How Do Guji and West Arsi Coffees Compare?

Guji and West Arsi both sit within Ethiopia's Sidama zone and each has a distinct profile. Guji is known for its Huakui series, while West Arsi is built on careful smallholder farming. Sidama coffee grows between 1,400 and 2,000 meters, and native varieties plus varied soil and microclimates create wide flavor differences.

Both regions rely on natural, sun-dried processing, which shapes the fruit-forward character in the cup. Comparing Huakui 4.0 and Arsi across green beans, roasting, cupping, and brewing shows the specific gaps in aroma and mouthfeel. Many coffee farms in the area are scattered around the Great Rift Valley, and Sidama has become an important export hub.

Ethiopia's coffee regions each have their own strengths, and among them, Guji and West Arsi under the Sidama zone have attracted much attention in recent years. Guji has won repeated praise for its Huakui series beans, while West Arsi is known for its meticulous smallholder farming. From the perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article sorts out the terroir background and natural processing methods of the two major producing areas, and through a comparison of Huakui 4.0 and Arsi in green beans, roasting, cupping, and brewing, presents the specific differences between the two in aroma and mouthfeel, while also including Front Street's brewing parameter suggestions for coffee lovers' reference.

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In previous shares, Front Street mentioned that Yirgacheffe originally belonged to the Sidama producing area, and was only separated out because its flavor performance was too outstanding. This time, Front Street continues to turn its attention to another important Ethiopian origin—Sidama. Whenever customers ask Front Street about Ethiopian coffee beans, the barista often first asks: "Do you prefer an Ethiopian coffee with brighter acidity, or one with a fuller juicy feel?" Faced with everyone's hesitation when choosing beans, Front Street's baristas use the difference between the citrus-like bright acidity of the Yirgacheffe region and the rich fruity aroma and prominent juicy feel of the Sidama region to help customers quickly lock in the cup they want.

Sidama

Sidamo

Sidama is located in southern Ethiopia, bordering the Arsi and Bale administrative regions to the east, and extending to the Gamogofa administrative region to the west. Coffee is grown at altitudes between 1,400 and 2,000 meters. The region is mainly agricultural, and most coffee farms are scattered around the Great Rift Valley. In recent years, Sidama has developed quite strongly and has become an important coffee export hub. Because soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties differ, Sidama's coffee flavors show great richness, and the coffee produced by almost every town has a distinct personality and differences.

Within Sidama, the most famous coffee-growing areas are Guji (GUJI) and West Arsi. Most green coffee beans in the Sidama region use the natural processing method, and Front Street believes it is precisely this processing method that gives local coffee beans their rich fruity aroma and smooth mouthfeel.

Guji

guji

The Guji producing area once belonged to Sidama, and in 2010 it was separately designated as a new producing area by the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). It is located southeast of Yirgacheffe, with complex terrain where high mountains, valleys, and plains are interwoven. The soil in this area is fertile black soil (Vertisol), with a soil layer nearly two meters deep, and an average altitude of more than 1,800 meters. The significant temperature difference between day and night brought by special geographical conditions provides an ideal terroir foundation for producing high-quality specialty coffee locally. When it comes to the bean that made Guji famous, Front Street must mention Huakui.

Huakui comes from Hambella, located in Guji, Ethiopia's largest coffee-producing region, and administratively under Oromia State. To the west, Hambella faces Yirgacheffe's Kochere across the mountains. Between the two producing areas lies a highland about 30 kilometers wide at an altitude of 3,200 meters. To the southeast, north, and south, it borders Guji's Shakiso, Uraga, and Kercha sub-regions respectively, making it Ethiopia's highest-altitude coffee sub-region.

At present, the Hambella producing area has nearly 20 processing plants of various scales. In 2017, a natural bean from DW Company's "Buku Abel" processing plant won the championship in the Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest Competition. A Chinese green bean importer named it Huakui. That bean had a rich strawberry and cream aroma. After that, DW Company added processing plants in Dimtu, the core production area of Hambella, including Buku Abel, Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, and Tirtiro Goye, with an annual output of about 1,100 tons. Strictly speaking, among all these estates and processing plants, only the natural coffee beans from the "Buku Abel" processing plant are qualified to be called "Huakui coffee beans."

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) once cupped Huakui, Huakui 2.0, and Huakui 3.0, and found that although the flavors of 2.0 and 3.0 were quite close to the 2017 Huakui, their body and aftertaste were slightly inferior to the original Huakui. However, what surprised Front Street was that sometimes the exact same beans as the original Huakui batch could still be identified among the green beans of these two batches. As for Huakui 3.1, Front Street felt that its flavor was far from Huakui, and even leaned somewhat toward Geisha, which was also confirmed by the green bean supplier. 2020 was the fourth year of this Huakui bean. The production area had expanded to several times its original size, and with more scientific cultivation and management, the flavor performance of Huakui 4.0 was even better, earning praise from many coffee enthusiasts. Front Street also acquired and listed a Huakui 4.0 coffee bean.

