Where does coffee originated? Yirgacheffe and Sidamo compared

Arabica coffee originated in Ethiopia's Kaffa Forest in the southwest of the country, where centuries of natural evolution produced roughly 5,000 coffee varieties. Yirgacheffe and Sidamo are therefore related but not equal: Sidamo works like a province, while Yirgacheffe is a town inside it. That administrative difference, plus altitude, helps explain the price gap between the two.

Sidamo sits around 2,100 meters, while Yirgacheffe generally runs higher, with its highest point above 2,600 meters. Local communities manage about 12,000 hectares of wild coffee in Kaffa under Participatory Forest Management, and roughly 4,500 farmers hold legal rights to harvest wild cherries while protecting the forest. Understanding where did the coffee bean originated from clarifies why these regions taste and cost differently.

Many people easily confuse Yirgacheffe with Sidamo. In fact, both are located in Ethiopia, but their administrative levels and geographical concepts are not the same. Simply put, Sidamo is equivalent to a province, while Yirgacheffe is a small town within Sidamo Province. Sidamo sits at an altitude of about 2,100 meters, while the Yirga production area is generally higher, with its highest point even exceeding 2,600 meters. This article will help coffee lovers thoroughly clarify the differences between these two production areas from multiple angles, including the origins of Ethiopian coffee, the cultivation system, the grading system, flavor differences, and price ranges. It will also introduce the characteristics and value for money of related coffee beans under the Front Street Coffee brand.

Many coffee lovers often confuse the two production areas of ⟦耶加雪菲⟧ and ⟦西达摩⟧. They do indeed both belong to Ethiopia, but in plain terms, Sidamo is equivalent to a provincial-level administrative region, while Yirgacheffe is merely a town under Sidamo Province. Sidamo's altitude is about 2,100 meters, while the Yirga production area is generally higher, with its highest point even exceeding 2,600 meters, considerably higher than Sidamo. To sort out these relationships, we may as well start with the country of Ethiopia...

● Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a country full of legend, and it is precisely here that Arabica coffee originated. The whole story begins in the Kaffa Forest, located in southwestern Ethiopia.

Over centuries of natural evolution in Kaffa, about 5,000 coffee varieties were bred there. At present, local communities manage about 12,000 hectares of wild coffee area in Kaffa. Through the implementation of Participatory Forest Management (PFM), about 4,500 farmers have obtained the right to legally harvest wild coffee cherries, while also taking on the obligation to protect the forest.

Regarding Kaffa, there is a saying that it was the earliest place where coffee was brewed. For coffee professionals, it is as alluring as the Garden of Eden.

In a place in Kaffa called Bonga, more than 100 Ethiopians focus on growing high-quality Arabica coffee. The area has superior coffee-growing conditions, with an altitude between 1,600 and 1,900 meters, red soil, and just the right temperature. The region has abundant rainfall and is considered one of the rainiest areas in Ethiopia. As one of Ethiopia's first two biosphere reserves, the well-known Gesha is actually a region under Kaffa.

Kaffa coffee generally includes: Gimbo, Gewata, and Chena.

● Coffee cultivation in Ethiopia

Ethiopia adjusted its administrative divisions around 1995. The greatest impact on coffee production areas was that the former Sidamo Province was redivided, with a small part becoming the new Sidama, most of it incorporated into Oromia State, and Yirgacheffe, which originally belonged to Sidamo Province, now placed under the new Gedeo Zone.

Among Ethiopian coffees currently circulating on the market, new and old regional names are often used interchangeably. Here we use the new administrative divisions as the basis and combine them with administrative regions to understand the distribution of coffee cultivation in Ethiopia.

The cultivation of [Front Street Sidamo Coffee Beans] and [Front Street Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans] mostly adopts the garden coffee model, that is, coffee farmers plant coffee trees near their own living areas, pick the cherries themselves during harvest season, and then send them to a processing station near a water source for unified processing (or they are purchased in a unified way by middlemen). Apart from a few capable estates that can independently complete cultivation, harvesting, and processing, coffee beans from many different regions and varieties are processed together by processing stations and then sent to auction houses for official evaluation and grading.

This explains why many Ethiopian coffee beans are named and distinguished by processing station or cooperative, and it also leads to the possibility that the same batch of coffee beans may contain a mix of multiple varieties, and even that different batches from the same processing station may show obvious differences in flavor.

If you want to purchase Ethiopian coffee, there are generally three channels:

● Farmers' Cooperative Unions (coffee comes from subordinate cooperatives and smallholder farmers)

● Exporters (intermediaries, purchasing from ECX or local coffee markets)

● Large public or private estates (exporters that produce and sell their own coffee)

Farmers’ Cooperative Union

To facilitate direct export by farmer cooperatives, cooperatives in various places have jointly established their own cooperative unions. Ethiopia currently has a total of 6 Farmers’ Cooperative Unions, namely:

● Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU)

● Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU)

● Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU)

● Kafa Forest Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (KFCFCU)

● Bench Maji Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (BMCFCU)

● Tepi Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (TCFCU)

The advantage of cooperative unions lies in uniting scattered smallholder farmers and cooperatives into a large collective, participating in international projects (such as Firetrade), and providing a unified export channel to connect with buyers. The income from the harvest is paid to the cooperative according to a certain proportion. After deducting management fees, the cooperative retains a portion for community development and pays the remainder to the smallholder farmers. Smallholder farmers can obtain income more stably and conveniently to cope with cultivation and living expenses, which is also why more and more smallholder farmers are willing to join cooperatives.

