How Did the Huakui Coffee Bean Name Come About?

Huakui means "chief of a hundred flowers," a name given to a naturally processed coffee from the Guji region of Sidama, Ethiopia. The bean drew attention after winning the 2017 TOH East African Green Bean Cupping Competition, and later when competitor Li Jianfei used it to beat Geisha entries in a China brewing competition. Its cup shows intense berry notes and a creamy mouthfeel.

Guji was part of Sidama until 2010, when the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) classified it as its own region because of its cup quality. Average elevation sits above 1,800 meters, with fertile black soil up to two meters deep, wide day-to-night temperature swings, and almost no chemical fertilizer. The X.0 series numbering tracks later crop releases.

The name Huakui coffee bean always evokes the imagery of "the chief of a hundred flowers," and this naturally processed bean from the Guji region of Sidama, Ethiopia, has indeed won over countless coffee lovers with its intense berry notes and creamy smooth mouthfeel. From winning the 2017 TOH East African Green Bean Cupping Competition to Li Jianfei, the runner-up in the China Brewing Competition, using it to defeat numerous Geisha competitors, Huakui has completed its transformation from "nobody" to "chief of a hundred flowers." This article will guide you through Huakui's origins, the terroir conditions of the Guji region, the naming logic of the X.0 series, as well as the pour-over parameters recommended by Front Street Coffee and the flavor performance of the 2025 new crop season.

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The name Huakui coffee bean always evokes the imagery of "the chief of a hundred flowers, grace and allure." And this bean truly lives up to its name, displaying an intoxicating aroma and mouthfeel in the cup. Next, Front Street will take you through how this coffee bean transformed from obscurity to becoming the "chief of a hundred flowers."

The Origins of Huakui Coffee Bean

Huakui coffee comes from the Guji region of Sidama. Guji was originally part of the Sidama region, but in 2010, due to its outstanding coffee bean flavor, it was independently classified as a new region by the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX).

The Guji region is adjacent to Yirgacheffe, with rich and diverse topography, possessing fertile black soil with a depth of up to two meters, allowing plant roots to grow deeper. The average altitude of the region is above 1,800 meters, with significant temperature differences between day and night, all of which provide favorable conditions for Guji to cultivate high-quality coffee. Coffee cultivation requires almost no chemical fertilizers, as fallen leaves, decaying matter, plant residues, and organic matter in the soil around the trees already provide sufficient nutrients, allowing coffee trees to grow vigorously.

Today we still commonly see the Sidama region and Guji region appearing side by side, which mainly stems from Ethiopia's administrative division system. The country's administrative divisions are divided into four levels, from largest to smallest: Region, Zone, woreda, kebele. Most green coffee bean names also follow this naming convention. Taking Huakui as an example, it is located southeast of Yirgacheffe in the Sidama region, administratively belonging to Oromia Region→Guji Zone→Shakisso woreda→Hambella.

This area has red-brown organic soil, abundant rainfall, and large temperature differences between day and night, producing coffee with refined flavors and high-quality, full-bodied acidity. During each harvest season, farmers hand-pick fully ripe red cherries and place them in baskets, then send them to processing stations equipped with professional equipment. The red cherries must reach a sugar content of 21 or above before natural processing begins. With scientific measurement and refined management, while preserving traditional natural processing methods, the coffee beans achieve more stable quality and better sweetness.

The excellent sweet-acid balance and stable quality caught the attention of Ethiopian DW Green Bean Company. In 2017, DW Company sent the naturally processed coffee beans from the Buku processing station to participate in the TOH (the Taste Of Harvest) East African Green Bean Cupping Competition, and this batch of beans won the championship with intense full-bodied berry notes, creamy smooth mouthfeel, and high sweetness. In the same year, a Chinese green bean company imported the competition batch of green coffee beans and gave it the mysterious name "Huakui" to describe its flavor characteristics.

However, this was not the key to its fame. In 2017, Li Jianfei, the runner-up in the World Coffee Brewing Competition China region, used this batch of Huakui coffee beans to defeat many competitors' Geisha coffees. In an era when Geisha coffee beans dominated competitions of all sizes, a naturally processed coffee bean from Ethiopia defeating numerous Geishas naturally made people look at it with new eyes and believe it could rival Geisha.

Subsequently, DW Company established additional processing stations in the core production area of Hambella, Dimtu, namely Buku Abel, Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, and Tirtiro Goye, with an annual coffee production of approximately 1,100 tons. In terms of growing regions and processing stations, among all these estates and processing stations, only the naturally processed coffee beans from the "Buku Abel" processing station can be called "Huakui." And the Huakui coffee beans sold by Front Street over the years all come from the Buku Abel processing station~

Why does Huakui coffee bean have so many X.0 series?

In theory, only the 2017 championship batch of coffee beans can be called Huakui coffee beans. But coffee beans are agricultural products, and a series of environmental factors such as climate and soil will cause flavor differences each year. Therefore, to distinguish them, DW Company assigned X.0 series numbers to the naturally processed Huakui coffee beans produced by the Buku processing station each subsequent year. For example, 2018 was called Huakui 2.0, and by 2024 it has reached the Huakui 8.0 series.

That's not the case~ Huakui is just the name of the coffee bean. Huakui's variety is Ethiopian Heirloom, which is what we commonly call Heirloom. As the birthplace of Arabica coffee, Ethiopia possesses thousands of Heirloom varieties, making it a unique origin.

In Ethiopia, coffee cultivation is roughly divided into three systems: smallholder farming, semi-forest cultivation, and forest cultivation. Among them, coffee trees in semi-forest cultivation are mostly wild varieties found in the wild, and farmers manage the coffee tree planting areas while cultivating other cash crops. Because there are too many varieties and they are too diverse, it is nearly impossible to conduct genetic testing and verification on them on a larger scale. At the same time, the local government wants to protect these unknown varieties and prevent industry practitioners from various countries from rushing to obtain them, so it decided to name these varieties "Heirloom."

According to Front Street's observations, Heirloom varieties generally have small beans, are relatively round in appearance, and have somewhat irregular shapes, mostly between screen sizes 14-15. In cupping, they often exhibit elegant floral and fruity flavors, and are deeply loved by people.

When Front Street first received the Huakui 5.0 green coffee beans, we smelled a fermented fragrance of coffee flowers, completely different from the grassy scent of ordinary green beans. We also noticed that Huakui green beans vary in size, with many being pointed at both ends and having a good moisture content of around 11%, but they are not very high-hardness SHB beans. Because the beans are dense and hard, we extended the dehydration time in the early stage, ramping up to first crack before it, trying to preserve small-molecule aromatic substances such as floral notes and reduce their loss.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations Dripper: V60#01

Water temperature: 90-91℃

Dose: 15g

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: medium-fine grind (80% passing through China standard No. 20 sieve)

Brewing method: three-stage extraction. Use 30g of water for blooming for 30 seconds, then pour in a slow circular motion until reaching 125g for the first stage; when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until reaching 225g and stop; when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from the beginning of blooming) Total extraction time is 2'00".

2025 new crop season Front Street Huakui coffee bean brewing flavor: floral, berry, citrus, plum sweet-acid notes, mango juice, honey, with a sweet black tea finish.

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