What Sets Guji and Sidama Green Coffee Bean Lots Apart?
Ethiopia's Guji and Sidama regions produce coffees with clearly different profiles. Guji was recognized as an independent producing region by the ECX in 2010 and rose quickly on cup quality, while Sidama is known for bright fruit acidity and a smooth mouthfeel. Comparing the two helps explain how regional flavor is built.
Huakui and Zhumang serve as the example beans, compared on green bean appearance, processing method, and cupping performance. Huakui is a single farm lot from Guji, Shakisso, Hambella, while Ethiopia's eight main producing areas include Sidamo and Yirgacheffe. Most green coffee beans are named through the country's four-level administrative system of region, zone, woreda, and kebele.
As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia boasts numerous renowned producing regions, among which Guji and Sidama have attracted increasing attention from domestic coffee enthusiasts in recent years. Since Guji was independently recognized as a producing region by the ECX in 2010, it has risen rapidly thanks to its superior geographical location and cup performance, while Sidama is known for its clear fruit acidity and smooth mouthfeel. This article will provide an in-depth comparison of the flavor characteristics of these two regions, and a detailed analysis of the representative beans—Huakui and Zhumang—in terms of green bean appearance, processing methods, and cupping performance, helping readers gain a clearer understanding of the regional flavors of Ethiopian coffee.
Ethiopia has numerous coffee-producing regions, mainly divided into eight major areas: Lekempti, Limu, Illubabor, Djimmah, Harar, Teppi/Bebeka, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe.
In China, Ethiopian coffee enjoys an excellent reputation, especially the Sidamo and Yirgacheffe regions, which are highly favored by coffee enthusiasts. Sidamo Province is located in southern Ethiopia, bordered by Arsi Province to the north, extending east to Bale Province, and adjacent to the Gamu Gofa administrative region to the west.
Ethiopia's administrative divisions consist of four levels, from largest to smallest: Region, Zone, woreda, kebele. Most green coffee beans are named according to this system. For example, Huakui is located southeast of Yirgacheffe in the Sidama region, and administratively belongs to Oromia Region→Guji Zone→Shakisso woreda→Hambella.
Guji Zone, with its unique geographical conditions and outstanding cupping flavors, was classified as an independent producing region by the ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange) as early as 2010. Shakisso is one of the most attractive micro-regions within Guji, located southeast of Yirgacheffe, with an average altitude exceeding 1,800 meters.
Huakui belongs to a single farm system (which we shall temporarily call Single Farm Project, or SFP for short).
Huakui's producing region information: Guji, Shakisso, Hambella.
Currently, the Hambella region has approximately 20 processing plants of varying scales. Hongshun is a green bean company "rooted" in Ethiopia's coffee-producing regions. Since 2016, it has established four sun-dried processing plants in the Guji Zone's Hambella region through cooperative arrangements, and in the 17/18 harvest season conducted a series of studies on sun-dried processing methods using local high-quality coffee varieties. The four estate processing plants in Hambella's core producing area are: the "Dire" church processing plant, the "mansa" mountain pond processing plant, the "Bobea" red flag processing plant, and the "Goro baessa" mountain spring processing plant. Goro baessa is a small village at an altitude of 2,280 meters, surrounded by mountains. Every December brings the coffee harvest season, when the mountains are covered with bright red ripe coffee cherries, and the neatly arranged African sun-drying beds in the village are precisely where "Huakui" is processed.
Drima Zede Zhumang
Producing region: 90+SNNP, Sidama, ETHIOPIA
According to the recently updated map from the 90+ company, there are 8 SNNP producing regions:
In 2006, Joseph Brodsky founded Ninety Plus (90+) company.
90+ adopts a cooperative model with local estates, maintaining full control from planting, sampling, and harvesting all the way through subsequent processing and cupping. 90+'s exclusive Profile Processing ensures that every coffee bean produced has a unique and stable flavor profile and quality. 90+ coffee adopts a marketing approach similar to premium red wine, standing out uniquely in the market.
The 90+ company began selecting the most outstanding coffee cherries from various Ethiopian coffee farmers, and started with processing methods, applying the most refined processing to existing good beans. Thus the first 90+ beans to make their name: Aricha and Beloya were released. But the results of such experiments were already astonishing enough—the incredibly rich fruit flavors and high quality completely shocked the specialty coffee world.
Later
The product line division is based on more distinctive taste differences, divided into four major series: NinetyPlus Ethiopia, NinetyPlus Panama, Ninety Levelup, NinetyPlus Limited.
Initially, Zhumang appeared in the public eye as a 90+ sub-brand, taking an accessible price positioning.
Zhumang green coffee beans are slightly gray, some parts coarse and some parts small, with both soft and intense acidity, moderate body, and a sweet and spicy aroma.
What sets it apart from ordinary African coffee is that Sidamo has clear fruit acidity, a smooth mouthfeel, and a refined floral and herbal aroma. With a slight hint of citrus, oak barrel, and vanilla notes, the flavors of tropical fruits such as nectarine are more pronounced.
Both Huakui and Zhumang belong to Ethiopia Heirloom, and the green beans vary in size, but there are still some differences.
Zhumang has many pointed ends, with a good moisture content of around 11%, but it is not the type of SHB bean with very high hardness. Due to the high density and hardness of the beans, the dehydration time in the early stage should be extended.
Huakui 2.0 is relatively more uniform, with a rounder appearance and very small bean size, mostly between 14-15 screen size, slightly smaller than Longberry, yellow-green in color.
The cupping results are as follows:
Huakui: The wet aroma has a distinctly strong green tea aroma and floral notes. Sipping reveals aromas of green tea, strawberry, jasmine, lime, and sugarcane. The mouthfeel is light and clean, with soft and fresh acidity. However, the finish is lacking, with only some sweetness remaining in the mouth. It is very easy to drink, like drinking a cup of fruit tea rather than coffee.
Zhumang: The wet aroma has yellow lemon, floral, black tea notes, with obvious citrus tones. When sipping, there are aromas of black tea, yellow lemon, caramel, and jasmine. The flavors become richer and more solid at this roast level. The acidity on the palate is more elegant, sweetness is perceived more quickly, and the sweetness level is higher, with fermented wine aroma, cream, tropical fruits, jackfruit, nectarine, and more flavors.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