West Arsi

West Arsi

West Arsi is sandwiched between the famous Yirgacheffe coffee-growing region and Hararge, at an altitude of 1,900 to 2,200 meters, and is located in the western part of the Sidama region. The region's name comes from a branch of the Oromo people who have lived there for a long time.

West Arsi is composed of three woredas (Ethiopia's third-level administrative divisions): Arsi, Bale, and East Shewa. About 88.52% of West Arsi's population is Oromo, which is of great significance in coffee history because they were the first tribe in human history to drink coffee, and half of the coffee produced in Ethiopia comes from this region.

Coffee cultivation in the West Arsi producing area is mainly based on a smallholder model. The average farm size of each smallholder household is not large, about 2 to 3 hectares, but even so, it is often slightly larger than the 1.5 to 2 hectares common in most parts of Ethiopia. Although local coffee cultivation techniques are still in the development stage, compared with other producing areas, West Arsi's cultivation techniques are improving very quickly. Coffee farmers do not need to hire temporary or full-time workers, but rely on family members to help select coffee, which allows them to better control quality. Processing stations usually also pay extra for fully ripe red cherries, which greatly motivates coffee farmers.

Natural processing method

Natural

During the coffee harvest season, coffee farmers in the Sidama region pick only ripe red cherries and place them one by one into baskets. After picking, the coffee cherries are uniform in size, close in maturity, and free of impurities. During processing, defective beans and unripe or overripe cherries must first be removed manually. Then the red coffee cherries are spread flat on raised wooden frames or entire drying racks for sun drying, which prevents the beans from directly touching the ground and picking up off-flavors.

During sun drying, they need to be turned constantly to ensure the coffee beans lose moisture evenly; every three to five days, the coffee farmers manually pick out moldy and defective beans. After the fruit skin dries and hardens, a hulling machine is used to remove the dry, hard fruit skin. After obtaining green coffee beans, in pursuit of a more perfect taste, the coffee farmers also conduct one final screening.

Next, Front Street selects Huakui 4.0 from the Guji producing area and Arsi coffee beans from West Arsi, and conducts a series of comparisons around green beans, roasting, cupping, and brewing, to see exactly how coffee beans from the two producing areas differ.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Green Bean Comparison

Both coffee beans use the natural processing method, and the green beans are green with a yellow tint. Huakui 4.0's variety includes some smaller particles, and the overall size is not very uniform; Arsi's beans are relatively uniform in particle size.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Roasting Suggestions

For these two new-crop beans, Front Street extends the dehydration time during roasting so that the bean surface and bean core are heated evenly. In order to highlight acidity and floral and fruity aromas, a light roast level is used.

Huakui 4.0: Yangjia 800N, bean charge 480g: raise the drum temperature to 175°C and charge, set the airflow to 3, and the heat to 120. When it rises to 140°C, adjust the airflow to 4. Roast until 6'00'', at 151.7°C, when the bean surface turns yellow and the grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is complete. When wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly turns into coffee aroma, that is the prelude to first crack. At this time, it is necessary to clearly hear the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'50'', open the airflow fully, reduce the heat to 80 at 188°C, first crack development time 1'40'', and drop at 196°C.

Arsi: Yangjia 800N, bean charge 480g: raise the drum temperature to 160°C and charge, set the airflow to 3, and the heat to 120. Adjust the heat once at 115°C, and set the airflow to 4. Roast until 6'00'', at 154.9°C, when the bean surface turns yellow and the grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is complete. At the 8th minute, wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly turns into coffee aroma, that is the prelude to first crack. At this time, it is necessary to clearly hear the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'08'', open the airflow fully, first crack development time 1'20'', and drop at 193.5°C.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Cupping Report

2025 New Crop Huakui

Dry aroma: citrus, berries, blueberry, pink floral, passion fruit

Wet aroma: blackcurrant, rose

Palate: almond, strawberry, blackcurrant, fermented note, lasting sweetness

Arsi

Dry aroma: berries

Wet aroma: jam

Palate: plum, berries, cranberry jam, nectarine, mango, honey

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Brewing Suggestions

Dripper: V60 #01 Water temperature: 90-91°C Dose: 15g Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: BG6m / caster sugar size (sift powder with a No. 20 sieve to 80%)

Front Street brewing method: In the first stage, pour 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95 grams (the electronic scale shows about 125 grams), finishing the pour 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), finishing the pour in about 1 minute 40 seconds to 1'45''. Dripping is completed at 2'00''-2'10'', remove the dripper, and extraction is complete.

2025 new-crop Huakui brewing flavor: at high temperature, there is an almond aroma; after slowly cooling, the sweet-tartness of berries, the juicy feel of blackcurrant, and a honey aftertaste, with lasting sweetness.

Arsi brewing flavor: at high temperature, a berry juice-like mouthfeel; after slowly cooling, the aftertaste of plum, nectarine, mango, and honey.

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