How Did Guji Coffee Farms Produce the Huakui Lot?

Huakui is a natural Ethiopian coffee from the Guji zone that brought many drinkers into specialty coffee, and it is not a Geisha. Guji was long filed under Sidama A on the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, but its strong competition results led the exchange to separate it as its own category in 2015. The latest harvest, Huakui 8.0, shows guava, jackfruit, and floral notes.

In the cup, the lot carries dried mango, passion fruit, and a juicy body, shifting toward white peach sweetness and a black tea finish as it cools. The story runs through the Hambela farm and METAD, and through the split of Sidamo and Guji. Yirgacheffe had earlier become independent from Sidamo and registered its flavor trademark globally in 2007.

Geisha? No, this is about Huakui, the Ethiopian natural bean that has drawn countless coffee lovers into the specialty world. What is its story and flavor? This article starts with the evolution of the Sidamo and Guji production regions, sorts out the background of the Hambela farm and METAD, and explains in detail how Huakui went from a TOH champion to being named by batch. At the same time, Front Street Coffee brings the cupping and pour-over performance of the latest harvest Huakui 8.0: guava, jackfruit, and floral notes in the dry aroma; dried mango, passion fruit, and juicy mouthfeel on the palate; and as the temperature changes, the delicate sweetness of white peach and the sweet finish of black tea. Whether you are a beginner just getting into single-origin coffee or a veteran who wants to understand batch differences, you will find useful information here.

Sidamo in southern Ethiopia was once a massive coffee-producing region, overseeing 23 areas, more than 50 cooperatives, and over 200 processing stations. Its coverage spanned multiple administrative zones, and the terroir and climate conditions varied from one small origin to another, so the coffee produced there also showed differences large and small in flavor, creating a rather diverse flavor profile.

In the last century, Yirgacheffe was originally classified within the Sidamo production region, and the export label read "large sidamo." However, because it won international attention early on for its outstanding flavor, it was the first to become independent from the Sidamo category. With the support of the Ethiopian government, the coffee of this small town successfully registered globally in 2007 as the "Yirgacheffe®" flavor trademark.

A similar situation also happened with Guji. When the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) was established around 2008, Guji coffee was still classified under "Sidama A" in auction categories. After that, more and more smaller-scale origins made it into the front ranks of international green bean competitions such as the COE with excellent flavor performance, and Guji's fame rose accordingly. So in 2015, the ECX separated it out as a new category to represent it.

Compared with other traditional production regions, Guji is considered a remote place in Ethiopia. Transportation here is inconvenient, the mountains are high and the forests dense, and it was isolated from the outside world for a long time. Local residents first made a living by herding, and later discovered that the area was rich in mineral resources underground, so mining gradually emerged. Only in recent years, as Guji's high-quality coffee has been favored by more and more international buyers, has the coffee industry been able to grow rapidly and become a new important part of the region's economy.

Unlike Yirgacheffe, Guji is a latecomer. Its coffee industry started later, but it has advantages such as high altitude, mineral-rich soil, and ample available land, which created favorable conditions for building large-scale washing stations and natural drying beds. In addition, local protection of primary forests is more complete, providing a good guarantee for water and soil conservation and for the uniqueness of flavor.

Looking at Front Street Coffee's Guji coffee distribution map, several well-known sub-regions can be found: Ana Sora, Hambela, Shakiso, Uraga, and Rogicha. Unlike traditional production regions such as Yirgacheffe, Hambela is actually also the name of a coffee farm, belonging to the locally renowned METAD Agricultural Development PLC. It is both an independent coffee farm and the main processing station for nearby growing areas, processing coffee grown in the surrounding area and selling it as separate lots. As a local Ethiopian coffee export company, METAD was founded in 2013 by Aman Adinew, with coffee produced from the Gedeo Zone and Gedeb District in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR), as well as the Guji Zone and Hambela Estate in the Oromia Region.

