How Hambela Huakui Coffee Ties Flavor to Ethiopia's Foreign Exchange

Hambela sits in Ethiopia's Guji region, one of the highest-altitude coffee sub-regions, known for refined natural processing. In 2017 a naturally processed lot from DW Company's Buku Abel station won the TOH championship and was later named Huakui. The article compares Front Street Small-Bean Huakui with Huakui 5.0 on aroma, acidity, sweetness, and aftertaste, and gives pour-over parameters.

Coffee is Ethiopia's most important foreign exchange-earning crop, though exports hold about 3 percent of the world market. Export volume rose from 58,000 tons in 1990-1991 to 127,000 tons in 2002-2003. After a decade of falling prices, coffee's share of foreign exchange earnings dropped from over half to roughly 35 percent. Prices recovered from 41 cents per pound in September 2001 to 60.8 cents in March 2004.

Hambela is located in the Guji region of Ethiopia and is one of the highest-altitude coffee sub-regions, known for its refined natural processing and unique flavors. In 2017, a naturally processed lot from DW Company's Buku Abel processing station won the TOH championship. After being introduced to China, it was named "Huakui" (Flower Queen) and has since attracted widespread attention. As the processing stations expanded and the years progressed, the Huakui series developed an X.0 naming system, while Small-Bean Huakui became a special existence due to independent processing. This article reviews the background of the Hambela region and the development of Huakui, and through cupping and pour-over comparisons between Front Street Small-Bean Huakui and Huakui 5.0, presents the differences between the two in aroma, acidity, sweetness, and aftertaste, while providing specific brewing parameters and grind size references.

Coffee occupies a pivotal position in Ethiopia's economy and is the country's most important foreign exchange-earning crop. From a global perspective, Ethiopian coffee exports account for approximately 3% of the world market share, ranking as the world's eighth-largest coffee exporter. In the 1990–1991 fiscal year, its export volume was 58,000 tons, and by the 1995–1996 fiscal year it had steadily climbed to 110,000 tons, remaining basically at that level for several years thereafter.

In the 2001–2002 fiscal year, export volume surpassed 110,000 tons, and in the 2002–2003 fiscal year it further reached 127,000 tons. However, international coffee prices had been declining for ten consecutive years, dealing a severe blow to Ethiopia's foreign exchange earnings. Before the sharp price decline, coffee export revenue accounted for more than half of Ethiopia's foreign exchange earnings, after which it fell to about 35%. According to a report by the International Coffee Organization, coffee prices began to recover starting in 2002, rising from 41 cents per pound in September 2001 to 52 cents in 2002, and then to 59.7 cents per pound in 2003. In March 2004, the average price was 60.8 cents per pound, an increase of 50% compared to September 2001. This was undoubtedly good news for Ethiopia.

Hambela is located in Ethiopia's largest coffee region, Guji, and administratively belongs to Oromia State. To its west, it faces Yirgacheffe Kochere across the mountains, and to its south, east, and north it borders the Guji sub-regions of Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha respectively, making it Ethiopia's highest-altitude coffee sub-region. The area has humus-rich reddish-brown soil, an altitude of about 2,300 meters, and a significant temperature difference between day and night, allowing coffee cherries to grow slowly. During harvest, only fully red cherries are selected, and refined natural processing is used, drying on African raised beds with a limited thickness of 2–3 layers. Based on color changes after drying, manual hand-sorting is performed twice per day on days 1–3, removing 10% each time. After that, the beans are turned once every three hours, and at noon and at night the coffee beans are covered to prevent rain and dew from wetting them, precisely controlling the fermentation degree. The entire process lasts up to 21 days, creating the unique flavor of Front Street Huakui.

Currently, there are nearly 20 processing stations of various scales in the Hambella region. Hongshun, as a green coffee company "rooted" in Ethiopia's coffee-producing regions, has established four natural processing stations in the GUJI Hambella region through cooperative arrangements since 2016. The four estate processing stations in the core Hambella region are the "Dire" church processing station, the "mansa" hill pond processing station, the "Bobea" red flag processing station, and the "Goro baessa" mountain spring processing station. Goro baessa is a small village at an altitude of 2,280 meters surrounded by mountains. Its coffee harvest season is December each year, when the mountains are full of bright red ripe coffee cherries, neatly arranged on African drying beds in the village.

