What Coffee Knowledge Matters for Yirgacheffe Pour-Over?

Brewing washed Yirgacheffe so its jasmine, citrus, lemon, and berry aromas come through depends on matching grind size, water temperature, and pouring technique to a medium-light roast. A three-stage pour on a V60, with set ratios for each stage, keeps extraction even and gives a reusable framework rather than a one-off recipe.

The beans grow near 2,000 meters with a wide gap between day and night temperatures, which helps cherries build aroma. Yirgacheffe is a wetland area, so washed processing suits it and removes defective beans, raising cleanliness. Avoid boiling coffee for these beans; small screen size means deep roasting masks the floral character.

Front Street washed Yirgacheffe is famous for its jasmine, citrus, lemon, and berry aromas, but to brew out its clean, bright floral and fruity character, you need to control everything from the bean's characteristics, grind size, and water temperature to the pouring technique. This article focuses on the medium-light roast style of Front Street Yirgacheffe, outlining the preparation of pour-over equipment, grind and water temperature parameters, and the extraction logic of the V60 dripper, and provides specific ratios and operating steps for three-stage pouring to help coffee lovers build a reusable brewing framework so that Yirgacheffe's aromas come through more clearly.

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Many people, when choosing Front Street staple beans at Front Street stores, are drawn in by the flavor description of Front Street washed Yirgacheffe—jasmine, citrus, lemon, berry—which sounds clear, elegant, and refined. So how exactly should it be brewed to bring out this unique floral and fruity aroma even better?

What are the characteristics of Front Street washed Yirgacheffe coffee beans?

Front Street Yirgacheffe comes from Ethiopia's famous producing region, at an altitude of up to 2,000 meters, with a marked temperature difference between day and night, creating superior growing conditions for coffee trees and allowing the coffee cherries to accumulate rich aromas. However, local water resources are not abundant, and in the past people mostly used the traditional natural process for green beans, that is, spreading them directly in the sun to dry. Because the operation was rather rough, coffee quality varied. It was not until the government introduced washing equipment and technology that the quality of Front Street Yirgacheffe was further improved.

Unlike other producing regions, Yirgacheffe itself is a wetland environment, making it more suitable for washed processing. Multiple steps in the washing process can screen out defective beans and significantly reduce the defect rate, allowing the coffee to show higher cleanliness and clearer, more transparent aromas. This processing method amplifies the citrus and lemon aromas of Front Street Yirgacheffe coffee beans themselves, and the taste is also fresher and brighter.

Front Street Yirgacheffe coffee beans are relatively small; if deep roasting is used, they are prone to uneven heating and even burnt notes, so roasters usually tend toward medium or light roasting. Later it was found that lighter-roasted Yirgacheffe not only has elevated acidity but also carries highly recognizable fruit flavors, which can be said to have opened a new stage of "fruity acidity coffee." Liking sweetness and fearing bitterness is exactly the general public's taste, which is precisely why Yirgacheffe is widely popular around the world. Front Street hopes to present the classic Yirgacheffe taste, so it uses a medium-light roast.

Front Street washed Yirgacheffe pour-over parameters

Before brewing, first prepare the following equipment: pouring kettle, dripper, server, grinder, filter paper, electronic scale, thermometer, and a bag of Front Street washed Yirgacheffe staple beans within its best flavor period.

The grinder is very important in pour-over; the coarseness and uniformity of the coffee grounds directly affect the flavor in the cup. Grinders on the market are broadly divided into hand grinders and electric grinders; Front Street stores use the EK43s grinder. Coffee grounds that are too coarse tend to underextract and taste weak; too fine tends to overextract and bring bitterness. When adjusting grind size, Front Street uses the Chinese No. 20 0.85mm standard sieve; medium-light roasted coffee beans usually use a 75–80% pass-through rate, while medium-dark roasted coffee beans use 70–75%. Front Street Yirgacheffe is a high-altitude coffee bean with a medium-light roast, and Front Street hopes to extract richer aromatic substances, so it chooses a coarseness with an 80% pass-through rate on the No. 20 standard sieve, with the store's EK43s grinder set at 10.

Water temperature works similarly to grind size: the higher the water temperature, the higher the extraction efficiency, the easier it is to release various substances and components, and the higher the concentration. If brewed with water close to boiling, it is easy to extract unpleasant bitter substances. Therefore, for medium-dark roasted coffee beans Front Street recommends 87–90°C, while light-roasted coffee needs a higher water temperature to stimulate aroma, so 91–93°C is used. Note that the water temperature here refers to the temperature of the water flow poured onto the coffee grounds. If the room temperature is low, the water temperature drops quickly, so you can appropriately increase it by 1–2°C to ensure the extraction temperature.

In daily service, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores often use two resin drippers, Hario V60 and KONO. The V60 dripper is mainly responsible for lighter-roasted coffee beans, while the KONO dripper is responsible for darker-roasted coffee beans. The V60 dripper body has diversion ribs connecting the top and bottom and a large central round hole, which can speed up the water flow rate, while the spiral-shaped vent groove design lengthens the water flow path, increasing the contact time between coffee grounds and hot water. Each stream of water converges along the grooves toward the center point of the dripper, the pressure on the coffee grounds is concentrated, and the brewed coffee has richer layering. Therefore, Front Street prioritizes using the V60 to brew the medium-light roasted flavor-oriented Front Street washed Yirgacheffe coffee.

Pour-over technique sharing

Based on past brewing experience, Front Street recommends that beginners just starting out use three-stage pouring, that is, two pours after blooming. Three-stage extraction helps the water have enough time to rinse the coffee bed, more fully dissolve flavor substances, increase the layering of the taste, and at the same time avoid excessive extraction caused by soaking for too long. If using 15 grams of coffee grounds, a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and 225ml total water, the three-stage water amounts are divided as: 30ml, 95ml, 100ml, and the weights shown on the electronic scale are: 30g, 125g, 225g.

First place the folded filter paper into the dripper to fit it, and wet it with water so the filter paper fits the dripper better. Prepare hot water and a measuring thermometer, and at the same time pour 15 grams of ground coffee into the dripper, then tare the electronic scale.

For the first stage, pour 30g of water to bloom for 30 seconds. Start timing at the same time as pouring. Throughout, pour with a small stream from the center point and begin circling outward, making sure to wet the entire coffee bed.

After 30 seconds, begin steadily pouring the second stage of 95g of water with a slightly larger stream. The purpose is to lift the entire coffee bed. The water column needs to be poured vertically and evenly. At this point the timer scale shows 125g, and the pour is finished in about 55 seconds.

When the liquid level drops to the halfway point, begin pouring the third stage of 100 grams with a small stream in a small circle, trying to control the stream so it does not circle too widely, as this can easily disturb the coffee bed and cause underextraction. The final total poured water is 225 grams, and the drip completion time is about 2 minutes. After removing the dripper, swirl the coffee liquid in the server to even it out and then it is ready to taste.

The coffee-to-water ratio, the amount of water poured in each stage, and the pouring technique in pour-over coffee are not fixed and unchanging. We can adjust them up or down based on our accumulated pour-over experience and our understanding of the coffee beans. Front Street understands coffee brewing as an experiment with a scientific foundation. To learn pour-over well, we need to delve into and understand the true meaning of each brewing parameter. Only in this way can we easily find experimental methods and build a brewing framework suitable for ourselves.

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