Aman came from a coffee family; his grandmother had already opened coffee farms in Ethiopia's Harrar and Sidamo regions as early as the last century. Aman himself also served as chief operating officer (COO) of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). After leaving government service, in order to promote the modernization of the local coffee industry, he founded his own company, METAD, and launched cooperation with thousands of smallholder farmers in Yirgacheffe and Guji.

The Hambela farm has a total area of 200 hectares and is about 75 kilometers from Yirgacheffe, located in Ethiopia's core zone for the finest coffee. Its processing station is already quite professional and complete in equipment, management, and scale. Together with fertile volcanic soil, natural organic farming methods, and relatively mature post-processing techniques, these factors have jointly contributed to the rise in popularity of the coffee here in recent years.

When Hambela is mentioned, I believe many people, like Front Street Coffee, first think of "Huakui." After all, this bean has another name: "Hambela."

In the industry, Huakui refers to a natural coffee bean from Ethiopia's Hambela production region, with the full English name "Ethiopia Guji Hambella Buku Abel." Broadly speaking, it is a champion bean from Guji, Ethiopia; more specifically, it is a natural lot processed by the smaller Hambela Buku Abel processing plant.

The resounding stage name "Huakui" was in fact given to this bean by domestic green bean traders after it won the TOH natural category championship that year, combining it with the Chinese context and meaning "chief of a hundred flowers." Later, boosted by promotion from various merchants, it gained another title: "good enough to rival Geisha." Great fame, excellent quality, rich and juicy fruit flavors, an affordable price, and high extraction compatibility (easy to brew) - these advantages stacked together not only made Huakui stand out among Ethiopian coffees, but also made it the first choice for many friends trying single-origin coffee for the first time.

As Front Street Coffee has mentioned before, before this bean was called "Huakui," it had only one English name, "Hambella," translated into Chinese as "Hanbeila." To put it plainly, what we call "Huakui coffee" is a traditional natural G1-grade coffee bean from the Hambela production region, and the "Buku Abel" processing station is its more detailed traceability information, located in Dimtu town.

After "Huakui" became famous overnight, market demand surged, and DW Company added up to 5 independent green coffee drying and processing stations in Hambella Wamena Wereda, all located within the core production area of Dimtu town. In addition to the original Buku Abel, four small villages - Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, Tirtiro Goye, and Seke Bokosa - also joined the production of natural coffee beans. It is said that at this point, DW Company's annual production of "Huakui" had already reached tens of millions of tons.

Since the 2018 harvest, Huakui (natural G1 coffee beans) from the same growing origin and the same processing station has already shown some changes in taste. Through cupping at the time, Front Street Coffee found that although the 2018 and 2019 Huakui also had flavors similar to the 2017 Huakui, they were not as good as the "first-generation Huakui" in body, finish, and other mouthfeel aspects.

Therefore, in order to continue selling this natural coffee from Hambela while also distinguishing it to some extent from the original version, domestic green bean trading companies created an X.0 suffix for each subsequent year's lot based on the count starting after 2017. For example, the 2018 lot was called "Huakui 2.0," the 2019 production was called "Huakui 3.0 and 3.1"... Last year's release was "Huakui 7.0," and so on, so this year's latest version is naturally "Huakui 8.0." In this way, we can also easily tell from the suffix which year's batch the Huakui we bought belongs to.

In the dry aroma, the new harvest Huakui 8.0 shows a more intense fruit aroma than 7.0, with complex aromas such as guava, jackfruit, apricot, dried fruit, citrus, and floral notes. When hot water is poured in, one can smell the sweet aroma of honey and berries.

By slurping, Front Street Coffee first perceived in this 8.0 a multilayered fruity sweet-tartness of dried mango, jackfruit, orange, and passion fruit, with a clear juicy quality and a round mouthfeel. As the temperature drops slightly, the delicate sweetness of white peach and the acidity of berries begin to be released, and after swallowing, one can feel a sweet finish like drinking black tea.

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