Coffee Beans Process: Comparing Huakui 9.0, 8.0 and New Hambela

Front Street Coffee's Huakui comes from the Hambela sub-region of Ethiopia's Guji zone, an area designated as its own producing region by the ECX in 2010. The washed Ethiopian heirloom lots behind Huakui 8.0 and the new harvest Hambela share the juicy fruit character that won the TOH championship in 2017, with Huakui 9.0 arriving as the latest release.

Guji farmers are mostly smallholders, and coffee grows under shade trees intercropped with bananas, which shapes the green coffee bean profile. Comparing roast and brew methods across the three lots helps separate vintage differences from processing and harvest variation, so the floral and berry notes stay readable in the cup.

Ethiopia, as the birthplace of coffee, always showcases the unique character of its native Heirloom variety across different regions. Front Street Coffee's Huakui is produced in the Hambela sub-region of the Guji zone and has attracted much attention since winning the TOH championship in 2017. As the new harvest season arrives, Front Street Huakui 9.0 has arrived as promised. This article will focus on the differences between Huakui 9.0, Huakui 8.0, and the new-season Hambela Huakui, while also discussing what makes Ethiopian native varieties so special, and sharing Front Street's roasting and brewing suggestions for this new bean, giving you a comprehensive understanding of this coffee full of juicy fruitiness.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, welcome to follow: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee) The fruity sweet-and-sour taste is something very few people can resist. In the world of coffee, it is not only the bitterness remembered by older generations; there are also many surprising flavors hidden within, including coffee as bright as fruit juice. On Front Street Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee) bean list, there is a Front Street Huakui coffee from Sidamo, Ethiopia, which is exactly such a representative. Huakui Coffee Bean Producing Region Ethiopia is one of the main producing countries of African Arabica coffee and is also recognized as the birthplace of coffee. The local native Heirloom is an ancient and high-quality Ethiopian coffee variety that always displays a distinctive charm in various producing regions. Guji is one of the earliest regions to begin cultivating coffee. In 2010, thanks to its superior geographical location and cup flavor, it was independently designated as a producing region by the ECX (Ethiopia Commodity Exchange).

In the Oromia region of Ethiopia, southern Guji borders Borena, with the Ganale Dorya River as the boundary to the north, separating it from Gedeo and Bale, while to the east it connects with the Somali region. Most coffee farmers in Guji are small-scale landowners who rely on large areas of land to grow coffee. Coffee trees grow beneath the trees and canopy of Guji County, intercropped with bananas and other crops. For centuries, it has grown in an ecologically sound and favorable environment, maintaining perfect harmony within a wide range of biodiversity.

Front Street Huakui coffee is produced in the Hambela sub-region of the Guji zone, which is also the coffee sub-region with the highest cultivation altitude in Ethiopia. Western Hambela faces Yirgacheffe's Kochere across the mountains, and with a cultivation altitude of 2,000 meters, fertile black soil, and significant temperature differences between day and night, the area is abundant in high-quality specialty coffee beans. In the 2017 TOH green bean competition hosted by the African Coffee Association, a natural-process coffee bean from Hambela won the championship that year, and later we called this coffee bean Front Street Huakui. The place where Huakui coffee beans are grown is a small village of an indigenous tribe at an extremely high altitude within the Hambela area. Around the village, farmers plant bananas and sugarcane all around the coffee plants. The coffee beans harvested here are sent to the Buku Abel processing station for processing.

