Where Does Huakui Coffee Bean Origin Trace Back To?

Huakui coffee beans come from the Hambela sub-region of the Guji producing area in Ethiopia. This natural-process bean won the TOH championship in 2017 and has since passed eight harvest seasons, becoming a well-known example of Ethiopian specialty coffee. It is recognized for a rich strawberry and cream aroma tied to the terroir around the Great Rift Valley.

Sidamo, in southern Ethiopia, grows coffee at altitudes between 1,400 and 2,000 meters, and its native varieties and varied microclimates produce wide flavor diversity. Guji and West Arsi have separated into their own systems as the region map refined. Brewing Huakui in a moka pot works well with a suitable grind, a properly filled basket, and controlled heat to keep the floral and fruity notes intact.

Since winning the TOH championship in 2017, Huakui coffee beans have gone through eight harvest seasons and become a highly notable representative of Ethiopian specialty coffee. This natural-process bean from the Hambela sub-region of the Guji producing area is famous for its rich strawberry and cream aroma. From the perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article systematically sorts out the terroir context of the Sidamo and Guji producing areas, traces the origin of the name Huakui and the evolution of each year’s batches, and shares in detail the specific parameters and operating steps for extracting Front Street Huakui 11 with a moka pot, including grind setting, basket filling, heat control, and other key steps, to help coffee lovers recreate this bean’s floral and fruity flavors at home.

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Expanding the map of Ethiopia’s coffee origins, names such as Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, and Guji are already familiar to specialty coffee lovers. Among these producing areas, Huakui coffee beans stand out especially, and it has been eight years since they first appeared in 2017. Today Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will discuss this famous coffee bean from Hambela, and also share some practical tips for extraction with a moka pot.

Sidamo Coffee Producing Area Sidamo is located in southern Ethiopia, extending east to the Arsi and Bale administrative regions and west to the Gamogofa administrative region, with coffee cultivation at altitudes between 1,400 and 2,000 meters. Agriculture is the main industry in this area, and the coffee-growing belt is mainly distributed around the Great Rift Valley. In recent years Sidamo has developed strongly and has become an important coffee export hub. Due to differences in soil types, microclimates, and a large number of native coffee varieties, the coffee flavors of Sidamo show rich diversity, and the coffee produced in each town has a distinct personality and characteristics.

Front Street believes that as a large producing area, Sidamo has seen more and more small producing areas become independent and form their own systems as coffee regions continue to be refined, among which the best known are Guji (GUJI) and West Arsi. In the Sidamo region, green bean processing mostly uses the natural method, and Front Street believes this processing method gives local coffee beans rich fruity aromas and a smooth mouthfeel.

The Guji producing area once belonged to Sidamo and was officially designated as a new producing area by the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) in 2010. This producing area is located southeast of Yirgacheffe, with complex terrain including towering mountains, valleys, and plains. Guji’s soil is fertile black soil (Vertisol), nearly two meters deep, and the average altitude exceeds 1,800 meters. The geographical conditions create a significant temperature difference between day and night, providing an ideal terroir foundation for producing high-quality specialty coffee. And when it comes to what made the Guji producing area widely famous, Front Street must mention the bean Huakui.

Huakui comes from Hambella, located in Guji, Ethiopia’s largest coffee producing area, and administratively part of Oromia Regional State. Western Hambella faces Yirgacheffe’s Kochore across the mountains, with a highland about 30 kilometers wide and 3,200 meters above sea level lying between the two producing areas. To the southeast, north, and south it borders Guji’s Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions respectively, making it the highest-altitude coffee sub-region in Ethiopia.

Hambella Producing Area Hambella (usually translated as “Hambella”) is located in Ethiopia’s famous specialty coffee producing area Guji (GUJI, formerly part of Sidamo), and administratively belongs to Oromia Regional State. Western Hambella faces Yirgacheffe’s kochore across the mountains, separated by a highland about 30 kilometers wide and 3,200 meters above sea level, and to the southeast, north, and south it is adjacent to Guji’s shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions respectively. It is the highest-altitude coffee sub-region in Ethiopia (Harrar is Ethiopia’s highest main producing area).

At present, the Hambella producing area has nearly 20 processing plants of different scales. In 2017, a natural-process lot from the “Buku Abel” processing plant under DW Company won the championship in the Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest Competition. A Chinese green bean importer named this bean Huakui, and at the time it showed rich strawberry and cream aromas. After that, DW Company expanded its processing plants in Dimtu, the core producing area of Hambella, from one to four: Buku abel, Buku saysay, Haro soresa, and Tirtiro Goye, with an annual coffee output of about 1,100 tons. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) also offers coffee products produced by the Buku abel processing plant.

Buku Abel Processing Plant In the local Ethiopian language, Buku Abel means “NEW,” that is, a new place. In this ancient country with more than two thousand years of history and a population of over one hundred million, although the Great Rift Valley blocks the road to Asia, new virgin land on this plateau is still constantly waiting to be developed. Relative to a culture of thousands of years, this is a fairly recently developed land.

Buku Abel is located in southeastern Ethiopia and is a very high-altitude indigenous community in the Hambela area of the Guji producing region, with a population of about 30,000. Like most Ethiopian coffee gardens, coffee in this village grows naturally in wild primeval forests. Coffee farmers pass down their practices from generation to generation and also plant native bananas, interplanting local native coffee tree varieties among the banana groves.

