Where Arabica Coffee From Yirgacheffe Gets Its Quality

Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe differs from regular Yirgacheffe in green bean appearance, roast curve, cupping score, and brewed flavor. The project, proposed in 2007 by Dutch green bean trader Trabocca, requires that only fully ripe red cherries be picked by hand on smallholder farms, which raises uniformity before drying even begins.

Yirgacheffe sits among the Ethiopian origins where arabica coffee from the region grows at high elevation with hard, dense beans and high moisture content. Those traits let roasters extend development time and still keep a clean floral-fruity cup, so washed and sun-dried lots such as Aricha show clearly different roast drop temperatures and brewing parameters.

Yirgacheffe is an evergreen in the specialty coffee world, and Operation Cherry Red is an important project for improving the quality of smallholder farms in Ethiopia. From the perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article systematically compares the specific differences between Operation Cherry Red Yirgacheffe and regular Yirgacheffe (using sun-dried Aricha as an example) in green bean appearance, roasting curves, cupping performance, and brewed flavor. The article also introduces the background of Operation Cherry Red, the key points of the natural sun-dried processing method, and the drop temperatures, brewing parameters, and flavor descriptions of Front Street Coffee's two G1-level beans, helping coffee enthusiasts more clearly understand the quality difference between the two.

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When it comes to Yirgacheffe, Front Street Coffee believes many coffee enthusiasts are familiar with this world-renowned producing region, which can truly be called an evergreen in the specialty coffee world. Front Street Coffee's typical impression of Yirgacheffe is that kind of elegant floral aroma, clean and translucent, with a floral-fruity tea character.

Front Street Coffee believes that Yirgacheffe, as one of the most recognizable specialty coffees in the world and a representative of African washed coffee, has always held an important place in the hearts of coffee connoisseurs and specialty coffee lovers. High-quality washed Arabica is suitable for various roast levels, has high moisture content and relatively hard beans, and by adjusting roasting time and development time, it can fully express a fresh and bright floral-fruity aroma with a very clear mouthfeel.

About Operation Cherry Red

Speaking of "Operation Cherry Red," many friends are no strangers to the name. But when it comes to exactly what kind of project it is, perhaps only a few can explain it clearly. "Operation Cherry Red" (ORC) is a project aimed at improving the quality of smallholder farms. In 2007, Trabocca, the largest green bean trader in the Netherlands, proposed "Operation Cherry Red" in order to find high-quality Ethiopian beans. The project requires that only fully red cherries be selected when harvesting green coffee beans, and that harvesting must be entirely by hand, but this is only the most basic requirement; the entire project is far more than that.

In order to help Ethiopian coffee farmers obtain better income and improve local living standards, in 2007 the Dutch trader Trabocca and farmers in the producing areas jointly launched the "OPERATION CHERRY RED PROJECT," with the pure aim of incentivizing farmers to improve coffee bean quality. At the start of the harvest season in the producing areas, Trabocca designates harvest plans for microclimate zones, hand-picking 100% ripe red coffee cherries, with output of about 1,500 kg to 3,000 kg.

Trabocca provides financial loan support, new hardware equipment, and production and processing knowledge and technology to help farmers improve their production level, and promises that as long as the actual output quality reaches the cupping standards in the cupping rooms in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, it will purchase at a generous price. The passing standard set by Trabocca is 88 points.

Natural/Dried-in-the-Fruit:

After the fruit is picked, it is directly sun-dried without processing; this is the oldest existing processing method. The drying process usually lasts about 4 weeks. The processing method must be very rigorous to ensure the coffee does not lose any flavor. The natural sun-dried method requires the local climate to be extremely dry. In some regions, people will

Sun-dried Aricha processing plant — not part of Operation Cherry Red

The sun-dried Front Street Coffee Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Aricha coffee comes from the Kebel Aricha producing area, and the owner is Surafel Birhanu. In the Gedeo Zone, 4 kilometers west of Yirgacheffe town, there are about 650 to 700 small farms producing and growing these coffees. After the coffee cherries ripen, they are picked and sent to Kebel Aricha for processing, sorting, and raised-bed drying. During the first few days of sun drying, these coffee cherries must be turned once every 2 to 3 hours to avoid over-fermentation and mold growth.

Depending on the weather, after 4 to 6 weeks the beans are transported with parchment to Addis Ababa, where they are processed and packed into jute bags before export. This sun-dried Front Street Coffee Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Aricha coffee is exported and traded through the ECX exchange (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange) system. There are many high-quality coffee processing plants in the Yirgacheffe region, and many coffees have seen their value multiply because they come from these processing plants. The Front Street Coffee sun-dried Yirgacheffe produced by Kebel Aricha Mill is one of them. FrontStreet Coffee's ARICHA beans are processed by the Kebel Aricha processing plant using a refined sun-dried method and then graded by the ECX as Gr.1 or G1 (the highest grade of Ethiopian coffee), and are hailed as the "king of fruits."

FrontStreet Coffee green bean comparison

FrontStreet Coffee believes that because both Front Street Coffee Cherry Red Yirgacheffe and Front Street Coffee sun-dried Aricha belong to the G1 grade, from the green beans they appear yellow-green, which is the typical color of sun-dried coffee, with uniform and plump beans and few defective beans.

FrontStreet Coffee roasting analysis

[Front Street Coffee Cherry Red Yirgacheffe]: dropped at 194°C

[Front Street Coffee sun-dried Aricha]: dropped at 198.6°C

In order to highlight these two Yirgacheffe coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster used a light roast for both. From FrontStreet Coffee's roasting curves, Front Street Coffee Cherry Red Yirgacheffe's curve is relatively smooth, while Front Street Coffee Aricha's is more uneven. This is because the maturity of Front Street Coffee Aricha beans is not as uniform as that of Front Street Coffee Cherry Red Yirgacheffe, so we slightly extended Front Street Coffee Aricha's dehydration time to make the overall color of Front Street Coffee Aricha more uniform and its development fuller.

FrontStreet Coffee cupping comparison

Although from the green beans there is not much difference between FrontStreet Coffee Cherry Red Yirgacheffe coffee beans and FrontStreet Coffee non-Cherry Red Yirgacheffe coffee beans, from roasting and cupping one can still sense a clear gap between the two. Because Operation Cherry Red coffee beans have more uniform maturity, this also allows them to retain a large amount of floral aroma and fruity acidity during roasting; while non-Operation Cherry Red coffee beans, because of uneven maturity, make it harder to balance roasting uniformity with fullness and cleanliness in flavor.

[FrontStreet Coffee brewing parameters]

Dose: 15 g Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15 Filter: V60 Water temperature: 90°C Grind size: fine granulated sugar (EK43s grinder setting 10)

[FrontStreet Coffee brewing method]

Bloom with 30 g for 30 seconds. After blooming, pour in circles to 125 g. After the water level drops by half, continue pouring in circles to 225 g. Extraction time 2 min–2 min 10 sec.

[FrontStreet Coffee flavor description]

[Front Street Yirgacheffe Cherry Red Coffee] Lemon, licorice, citrus, berry, sweet orange; overall sweetness is relatively high, with a caramel and cream flavor in the aftertaste, and a black tea aroma in the finish.

[Front Street Yirgacheffe Sun-Dried Aricha Coffee] Aroma of ripe fruit, with an obvious fermented note on the palate, green grape, and after the temperature drops slightly, citric acidity, cream, with a grape juice-like quality in the finish.

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