How Coffee Update: The Huakui 6.0 Harvest Batch

The 2022 Huakui 6.0 batch from Ethiopia's Sidamo region was delayed and arrived with a relatively high green bean defect rate. After receiving it in late May and finding the defects, Front Street Coffee told importer Hongshun it would not sell that batch this year and instead used sun-dried Huakui beans from the same region and processing station.

Shipping container shortages pushed the first 6.0 shipment past its planned March departure from Ethiopia, and COVID-19 outbreaks in Shanghai slowed port clearance, so the beans only reached Guangzhou Port in mid-April. Other roasters reported the same defect issue, which is the kind of how coffee update worth tracking across coffee beans production each harvest.

The Flavor Queen coffee beans from the Sidamo region of Ethiopia have long been favored by coffee lovers for their unique berry-like sweet-tartness and fermented aroma. 2022 happens to be the sixth year since Flavor Queen rose to fame, and the new harvest 6.0 batch should have been highly anticipated; however, problems such as shipping disruptions and a relatively high defect rate in green beans followed one after another. After Front Street Coffee received the 6.0 batch, it found that the overall defect rate was relatively high. After communicating with the importer Hongshun, it decided not to sell this batch this year and instead use sun-dried Flavor Queen coffee beans from the same region and the same processing station. This article will take you through the origin of Flavor Queen, the distribution of processing stations in the Hambela region, the reason why Flavor Queen and Small-Bean Flavor Queen were split into separate series, and Front Street Coffee's recommended brewing method and flavor description, to help you understand this coffee bean more comprehensively.

When it comes to coffee beans from Ethiopia's Sidamo region, the first name that probably comes to most people's minds is Flavor Queen. 2022 happens to be the sixth year since Flavor Queen became popular, so this year's new harvest batch was named Flavor Queen 6.0. This year, international shipping container resources were tight. The first batch of Flavor Queen 6.0, originally scheduled to ship in March, was delayed in departing from Ethiopia's capital, and the air freight channel was also affected by repeated COVID-19 outbreaks in Shanghai, reducing port customs clearance efficiency. It was not until mid-April that the first batch of Flavor Queen 6.0 arrived at Guangzhou Port via a connecting flight and was gradually distributed.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) did not receive the green beans of the Flavor Queen 6.0 batch until the end of May. However, after opening the burlap sacks, Front Street's baristas found that the overall defect rate of this year's Flavor Queen 6.0 coffee beans was relatively high, and they immediately gave feedback to Hongshun, the importer of Flavor Queen green beans. In fact, not only Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), but many roasters also reported the same situation. Hongshun later published an article on its official WeChat account in mid-June this year explaining the reasons for the high defect rate of Flavor Queen 6.0, pointing out that insufficient rainfall in late 2021 during the early growth stage of coffee cherries was the main cause.

In order to allow consumers to drink freshly roasted coffee beans with more stable quality, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) decided not to sell coffee beans labeled as the 6.0 batch this year, and instead uniformly selected new-harvest sun-dried Flavor Queen coffee beans also from the Buku Abel processing station in Hambela, Sidamo, with Hongshun still as the importer.

Can beans that are not Flavor Queen 6.0 still be called Flavor Queen? The answer is yes. The coffee bean that won the 2017 TOH sun-dried group championship was not originally called Flavor Queen. It came from the Buku Abel processing station under DW Company and was a sun-dried Ethiopian heirloom variety. That same year, a domestic barista used this championship bean to defeat an opponent using Geisha coffee beans in a competition, and only then did this bean begin to enter the view of China's coffee community. Hongshun Coffee Bean Company also began importing sun-dried coffee beans from DW Company's Hambela region that year. For ease of memory, everyone named it Flavor Queen. Simply put, only the domestic market calls it Flavor Queen; abroad, it is still called Hambela sun-dried Ethiopian heirloom coffee beans.

As the birthplace of coffee varieties, Ethiopia has an extremely large number of coffee varieties and can be called Arabica's natural gene bank. On the one hand, there are so many varieties that identification and classification are extremely difficult; on the other hand, the Ethiopian government, for the sake of variety protection, is also unwilling to disclose this information, so they are collectively called Ethiopian heirloom varieties.

As an agricultural crop, the quality of coffee beans is affected by many natural factors each year, which is exactly why X.0 is used to distinguish new harvests. After winning the championship in 2017, DW Company further added processing stations in Dimtu, the core production area of Hambella, including "Buku Abel," "Buku Saysay," "Haro Soresa," and "Tirtiro Goye," with an annual output of about 1,100 tons. In terms of growing regions and processing stations, among these estates and processing stations, only coffee beans from the processing area of the "Buku Abel" processing station cover that small production site that originally produced the sun-dried Flavor Queen.

When launching coffee beans from the Hambela region in each new harvest, strictly speaking, only sun-dried Ethiopian heirloom coffee beans produced by the Buku Abel processing station are qualified to bear the name "Flavor Queen X.0." When Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) cupped each year's new-harvest Flavor Queen coffee beans, it found that Flavor Queen X.0 from subsequent harvests was inferior to the 2017 Flavor Queen in overall body and aftertaste. However, in 2018 and 2019, among some smaller coffee beans from the Hambela Buku processing station, Front Street also tasted flavors similar to the 2017 Flavor Queen.

By comparing different batches of Flavor Queen, Front Street realized that the main source of the 2017 Flavor Queen's aroma was those particularly small varieties among the Flavor Queen coffee beans. These small coffee beans were not numerous; among ten sacks of Flavor Queen X.0 beans, only a few sacks contained these small beans. After cupping verification in 2018 and 2019, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) confirmed that the main source of Flavor Queen coffee beans' aroma was precisely these small Flavor Queen beans, and informed the green bean merchant of this discovery. Therefore, starting in 2020, Flavor Queen split into two series: 4.0 and Small-Bean Flavor Queen. Flavor Queen X.0 is one series, and Small-Bean Flavor Queen is another.

In order to showcase the full juicy mouthfeel of Flavor Queen coffee beans from this region, Front Street Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee) roasters used a light roast. Through cupping comparison, this year's new-harvest Flavor Queen coffee beans present rich and full berry-like sweet-tartness, tropical-fruit-like fermented aroma, and a black-tea-like aftertaste. When purchasing Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Flavor Queen coffee beans, what everyone receives will be freshly roasted coffee beans within 5 days after the roast completion date.

Brewing Flavor Queen coffee beans does not require an overly complicated extraction method. Simply using a three-stage extraction, paired with the all-purpose V60 dripper, a medium-fine grind size (75% passing through China's No. 20 standard sieve), a water temperature of 90 degrees Celsius, and a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, can brew a cup of very delicious Flavor Queen coffee!

Once everything is ready, start timing. First pour water to 30 grams and bloom for 30 seconds; then in the second stage, pour in a small stream in a circular motion to 125 grams, and after the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, continue pouring, still in a small stream in a circular motion, to 225 grams. Wait until all dripping is complete; the total extraction time is about 2 minutes 20 seconds to 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) new-harvest Flavor Queen coffee bean flavor: passion fruit, fermented wine aroma, strawberry, jackfruit, black tea.

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