How does coffee processing shape Bensa and Sidamo flavor?

Sidamo is one of Ethiopia's three official coffee regions, sitting in the highlands of the East African Rift Valley with rainfall of about 1,550 to 2,220 millimeters a year. Beans from Bensa, a high-altitude town, typically show bright acidity, a syrupy mouthfeel, and layered spice, floral, and fruit aromas.

Washed, natural, and red honey are the main coffee processing methods used in Bensa, and each shifts the cup toward cleaner acidity, heavier fruit, or a middle ground of sweetness. The names Sidamo and Sidama also differ for historical reasons: the Sidama people saw their name altered during nineteenth-century invasion, and the modern federal system restored the original wording.

Sidamo is one of Ethiopia's most renowned coffee regions, celebrated for its rich floral aromas and bright fruit acidity. This article approaches the region from its geography, the origin of its name, and COE award-winning micro-regions, focuses on Bensa, a high-altitude star town, sorts out its washed, natural, and red honey processing methods, and presents the cupping flavors and three-pour brewing parameters of Front Street Ethiopian Natural Alo coffee, offering coffee lovers a complete guide to understanding this region.

For coffee enthusiasts who favor floral and fruity profiles, Sidamo is a name that cannot be avoided. This land of Ethiopia has given rise to many exemplary specialty coffees, and Sidamo, with its intense floral and fruity notes, has conquered the palates of drinkers around the world year after year, becoming a region that many connoisseurs specifically seek out.

Sidamo is located in the highlands of the East African Rift Valley, with annual rainfall of about 1,550 to 2,220 millimeters. Abundant rain, suitable temperatures, fertile soil, and high altitude together form the foundation of Sidamo coffee's worldwide fame. As one of Ethiopia's three official regions, it contributes rich, diverse, outstanding, and complex flavors. After cupping many excellent Sidamo single-origin coffees, Front Street concluded that these coffees typically show bright acidity, a syrupy and smooth mouthfeel, and rich layers interwoven with spice, floral, and fruit aromas. At Front Street alone, there are multiple Sidamo options available, such as Front Street Huakui 8.0, Front Street Santa Vini, and Front Street ALO Natural, which shows just how sought after coffees from this region are.

When researching this region, you often encounter two different spellings: Sidamo and Sidama.

The pronunciation Sidamo comes from the local indigenous Sidama people. Like other ethnic groups in Ethiopia, the Sidama have their own traditions and culture, and even have a New Year recognized by UNESCO — Fiche Chambalala, when more than five million people gather in the capital Hawassa to celebrate each year. From the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, the region suffered invasion and annexation, and the invaders read Sidama as Sidamo, a term that carried a humiliating meaning for the Sidama people. In the 1990s, the Ethiopian government implemented a federal system, redrawing regions according to major ethnic settlements and languages, and Sidama also restored its historical original name: Sidama.

However, before the administrative redrawing, Sidamo Coffee had already become world-famous for its unique aroma, so people are more accustomed to using the name Sidamo than Sidama. In addition, when the Ethiopian government protected Sidama coffee through trademark registration, it also chose the old name Sidamo® as the official registered trademark. To this day, domestic consumers are still more used to calling the coffee here "Sidamo."

The COE competitions in both 2020 and 2021 were held in Ethiopia. Among the Sidamo micro-regions listed in the COE, there are mainly four towns: Arbegona, Bensa, Bura, and Bona Zuria. These four towns are geographically close and all located in the Sidamo highlands. Among the Sidamo micro-regions listed in the 2021 COE, all five champion farms came from Bensa town.

Ethiopia has diverse coffee varieties, which can be categorized into traditional regional landraces and the numbered coffee lines selected by the JARC Jimma Agricultural Research Center. Common regional varieties in Sidamo include Dega, Wolisho, and Kurume. In the 2020 and 2021 COE competitions, the varieties representing Sidama State came from JARC's numbered coffees. Among them, the 2020 COE champion variety from Bura town in Sidama was 74158, and the 2021 COE champion variety from Bensa town in Sidama was 74165.

Bensa is located in the Sidamo region of southern Ethiopia, with an altitude range of 1,800 to 2,300 meters. High altitude makes the coffee flavor more complex, and in Bensa you can taste typical and intense fruit notes, and sometimes even catch hints of strawberry.

Bensa coffee beans can be processed flexibly by washed, natural, or red honey methods. Washed Bensa has a bright aroma and pleasant acidity. When the harvest season arrives, farmers send ripe cherries to the processing station, where after sorting and grading, removing the skin and pulp, and fermenting, the beans are scrubbed with clean water and then dried on raised beds. It should be noted that during the first few days of drying, they must be turned once every 2 to 3 hours. Depending on weather conditions, the coffee beans need 12 to 15 days to dry, until the moisture content drops to 11.5%.

Bensa sounds similar to Guangdong's Banxia herbal tea in Chinese, but it is not herbal tea. Bensa coffee beans have a unique and delicate taste, mild yet rich, accompanied by fruity aromas, smooth, and with a long finish. Reading this, I believe many friends have already developed a longing for this small origin. So that everyone can also taste refined Bensa flavor, Front Street recently launched a Front Street Ethiopian Natural Alo coffee from a high-altitude area, using natural processing.

Before formal natural drying, farmers first hand-pick fully ripe cherries and transport them to the Hatessa processing station for the first round of sorting, then classify them again by skin color before washing, removing overripe or insufficiently ripe fruit to ensure consistent ripeness before natural drying.

For natural coffee, the farmers responsible for post-processing need to be especially diligent in turning the fruit on the drying beds during the first three days. At this time, the coffee cherries have a very high moisture content. If they are not turned in time, they are not only prone to mold, but also develop unpleasant sourness or rotten fruit flavors due to uneven heating. Throughout the process, the fresh coffee cherries are spread in only a thin layer to ensure good ventilation and drying conditions. After 14 to 18 days, when the moisture content drops to the target level, they can be bagged and sent to the warehouse.

Through cupping, Front Street first perceived the sweet floral and fruity aroma of this Front Street Ethiopian Natural Alo. The dry fragrance had obvious characteristics of magnolia, pineapple, yellow peach, and small Taiwan mango, accompanied by a fresh sweet fermentation aroma, very pleasant to smell.

When Front Street slurped, the entry was full tropical fruit sweetness and acidity, with ripe pineapple, passion fruit, and perfume lemon especially prominent, accompanied by a slight black tea note. The gentle fermentation and elegant floral aroma made one want to take another sip. As the temperature dropped slightly, the coffee began to shift toward stone fruit characteristics such as yellow peach and dried hanging apricot. The fruit acidity was clear and bright yet layered, very distinctive.

Brewing suggestions for Front Street Ethiopian Alo Natural coffee:

Dripper: V60 Water temperature: 92-93°C Dose: 15g Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: fine granulated sugar size (78% passing rate on a No. 20 standard sieve)

Pouring method: three-pour

Three-pour method: First wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds, wait for it to form a dome and bloom for 30 seconds. Then pour in a small stream in circles from the inside outward until 125 grams, pause, and when the coffee bed drops to half the height of the dripper, continue pouring the third stage in the same thin stream until 225 grams, then wait until all the coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper. Total time is about 2 minutes.

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