Front Street Huakui, as a relatively well-known coffee bean from the Hambela region, has attracted a great deal of attention.

Let us return to 2017, when a naturally processed coffee lot from DW Company's "Buku Aebl" processing station won the TOH natural category championship. At that time, a Chinese green coffee buyer introduced this championship lot to China and named it "Huakui." At this point, this coffee bean had a rich strawberry and cream aroma. In the same year, Li Jianfei from Beijing won second place in the 2017 World Coffee Brewing Competition China division with this Huakui coffee (the other competing beans that year were Geisha). This also added considerable fame to Huakui coffee beans. Note that at this time, the Huakui coffee beans held the title of the 2017 TOH champion lot.

Subsequently, DW Company expanded to four processing stations in the Hambela region: Buku Abel, Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, and Tirtiro Goye. Then in 2018 it launched Huakui 2.0, in 2019 it launched Huakui 3.0 and 3.1, in 2020 it launched Huakui 4.0, and in 2021—that is, this year—it launched Huakui 5.0.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that the Huakui X.0 naming method is based on the year, so when you see Huakui 3.0, you know it is coffee beans from the 2019 harvest season, and when you see Huakui 4.0, you know it is coffee beans from the 2020 harvest season. In addition to this year-based pattern, the 2017 Huakui coffee was simply naturally processed coffee beans handled by the Buku Aebl processing station, while DW Company expanded its processing stations year by year and increased production. Its flavor is also clearly different from the 2017 Huakui flavor. Strictly speaking, only naturally processed coffee beans handled by the Buku Abel processing station can truly be called Huakui coffee beans.

The flavor and aroma of Small-Bean Huakui are very similar to those of the 2017 Huakui. At first, Front Street tasted flavors close to the 2017 Huakui in the 2018 and 2019 Huakui, but the body and aftertaste were not as good as the 2017 Huakui. Front Street discovered that the main source of the 2017 Huakui's aroma was that among the Huakui coffee beans there were some particularly small-bean varieties, and similar small beans were also found in the 2018 and 2019 Huakui. Starting in 2020, the processing station processed the small-bean Huakui separately again. Therefore, Small-Bean Huakui does not belong to the [X.0] series. Starting in 2020, DW Company separated and processed the small-bean variety independently, forming Small-Bean Huakui coffee beans.

Comparison of Front Street Small-Bean Huakui and Front Street Huakui 5.0 coffee beans

First, observe the comparison photos of the green beans and roasted beans of Small-Bean Huakui and Huakui 5.0. Both are coffee beans from the new 2021 harvest season. The particles of Front Street Small-Bean Huakui coffee beans are clearly smaller than those of Front Street Huakui 5.0. The proportion of small-bean coffee beans is noticeably higher than in Huakui 5.0.

After receiving Front Street Huakui 5.0, Front Street roasted it and conducted a cupping comparison with the Small-Bean Huakui coffee. Through cupping, Front Street found that Front Street Small-Bean Huakui coffee beans have a deeper and richer strawberry aroma and berry sweetness, while the 2021 Front Street Huakui 5.0 coffee has more lively berry acidity and brighter acidity.

Small-Bean Huakui: cream strawberry, citrus, passion fruit, fermented wine aroma

Huakui 5.0: berry, citrus, honey, mango, floral

From the cupping, the flavor of Front Street Small-Bean Huakui is closer to that of the 2017 Huakui coffee beans , while Front Street Huakui 5.0 leans toward the flavor profile of the Guji region (berry acidity, floral, fruit juice).

Now let us look at the pour-over flavor comparison. Both coffee beans use the following brewing recipe:

Dripper: V60#01

Water temperature: 90–91°C

Dose: 15g

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: medium-fine grind (80% passing rate on China standard No. 20 sieve)

Brewing method: three-stage extraction. Bloom with 30 grams of water for 30 seconds, then pour in a small stream in circles until 125 grams for the first stage. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until 225 grams and stop pouring. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from the beginning of blooming.) Extraction time is 2'00".

Flavor comparison

Front Street Small-Bean Huakui: sweet berry aroma, cream strawberry, passion fruit, rich fruity sweetness, full body.

Front Street Huakui 5.0: floral, berry, citrus, plum-like sweet acidity, mango juice, honey, with a black tea sweet aftertaste.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.