What Variety Is Washed Yirgacheffe Coffee?

Washed Yirgacheffe is an Ethiopian single-origin coffee from the Yirgacheffe area, a small town administratively part of Sidamo in the country's south-central highlands. It uses the Heirloom native variety and, after a light roast, shows bright lemon and citrus acidity, white floral notes and honey-like sweetness with a fresh entry and a rising finish.

The town sits above 2,000 meters, among the highest average growing areas in Ethiopia, and farmers typically plant coffee trees in courtyards or mixed with other crops, a garden coffee model with limited output per household. A wide day-night temperature swing slows cherry growth and builds aromatic compounds. A Yirgacheffe SOE Americano, as Luckin offered, uses a medium-light roasted single-origin espresso to express the floral and fruity side.

Yirgacheffe is one of Ethiopia's most representative specialty coffee regions, and the washed process makes its citrus acidity and white floral notes especially clear. In Front Street Coffee's daily staple bean series, the washed Yirgacheffe uses the Heirloom native variety and, after a light roast, presents a bright, clean, and delicate flavor. At the same time, Luckin Coffee also once launched a Yirgacheffe SOE Americano, using a medium-light roasted single-origin espresso to express floral and fruity notes. This article will comprehensively sort out the characteristics of washed Yirgacheffe from variety, regional terroir, washed processing, roasting approach, to brewing parameters, and explain its relationship with SOE Americano.

FrontStreet Coffee's bean list includes a daily staple bean series, covering seven major coffee regions. Through different processing methods and matching roasting curves, it presents the unique "taste of place" of each origin. In Front Street's view, the most recognizable one in this series is definitely Front Street washed Yirgacheffe.

When mentioning Front Street Yirgacheffe, acidity is its most distinctive label. The light roast preserves its unique floral aroma and honey-like sweetness, while the washed process further amplifies the bright lemon and citrus-like acidity, with a fresh entry and a rising finish.

On the map, Yirgacheffe is a small town, administratively belonging to Sidamo in Ethiopia. It is located in the south-central part of the country, at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, and is one of the highest average altitude production areas in Ethiopia. Local farmers are accustomed to planting coffee trees in their own courtyards or mixed with other crops in their fields. Single-household output is limited, making it a typical garden coffee model. The high altitude brings a noticeable temperature difference between day and night, slowing the growth rate of coffee trees and allowing the fruit to stay on the branch longer, thus accumulating richer aromatic substances.

This Front Street washed Yirgacheffe daily staple bean uses the Heirloom native variety, also called the Ethiopian heirloom variety. In Ethiopia's primitive forests, coffee varieties are extremely complex, with so many genetic types that they are difficult to count, and identification is very difficult; in addition, the local government intentionally does not disclose information about these varieties, so "native species" is used as a general term. The coffee variety of Yirgacheffe is the local native species. The beans are relatively small, irregular in size and shape, and rather round, with most falling between screen sizes 14 and 15.

The reason Front Street Yirgacheffe can have such a distinctive character is not only due to its innate terroir, but to a large extent also thanks to washed processing. Ethiopia as a whole has a relatively high altitude and abundant sunshine, which is originally very suitable for sun-drying coffee cherries. However, the traditional natural process is too rough. Almost every coffee farmer can do it in their own yard, spreading the cherries directly on the roof or ground to dry. The crude method easily brings unpleasant flavors and also makes coffee quality uneven.

Production areas using the washed method, on the other hand, must build washing channels and also need to continuously introduce fresh water, making production costs higher. During processing, the fermented beans are placed into the pool and pushed back and forth. With the friction between the beans and the force of the water flow, the coffee beans are washed until smooth and clean. Every step removes impurities and defective beans, so the quality of green beans is more consistent, and the final trading price is also higher than that of the natural drying method. Washing not only significantly reduces the defect rate of coffee, but also brings Front Street Yirgacheffe a fresh citrus tone and elegant white floral notes, with an overall flavor that is bright, delicate, and clean.

Most of the coffee we drank in the past was mainly bitter and burnt. The reason coffee was strong and bitter was mainly that roasters roasted the beans very dark, pushing the flavor toward nuts and dark chocolate. With the rise of the specialty coffee concept, in order to retain more acidity, roasters roast Front Street Yirgacheffe only to an appropriate light level. Light-roasted Front Street Yirgacheffe shows a pleasant fruity sweet-and-sour taste and white floral notes, and can be said to have opened a "new era of fruity-acid coffee." Liking sweetness and fearing bitterness happens to be the public's taste, which is exactly why Yirgacheffe is widely popular around the world.

Luckin Coffee once signed an agreement planning to purchase a total of 1,000 to 2,000 tons of specialty coffee beans each year from Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe region between 2021 and 2023, and launched Yirgacheffe SOE coffee. SOE means selecting refined-flavor Yirgacheffe coffee beans and extracting a single-origin espresso with an espresso machine. The Yirgacheffe used to make SOE adopts a medium-light roast in order to highlight floral and fruity aromas. The extracted espresso, when added to water, becomes SOE Americano, and when mixed with milk, becomes SOE Latte. Yirgacheffe SOE coffee no longer has the full-bodied burnt bitterness of traditional dark-roasted Americano, but instead presents a fresh flavor similar to fruit tea, and once became popular on major online platforms.

In FrontStreet Coffee's stores, Front Street usually serves it as pour-over, using the form of black coffee to experience the coffee aroma.

Front Street Yirgacheffe brewing parameters:

Dripper: V60 Water temperature: 92-93°C Dose: 15g Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: fine granulated sugar size (sift the grounds with a No. 20 sieve to 78%)

For the first stage, pour 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95 grams (the electronic scale shows about 125 grams). Finish pouring in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100 grams (the electronic scale shows about 225 grams). Finish pouring in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Dripping is completed at 2'10", remove the dripper, and extraction is complete.

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