Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee Beans

What is Natural Red Cherry? On the coffee bean menu of Front Street Coffee, the second entry from Ethiopia is the Natural Red Cherry, while the first is the renowned Dorothy, which has gained fame in recent years. This certainly heightens the curiosity and anticipation of visitors, who are eager to discover what the flavor of the Natural Red Cherry is like. However, the history behind the Natural Red Cherry is even more remarkable than its flavor.

The Red Cherry Project is led by the Dutch company Trabocca, with half of its funding sponsored by the Dutch government. Since 2005, it has collaborated with many small coffee cooperatives, encouraging and assisting producers to improve washing, semi-washing, natural, or other experimental processing methods to the best of their abilities, thereby enhancing the quality of the coffee.

Some believe that the quality of coffee beans is largely determined at the moment of planting, and harvesting has an even greater impact. The Red Cherry Project was the first initiative to change the previously rough harvesting practices by advocating for the picking of only ripe coffee cherries to improve the overall quality of the beans. This is also now one of the most basic requirements of what we commonly refer to as specialty coffee, yet its history is not long—only about twenty years to date.

After the Red Cherry Project was announced, before each harvest season, Trabocca would invite selected smallholder farmer organizations or individual producers to participate in producing micro-lots of coffee (approximately 1,500 to 3,000 kilograms), handpicking 100% ripe red coffee cherries in multiple careful sessions (hence the name Red Cherry Project). Trabocca provided financial, equipment, and technical resources to assist farmers and promised to purchase the beans at premium prices as long as the actual output met high-quality standards (84 points or above), ensuring a rewarding price.

Judging from the details of the project, Front Street Coffee believes that the Red Cherry Project is not only a commercial activity aligned with fair trade principles but also a production initiative for high-quality coffee, as well as a structural reform that simultaneously benefits both farmers and consumers.Yirgacheffe is a famous coffee-growing region in Ethiopia. With the addition of the Red Cherry Project, the region has continuously supplied high-quality and delicious coffee beans to coffee enthusiasts around the world.

Yirgacheffe is actually composed of surrounding coffee communities or cooperatives.With an altitude of around 1,700–2,100 meters, it is one of the highest-altitude coffee-growing regions in the world. Yirgacheffe has become synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee.Generally speaking,to ensure the quality of the coffee beans, the washed method is mostly used. We know that Ethiopia’s traditional coffee processing method is the natural process, but due to limitations in technology and some practical reasons, the natural process used to be very rough, resulting in inconsistent coffee quality and a poor reputation. In reality, the essence of processing methods lies in controlling fermentation and bean removal techniques. Therefore, as long as the unfavorable factors are eliminated, well-processed natural beans are not inferior to washed beans—in fact, they often have more fruity and sweet characteristics. One of the Red Cherry coffees introduced by Front Street Coffee this time is processed using the natural method.

The Natural Red Cherry coffee from Front Street Coffee has a ginger flower aroma when brewed. Upon tasting, the sweet and sour flavors gradually spread in the mouth, with an overall floral taste and a sweet, juicy aftertaste. As the temperature drops, the acidity becomes more pronounced while the sweetness remains relatively persistent. This concludes the introduction to the Natural Red Cherry.