaten, leaving good beans. This is also the main reason why the coffee beans in the Front Street store have a more uniform and beautiful appearance.
2. The good fruits that have been manually screened will be sent to the drying place for drying. Of course, the drying racks used in different coffee production areas are also different. Some are tarpaulins, raised beds or cement floors. The average drying time is 27-30 days. The drying process is not completed until the moisture content of the coffee is reduced to 11%.
3. This step is also a critical step. After drying, the coffee cherries will be sent to a special processing plant for peeling and shelling, and even polishing, so that the pulp and other parts of the coffee cherries will fall off before the real common coffee beans are obtained.
4. After peeling, the green coffee beans will be screened again to remove coffee beans with poor quality. This is because over-dried coffee beans will be more fragile and will be broken into pieces during the peeling process, while under-dried coffee beans will contain too much water. If the moisture is too active, the coffee beans will easily breed bacteria and become moldy. Therefore, they need to be screened again before being sent to the warehouse for storage and packaging for export.
Yirgacheffe coffeeProduction area
As mentioned above by Front Street, the coffee beans in the Sidamo production area are very diverse in flavor, and Yirgacheffe is separated because of the unique flavor of the coffee beans grown. It has become the most famous coffee producing area in Africa due to its flavor. When African coffee is mentioned, coffee fans will first think of Yirgacheffe coffee beans in Front Street.
Yirgacheffe has an altitude of 1800-2000m. It is also one of the production areas with the highest average altitude in Ethiopia. The area itself is a wetland, so it has a lot of water resources. However, according to Front Street, Yirgacheffe traditionally uses the oldest Japanese wine. It was not until 1972 that Ethiopia introduced the washing processing technology from Central and South America in order to improve the quality of coffee beans. This move also amplified the citrus lemon aroma of the Front Street Yirgacheffe coffee beans themselves, making the taste fresher and brighter.
Yirgacheffe coffee bean processing method
Because of this, Yirgacheffe has become one of the representatives of specialty coffee in the world. From then on, this area was dominated by washed coffee beans. Until the 21st century, sun-drying technology also began to improve. The improvement of technology also led to the emergence of amazing sun-dried beans in the specialty coffee market. At this time A Yirgacheffe coffee trader named Bagsy missed the flavor of traditional sun-dried coffee beans, so he began to improve sun-dried coffee beans and launched several excellent sun-dried coffee beans. This allowed sun-dried coffee beans to regain their status in the Yirgacheffe production area, such as Front Street Coffee The sun-dried red cherry coffee beans in the front street Yirgacheffe Coffee store are very popular among coffee fans.
Water washing treatment process
1. First, the coffee farmers will pour all the harvested coffee berries into the water, so that the bad and defective coffee beans will float to the surface, and the ones that sink to the bottom will be the coffee berries that pass the quality standard. This operation also greatly reduces the time wasted in selecting one by one.
2. Put the selected coffee cherries into the peeling machine to remove the skin and pulp. After removing these, there will still be a layer of pectin sticking to the surface of the coffee cherries, so a large amount of water must be used to wash away the adhesive on the surface of the coffee cherries.
3. The next step is to use fermentation to completely remove the pectin. This process takes about 18 hours. However, after the fermentation is completed, the fermentation bacteria adhere to the surface of the coffee fruits, so it needs to be washed again with a large amount of water. In this step, 1 kilogram of coffee beans requires 40 to 50 kilograms of water. Front Street believes that this is a very large number, which is why water washing cannot be used in arid countries.
4. The cleaned coffee beans can be dried. In some areas, they will be taken directly outdoors to dry. In some more developed production areas, they will be sent to processing plants for machine drying, so that the moisture content of the coffee can be as low as about 11%.
5. Finally, the dried coffee beans are stored and packaged for sale and export.
As mentioned above, the difference between washing and sun-drying treatment will also affect the flavor of coffee beans. Therefore, below, Front Street will compare Yirgacheffe coffee beans and Sidamo coffee beans with the same processing method, so that coffee fans can more intuitively understand the differences in the flavor of coffee beans from these two production areas.
FrontStreet Coffee used sun-dried coffee beans for this comparison. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the flavor and roasting hand-brew data between the two coffee beans.
Front Street Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Voka Cooperative Coffee Beans
Country: Ethiopia
Origin: Yirgacheffe
Altitude: 1900-2100m
Variety: Local native species
Treatment method: Sun treatment
Flavor: light fermented wine aroma, sweet orange, spice, sweet honey
Front Street Ethiopian Oiran Coffee Beans
Country: Ethiopia
Production area: Gujihambela (formerly Sidamo)
Altitude: 2250-2350m
Variety: Local native species
Treatment method: Sun treatment
Flavor: rose, strawberry cream, citrus, passion fruit, oolong tea
FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Advice
FrontStreet Coffee Oiran roasting curve:
Yangjia 800N, the amount of beans added is 480g: the furnace temperature is set to 175 degrees Celsius, and the damper is set to 3, and the heat is 120. When the temperature rises to 140 degrees, the damper is opened to 4 degrees. Bake until 6°00° and the temperature is 151.7 degrees, the surface of the beans turns yellow, the grass smell disappears completely, and dehydration is completed. When ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the surface of the beans, and the smell of toast obviously changes to the aroma of coffee, it can be defined as the prelude to the first crack. At this time, you should listen clearly to the sound of the first crack. The first crack will start at 9°50°, with the damper fully open, 188 degrees and the firepower reduced to 80. The first crack development time is 1°40°, and the pot is cooked at 196 degrees.
FrontStreet Coffee aricha coffee bean roasting curve:
Yangjia 600g Semi-direct fire, use the quick frying mode, put the oven temperature into the pot at 200 degrees Celsius, open the damper to 3, and after 30 seconds, adjust the heat to 160 degrees. The damper remains unchanged, and adjust the heat once at 150 degrees. At this time, the surface of the beans turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is completed, the heat is adjusted to 120 degrees, and the damper is adjusted to 4; at the 8th minute, ugly wrinkles and black streaks appear on the surface of the beans, and the smell of toast is obvious. The change to coffee aroma can be defined as the prelude to the first explosion. At this time, you should listen clearly to the sound of the first explosion point. When the first explosion starts at 8°49°, turn down the firepower to 70 degrees and fully open the damper 5 (be very careful when adjusting the firepower, not so low that there is no popping sound). After the first explosion, 195 degrees, 195 degrees.
Front Street Brewing Suggestions & Comparison
Filter bowl: V60 #01
Water temperature: 90-91 degrees
Powder amount: 15g
Pink to water ratio: 1:15
Grinding degree: The size of fine sugar (sifted to 80% in a No. 20 sieve bowl)
Front Street Brewing Technique:
Inject 30 grams of water into the first stage and steam for 30 seconds, then inject 95 grams (the electronic scale shows about 125 grams). 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. The injection is completed in about 1 minute and 40-1'45 seconds. 2‘00”-2'10"Trip filtration is completed, remove the filter cup and complete the extraction.
Front Street Sun-Dried Oiran Brewing Flavor:There is the aroma of almonds when the temperature is high, and the sweet and sour berries, the blackcurrant juice flavor, and the aftertaste of honey after slowly cooling down, the sweetness is long-lasting.
Front Street Sun-Dried Yirgacheffe Aricha Brew Flavors:The entrance is extremely smooth, with the sweet and sour taste of ripe fruits emerging, the sweetness lasting, and the aroma of fermented fruits.
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