● Ethiopian coffee grades

In terms of green bean scoring grades: - Q1 is the highest grade, followed by Q2

- Domestically, the commonly seen classifications are mainly g1 to g4 → whether washed or natural beans, choosing g1 usually gives you coffee beans with a lower defect rate and excellent flavor.

For the grade of the beans themselves, ECX also has a more detailed classification method. It is not the familiar “Yirgacheffe g1” or “Yirgacheffe g2.” Freshly harvested coffee beans of the year must first undergo preliminary scoring. Only coffee beans rated g1 to g3 will then be further classified into Q1 and Q2 according to SCAA cupping standards.

Front Street Yirgacheffe Washed Beans

Front Street Yirgacheffe Natural Beans

Q1 highest grade: coffee beans that receive g1 or g2 in preliminary scoring and 80 points or above + 85 points or above in specialty-grade scoring. They belong to the highest grade of coffee beans.

Q2 highest grade: coffee beans that receive g1 or g2 in preliminary scoring + 80 to 84.75 points in specialty-grade scoring. They belong to the second-highest grade of coffee beans.

● About the two production areas of [Yirgacheffe] and [Sidamo]

These four major cultivation systems are distributed across the following nine major production areas in Ethiopia: Gimma, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harar, Limu, Illubabor, Gimbi (Lekempti), Tepi, and Bench Maji.

Front Street Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans (specialty production area): altitude 1,800 to 2,000 meters | garden coffee system |

Yirgacheffe belongs to the Sidamo production area and was separated out because of its unique flavor. In addition to the town of Yirgacheffe itself, it also includes three sub-production areas in the surrounding area: Wenago, Kochere, Gelena, and Abaya. Therefore, in the new version of the Yirgacheffe grading system, Yirgacheffe A, Wenago A, Kochere A, and Gelena/Abaya A are more expensive than the B grades of the same names. In addition to washed and natural processing methods, the recently launched semi-washed Front Street Yirgacheffe is also worth trying.

The variety of Front Street Yirgacheffe is local heirloom, belonging to the small-bean type, with a relatively round appearance and a very small bean size, mostly between 14 and 15 screen size.

Front Street Sidamo Coffee Beans (specialty production area): altitude 1,400 to 2,200 meters | garden coffee system |

In flavor, it is similar to Front Street Yirgacheffe. Finely washed or natural Front Street Sidamo coffee beans also carry floral and orange notes, and their value is no less than that of Front Street Yirgacheffe. The varieties in these two production areas are similar, with medium-sized beans, but there are also short-stature small-bean types, which farmers often sell separately. The common Kurmie has weak disease resistance; Wolisho is tall and robust; Deiga has a medium tree shape. These three varieties are the main force behind the specialty natural series Biloya and Aricha.

The bean body is somewhat smaller than Longberry

Ethiopia has nearly 2,000 recorded coffee varieties, of which 1,927 are native varieties and 128 are introduced foreign varieties. So judging by appearance alone, Ethiopian coffee varieties are like a “grand garden,” with long, short, thin, and plump ones all available...

Long-shaped beans are distributed throughout all coffee-growing areas in Ethiopia. Based on actual observed proportions, the western Jimma region (including Limmu and Kaffa) has a higher proportion of long-shaped varieties, while in Sidama (Sidamo) or Yirgacheffe (Yirgacheffe) the proportion is lower.

Small-bean types have a relatively round appearance and a very small bean body, mostly between 14 and 15 screen size. This variety should be the most familiar to everyone, and it is often seen in Sidamo and Yirgacheffe. I have also seen it in a Harrar sample and found it in green coffee beans sold locally in Jimma. Compared with other regions, Sidama and Yigracheffe as well as the surrounding Arsi and Guji have more cultivation of this small-bean native variety.

● In terms of flavor

Front Street Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans are known for their unique jasmine aroma, bright and lively citrus acidity, and black tea-like body.

Front Street Sidamo Coffee Beans present full berry and tropical fruit flavors.

Sidamo Coffee Bean Brand Recommendation

The Front Street Sidamo Huakui coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee are fully guaranteed in both brand and quality. More importantly, the value for money is extremely high. A 227-gram bag costs only 98 yuan. Calculated at 15 grams of powder per cup of coffee, one bag can make 15 cups of coffee, costing only about 6 yuan per cup. Compared with the price of dozens of yuan per cup at coffee shops, this can truly be called a sincere recommendation.

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