The Origin of the Name Huakui Coffee In 2017, Ethiopian DW Green Bean Company sent coffee beans to the TOH (the Taste Of Harvest) green bean competition hosted by the African Coffee Association, and a natural-process lot from the “Buku Abel” processing plant won the TOH Ethiopia championship with rich strawberry and cream aromas. This lot of green beans was subsequently introduced into China by the Beijing green bean trader Hongshun, and in the same year Li Jianfei used this bean to win second place in the China region of the 2017 World Brewers Cup. Among many Geisha competition beans, this Ethiopian bean performed especially prominently, and was therefore given the name “Huakui.” (Geisha means geisha in Japanese, while Huakui refers to the leading geisha, used here to highlight the outstanding quality of this bean.)

Therefore, in a narrow sense, only the lot from the 2017 TOH natural group champion that entered China can be called Huakui coffee.

Since the 2018 harvest season, Huakui (natural G1 coffee beans) from the same origin and the same processing station has already shown changes in flavor. Through cupping, Front Street found that although the 2018 and 2019 Huakui still had flavor characteristics similar to the 2017 Huakui, they were inferior to the “first-generation Huakui” in mouthfeel dimensions such as body and aftertaste. In order to continue selling this natural coffee from Hambela while distinguishing it from the original version, domestic green bean trading companies calculated according to the years after 2017 and created an X.0 suffix for each subsequent batch. For example, the 2018 batch was called “Huakui 2.0,” the 2019 production was called “Huakui 3.0 and 3.1”… the latest release is “Huakui 11,” and so on. Through this suffix, we can identify which year’s batch the Huakui in our hands belongs to.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Roasting Analysis Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) refers to the flavor description provided by the green bean merchant and tests the bean moisture content. The freshly received green beans have a fermented vinous aroma of coffee blossom, completely different from the grassy scent of ordinary green beans. Huakui green beans vary in size, with most being pointed at both ends (Ethiopia Heirloom). The moisture content is about 11%, but they are not extremely hard SHB beans. Because the beans are dense and hard, the dehydration time in the early stage of roasting needs to be extended, and the temperature should rise into first crack before first crack, preserving floral and other small-molecule aromatic substances as much as possible and reducing their loss.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) uses a Taiwan Yangjia 800N machine, charging beans at 190°C, completing dehydration and turning yellow at nearly 6 minutes (yellow point at about 150–153°C), and first crack begins at around 9 minutes 50 seconds (Huakui’s first crack is later than that of ordinary beans, and the cracking sound is very weak). The development time after first crack is recommended to be controlled within 1 minute 30 seconds, and should not be less than 1 minute (it is recommended to open the damper wider and lower the heat to regulate speed). Smell the aroma with a sampling spoon; at about 193°C you can smell strawberry jam, and then it can be discharged. The total time is best controlled within 11 minutes.

Recently, the Huakui 11 that Front Street purchased finally arrived. Taking advantage of its freshness, and with another year of anticipation, it naturally deserves a proper tasting.

In order to present the refined floral and fruity flavors of the Sidamo producing area while retaining the coffee’s caramelized aroma, Front Street roasters use a medium-light roast to express this bean. The new-season Huakui shows in its dry aroma a more intense fruity aroma than 7.0, with complex notes such as guava, jackfruit, apricot, dried fruit, citrus, and floral fragrance. After hot water is poured in, honey and berry sweetness can be smelled, and on the palate there are multiple fruity sweet-and-sour notes such as dried mango, jackfruit, orange, and passion fruit, so it is suitable for a variety of extraction methods, such as the moka pot coffee that Front Street likes very much and that many friends choose first at home.

How to extract Front Street Huakui 11 coffee with a moka pot?

To extract a rich black coffee, the grind size for a moka pot should be finer than general pour-over but coarser than espresso. Too coarse a grind will lead to insufficient extraction, sputtering, and other problems, while too fine a grind will cause over-extraction, making the coffee burnt-bitter and hard to drink. Front Street stores use an EK-43s grinder at a setting of 3.5, meaning the coarseness is controlled so that 30–40% passes through a Chinese No. 20 standard sieve.

Step one: pour the ground Front Street Huakui 11 coffee into the basket, spread it level and fill it, smooth it with your finger, and then place it into the base. There is no need to tamp firmly; an overly compacted coffee bed can easily block the upward flow of water and thus affect extraction. If there is not enough coffee powder, when the water in the lower chamber enters the middle coffee bed under steam pressure, it cannot extract fully, which then leads to significant sputtering from the upper chamber.

Next, screw the upper chamber and lower chamber tightly and place it on a gas stove or induction cooker to heat. When using an open flame, be careful to control the flame so that it does not exceed the range of the moka pot’s base. There is no precise time rule for brewing; wait for the moka pot to heat up, and when you hear a hissing sound, turn to low heat, and the coffee liquid and oils will slowly flow out. When you see the coffee liquid in the upper chamber half full, you can turn off the heat source, move the pot to the table with a wet towel, and use the residual heat and pressure inside the pot to continue extracting the remaining coffee liquid.

Finally, pour the extracted coffee liquid into a cup and drink it directly. On the palate there is fresh berry sweet-and-sourness and a light caramel aroma. Diluted with 80°C hot water at a ratio of 1:5, it becomes a cup of “Huakui Americano,” with a comfortable juice-like feel and a clean acidity like lemon black tea, and when paired with milk it has the sweetness and fragrance of cranberry chocolate.

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