What makes Sidamo coffee stand out in Ethiopia?

Sidamo coffee comes from the highlands of Ethiopia's East African Rift Valley, where rainfall of roughly 1,550 to 2,220 millimeters a year, fertile soil, and high altitude shape its character. Coffees from this recognized region typically show bright acidity, a thick, smooth mouthfeel, and layers of spice, floral, and fruit notes.

The name Sidamo traces back to the indigenous Sidama people, who also spell it Sidama and hold their own New Year, Fiche Chambalala. Bensa town and its Alo village sit at high altitude, and their natural-processed beans have become a reference for the region's floral and fruity profile.

Sidamo is one of Ethiopia's most renowned specialty coffee regions, famous for its rich floral aromas and abundant fruit notes. This article begins with the origin of the region's name, traces the historical roots of the two names Sidamo and Sidama, and focuses on the high-altitude micro-region of Bensa town and its Alo village. It analyzes the varietal composition, processing methods, and flavor characteristics of Bensa coffee, and provides a detailed introduction to Front Street Coffee's newly launched Ethiopian natural Alo coffee beans, covering everything from green bean processing to cupping performance and V60 three-pour brewing parameters, offering coffee lovers a complete guide to tasting and brewing.

For those who favor coffee with floral and fruity notes, Sidamo is a name that cannot be avoided. This land of Ethiopia has given rise to many representatives of specialty coffee, and the reason Sidamo has been able to captivate coffee enthusiasts around the world for years on end lies precisely in its rich floral aroma and fruit flavors. It has long been a region that many seasoned drinkers actively seek out by name.

Sidamo is located in the highlands of the East African Rift Valley, with annual rainfall of approximately 1,550 to 2,220 millimeters. Abundant rain, suitable temperatures, fertile soil, and high altitude together laid the foundation for its fame. As one of the three officially recognized regions of Ethiopia, Sidamo offers coffees of diverse styles, excellent quality, and complex layers. After cupping numerous outstanding single-origin Sidamo coffees, Front Street Coffee concluded that coffees from this region typically display bright acidity, a thick and smooth mouthfeel, and rich layers interwoven with spice, floral, and fruity notes. At Front Street Coffee alone, there are several Sidamo products, such as Front Street Coffee Huakui 8.0, Front Street Coffee Santa Vini, and Front Street Coffee ALO Natural, which speaks to the popularity of this region.

When researching this origin, one often encounters two spellings: Sidamo and Sidama. The pronunciation "Sidamo" derives from the local indigenous Sidama people. Like other ethnic groups in Ethiopia, the Sidama have their own traditions and culture, and even have a New Year recognized by UNESCO — Fiche Chambalala — when more than five million people gather in the capital Hawassa to celebrate together each year. From the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, the region was invaded and annexed, and the invaders pronounced Sidama as Sidamo. For the Sidama people, this name carried a derogatory connotation. By the 1990s, the Ethiopian government implemented a federal system of administration, redividing regions according to major ethnic settlements and languages, and the Sidama took the opportunity to restore their historical name: Sidama.

However, before the administrative division was adjusted, Sidamo Coffee had already gained worldwide fame for its unique aroma, so the public is more accustomed to using the name Sidamo rather than Sidama. In addition, when the Ethiopian government applied for trademark protection for Sidama coffee back then, it also adopted the old name Sidamo® as the official registered trademark. To this day, domestic consumers are still more accustomed to calling the coffee from here "Sidamo."

The COE competitions in both 2020 and 2021 were held in Ethiopia. Among the Sidamo micro-regions that entered the COE list, there were mainly four towns: Arbegona, Bensa, Bura, and Bona Zuria. These four towns are geographically very close, all located in the Sidamo highlands. Among the Sidamo micro-regions on the 2021 COE list, all five champion farms came from Bensa town.

Ethiopia's coffee varieties are highly diverse. By category, one type is traditional regional landraces, and the other is the numbered coffee lines bred by the JARC Jimma Agricultural Research Center. Common regional varieties in Sidamo include Dega, Wolisho, and Kurume. In the 2020 and 2021 COE competitions, the coffee varieties representing Sidama State on the list all came from JARC's numbered coffees. Among them, the 2020 COE champion variety from Bura town in Sidama was 74158, and the 2021 COE champion variety from Bensa town in Sidama was 74165.

Bensa is located in the Sidamo region of southern Ethiopia, at an altitude between 1,800 and 2,300 meters. The high altitude makes the coffee flavor more complex. In Bensa, one can taste both typical and intense fruit notes, and occasionally catch strawberry-like flavors as well.

Bensa coffee beans are processed in a relatively flexible manner, with washed, natural, and red honey processing all being suitable. Among them, washed Bensa has a bright aroma and pleasant acidity. When the harvest season arrives, farmers deliver ripe coffee cherries to the processing station, where they are sorted and graded, pulped, fermented, then washed clean with fresh water and placed on drying beds to dry. It should be noted that during the first few days of drying, the beans must be turned once every 2 to 3 hours. Depending on weather conditions, the coffee beans need 12 to 15 days to dry until the moisture content drops to 11.5%.

Bensa sounds similar to a Guangdong herbal tea called "banzha," but it is not a herbal tea. Bensa coffee beans have a delicate and unique mouthfeel, mild yet rich, with fruity aromas, a smooth entry, and a long finish. By this point, many readers must already be intrigued by the coffee from this small origin. So that everyone can taste the refined Bensa flavor, Front Street Coffee recently launched a Front Street Ethiopian Natural Alo coffee from a high-altitude area, processed using the natural method.

Before the formal natural drying process, farmers first hand-pick fully ripe coffee cherries and transport them to the Hatessa processing station for a first round of sorting. Then, before washing, they are sorted again by skin color to remove overripe or underripe cherries, ensuring consistent ripeness before natural drying begins.

For natural coffee, the farmers responsible for post-processing must frequently turn the cherries on the drying beds during the first three days, because at this stage the coffee cherries have a very high moisture content. If not turned in time, they not only easily develop mold but also produce unpleasant sour or rotten-fruit flavors due to uneven heating. Throughout the process, the coffee cherries are spread in only a thin layer to achieve better ventilation and drying conditions. After 14 to 18 days, once the moisture content drops to the target level, they can be bagged and sent to the warehouse.

Through cupping, Front Street Coffee first sensed the sweet floral and fruity aroma of this Front Street Ethiopian Natural Alo. In the dry fragrance, there are obvious notes of magnolia, pineapple, yellow peach, and small Taiwanese mango, accompanied by a fresh sweet fermentation aroma — very pleasant.

When Front Street Coffee slurps, the entry is full of tropical fruit sweetness and acidity, with ripe pineapple, passion fruit, and perfume lemon particularly prominent, accompanied by a slight black tea note. The gentle fermentation feel plus elegant floral notes make one want to take another sip. As the temperature drops slightly, the coffee gradually shifts toward stone fruit characteristics such as yellow peach and dried apricot. The fruit acidity is clear, bright, and layered — very distinctive.

Brewing recommendations for Front Street Ethiopian Alo Natural Coffee:

Dripper: V60 Water temperature: 92-93°C Dose: 15g Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: fine sugar consistency (78% passing rate on a No. 20 standard sieve)

Pouring technique: three-pour method

Three-pour method: First, wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds, wait for it to form a dome, and let it bloom for 30 seconds. Then, pour in a slow stream in circles from the inside out until reaching 125g, pause, and wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the height of the dripper. Continue pouring the third pour with the same slow stream until reaching 225g, and wait until all the coffee liquid has filtered through before removing the dripper. Total time is about 2 minutes.

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