Every year during the coffee harvest season (December to January of the following year), the Buku processing station organizes farmers to pick fully red coffee cherries, and the brix value must reach above 30. The selected coffee fruits are placed on African raised beds to dry. Because the local temperature difference between day and night is extreme, the coffee farmers shade the sun at noon to avoid excessive fermentation caused by too high a temperature; at night, to prevent sudden rain, they cover them with plastic sheets. They turn them continuously throughout the day and must also ensure that the coffee fruits are not piled too thickly, which allows the fruits to dry evenly while preventing sunburn or unpleasant fermentation flavors. After about 18 days of sun drying, until the green coffee beans have a moisture content of only 13%, the outer shells can be removed by machine and the beans packed. Why is Huakui coffee called Huakui? In 2017, a natural-process coffee bean from DW Company's "Buku Aebl" processing station won the championship in the TOH natural group. At that time, a Chinese green bean merchant introduced this champion coffee bean, with its rich strawberry and creamy aroma, into China and named it "Huakui." The term "Huakui" means "chief of a hundred flowers," and it also carries the green bean merchant's great hopes for this coffee bean, believing it had the potential to become the next Geisha.

In the same year, Li Jianfei from Beijing won second place in the China region of the 2017 World Coffee Brewers Cup with this Huakui coffee. On a competition stage where all the other competing beans were Geisha, he defeated many contestants to take second place, which also added considerable fame to Huakui coffee beans. It should be noted that at this time, Huakui coffee beans held the title of the 2017 TOH champion bean. What are the numbers after Huakui? It is not difficult to see that the naming method of Huakui X.0 is based on the year. So when you see Huakui 3.0, you know it is coffee beans from the 2019 harvest season; when you see Huakui 4.0, you know it is coffee beans from the 2020 harvest season. In addition to the year pattern, the 2017 Huakui coffee was only natural-process coffee beans processed by the "Buku Aebl" processing station, while DW Company expanded its processing stations year by year, adding villages such as "Buku Abel," "Buku Saysay," "Haro Soresa," and "Tirtiro Goye." The most direct consequence was a sharp increase in coffee production. Its flavor is also clearly different from the 2017 Huakui. Strictly speaking, only natural-process coffee beans processed by the "Buku Abel" processing station can truly be called Huakui coffee beans.

As the new coffee harvest season arrives, Africa enters a busy harvest period. Barring any surprises, the latest version of Front Street Huakui coffee beans should be named "Huakui 9.0." Front Street, like everyone else, is very much looking forward to the arrival of this Front Street Huakui coffee bean. These past few days, the Front Street Huakui 9.0 that Front Street acquired has finally arrived. Taking advantage of its freshness and after another year of anticipation, of course we had to taste it properly. In order to present the refined floral and fruity flavors of the Sidamo producing region without losing the coffee's caramelized aroma, Front Street's roaster used a medium-light roast to present this bean. In the dry aroma of the new-season Front Street Huakui 9.0, it shows a fruity aroma similar to Huakui 8.0, with complex aromas such as guava, jackfruit, apricot, dried fruit, citrus, and floral notes. After hot water is poured in, aromas of honey and berry sweetness can be smelled. Through sipping, Front Street first perceives in this Front Street Huakui 9.0 multiple fruity sweet-and-sour notes such as dried mango, jackfruit, orange, and passion fruit. The juiciness is clear and the mouthfeel is round. As the temperature drops slightly, the delicate sweetness of white peach and the acidity of berries begin to be released, and after swallowing, one can feel a sweet aftertaste like drinking black tea.

When Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) roasted this Front Street Huakui 9.0 coffee bean, considering the need to highlight its bright acidity, it adopted a medium-light roast level. Because the roast level is relatively light, the rate at which substances in the coffee beans dissolve is slower. When brewing it, Front Street recommends using a water temperature of 92 degrees Celsius, a V60 dripper, and a medium-fine grind size. Dripper: Hario V60 Water temperature: 92 degrees Celsius Dose: 15 grams Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: 80% passing through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve Friends who often read Front Street articles should have noticed that Front Street often uses a three-stage pouring method when brewing coffee, because compared with a one-pour method, three-stage pouring can give the coffee a richer sense of layering.

First pour 30 grams of water to completely wet the coffee grounds and bloom for 30 seconds, then pour from the center point with a small stream and slowly circle to 125 grams for the first stage. When the water level in the dripper drops to the point where the coffee bed is about to be exposed, continue slowly circling and pouring to 225 grams. The total extraction time is about 2 minutes.

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