What Defines Huakui Coffee From Sidamo's Guji Region?

Huakui is a sun-dried Ethiopian coffee from the Buku Abel processing station in the Guji zone, which became an independent production area in 2010. Only naturally processed beans from that station carry the name. Its rise from a small lot to a TOH cupping winner, and its reputation alongside Geisha, rests on a distinctive floral and berry profile.

For pour-over, Front Street Huakui 8.0 uses a V60 dripper, 90-91°C water, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, a medium-fine grind and three-stage extraction. Expect floral notes, berries, citrus, plum, mango and honey, closing with a black tea finish. Guji's deep black soil and elevations above 1,800 meters support the flavor.

From a small lot in Ethiopia's Guji region to becoming a TOH cupping champion, and then to a legend that defeated Geisha—what makes Huakui coffee so memorable? In this article, Front Street Coffee takes you through Huakui's origins and rise to fame, clarifies the story behind the X.0 series, and explains that only sun-dried beans from the Buku Abel processing station can be called Huakui. We'll also share the green bean characteristics and pour-over recipe for Front Street Huakui 8.0: V60 dripper, 90-91°C water temperature, 15g coffee, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, medium-fine grind, and a three-stage extraction. Finally, we present the complete flavor profile of floral notes, berries, citrus, plum, mango, honey, and a black tea finish.

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Every time you hear Front Street Huakui coffee beans, the name always gives off a feeling of "the queen of a hundred flowers, enchanting and graceful" ~ This Front Street Sidamo sun-dried coffee bean is just like the word "Huakui," displaying a fascinating aroma and mouthfeel in the cup. In this article, Front Street walks you through how this Front Street sun-dried Sidamo coffee bean from Ethiopia went from an "nobody" to the "queen of a hundred flowers."

The Origins of Huakui Coffee Beans Front Street Huakui coffee comes from the Guji region of Sidamo. Guji was once part of the Sidamo production area, but in 2010, due to its exceptional coffee flavor, it was made an independent new region by the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX).

The Guji region is located next to Yirgacheffe. It features many different types of terrain, fertile black soil with a depth of up to two meters, allowing plants to root deeper. Additionally, the average altitude is above 1,800 meters, and the temperature difference between day and night is relatively large—all favorable conditions that promote the growth of high-quality coffee in Guji. Coffee cultivation here hardly requires chemical fertilizers; fallen leaves, decaying matter, plant residues, and organic matter in the soil provide sufficient nutrients, allowing coffee trees to thrive.

Currently, we still often see the Sidamo and Guji production areas appearing together. This is mainly due to Ethiopia's administrative divisions, which are divided into four levels, from largest to smallest: Region, Zone, woreda, kebele. Most green coffee bean names follow this rule for naming. For example, Huakui is located southeast of Yirgacheffe in the Sidamo production area, and administratively belongs to Oromia Region → Guji Zone → Shakisso woreda → Hambella.

This area has reddish-brown organic soil, abundant rainfall, and a large temperature difference between day and night. The coffee here has a refined flavor and high-quality, full-bodied acidity. Every harvest season, farmers hand-pick fully red ripe cherries, place them in baskets, and send them to processing stations with professional equipment. Sun-drying begins only after the red cherry sugar content reaches 21 or above. With scientific measurement and meticulous management, while preserving traditional sun-drying techniques, the coffee beans have more stable quality and better sweetness.

The excellent sweet-and-sour taste and stable quality caught the attention of Ethiopian DW Green Bean Company. So in 2017, DW Company entered the sun-dried coffee beans from the Buku processing station in this region into the TOH (the Taste Of Harvest) East African Green Bean Cupping Competition. This batch of coffee beans won the championship with its rich and full berry notes, creamy smooth mouthfeel, and high sweetness. That same year, a Chinese green bean company imported this competition batch of green coffee beans and gave it the mysterious name "Huakui" to describe the flavor characteristics of this bean. But! This was not yet the key to its fame. In 2017, Li Jianfei, runner-up in the China region of the World Coffee Brewing Championship, used this batch of Huakui coffee beans to defeat many competitors' Geisha coffees. In an era when Geisha coffee beans dominated competitions big and small, a sun-dried coffee bean from Ethiopia beat so many Geisha coffees, so naturally everyone looked at this coffee bean with new eyes and believed that this Huakui coffee bean could rival Geisha coffee beans.

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

Why are there so many X.0 series of Huakui coffee beans? In theory, only the champion batch of coffee beans from 2017 can be called Huakui coffee beans. Since coffee beans are an agricultural product, climate, soil, and a series of other environmental factors cause the flavor to differ each year. So to distinguish them, DW Company numbered the sun-dried Huakui coffee beans produced at the Buku processing station each subsequent year with an X.0 series. For example, 2018 was called Huakui 2.0, and by 2024, it has reached the Huakui 8.0 series.

No ~ Huakui is just the name of the coffee bean. The variety of Front Street Sidamo Huakui is the Ethiopian native species, which is what we often see as Heirloom. As the birthplace of Arabica coffee, Ethiopia's thousands of Heirloom varieties make it a unique origin.

In Ethiopia, coffee is generally grown under three main systems: smallholder farming, semi-forest planting, and forest planting. Among them, coffee trees in semi-forest planting are generally wild varieties growing in the wild. Farmers manage the coffee tree growing areas and also plant other cash crops. Because the number of varieties is simply too large and too mixed, it is almost impossible to conduct genetic testing and verification on them on a larger scale. At the same time, the local government hoped to protect these unknown varieties and prevent industry players from various countries from scrambling to obtain them, so it decided to name these varieties "Heirloom."

According to Front Street's observation, native species generally have small, relatively round beans with somewhat uneven shapes, mostly between 14-15 screen sizes. In cupping, they often show elegant floral and fruity flavors and are deeply loved by people.

When Front Street first received the Front Street Huakui 8.0 green coffee beans, there was a fermented aroma of coffee flowers, completely different from the grassy scent of ordinary green beans. At the same time, it was noticed that Huakui green beans vary in size, with many pointed at both ends and a good moisture content of around 11%, but they are not the very hard SHB type. Because the beans are dense and hard, the dehydration time at the beginning of roasting is extended, and the temperature is raised into first crack before first crack, trying to preserve the loss of small-molecule aromatic substances such as floral notes.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations Dripper: V60#01

Water temperature: 90-91°C

Coffee dose: 15g

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

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

Brewing method: three-stage extraction. Use 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour in a slow circular stream until 125g for the first stage. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until 225g and stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. (Start timing at the beginning of the bloom.) Extraction time is 2'00". Front Street Sidamo sun-dried Huakui 8.0 coffee bean brewing flavor: floral notes, the sweet-and-sour taste of berries, citrus, and plum, mango juice, honey, with a finish of black tea sweetness and aroma.

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