How can coffee lovers tell the difference between Yega Sheffield and Sidamo?

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Many enthusiasts can't tell the difference between the two producing areas of [Yegashafi] and [Sidamo]. They both belong to Ethiopia. Generally speaking, Sidamo is a province. Yedamo is a town in Sidamo province. Sidamo is 2100 meters above sea level. Yega production area is higher above sea level, the highest elevation is more than 2600 meters, and it is also much higher than Sidamo. Let's start with Ethiopia.

● Ethiopia

Ethiopia is located in a country full of wonders, where Arabica coffee comes from. The Kaffa Forest is the beginning of everything. Kaffa is located in the southwest of Ethiopia.

In the centuries-long natural evolution of Kaffa, about 5000 species of coffee have been born. At present, the local community manages about 12000 hectares of Kaffa wild coffee area. Through the introduction of participatory forest management (Participatory Forest Management, or PFM), about 4500 farmers have the right to legally harvest wild coffee cherries and have an obligation to protect the forest.

As for Kaffa, it is rumored that it was the first place to brew coffee, and for coffee people, it is as fascinating as the Garden of Eden.

In Kaffa, an area called Bonga, more than 100 Ethiopians are dedicated to growing high-quality Arabica coffee. Here has an excellent coffee growing environment, elevation between 1600-1900 meters, red soil, suitable temperature. The region has high rainfall, so it is considered to be one of the areas with the highest rainfall in Ethiopia. As one of the first two biological conservation circles in Ethiopia, Gesha is known as a region of Kaffa.

Kaffa coffee (originally Kaffa types) usually includes: Gimbo, Gewata and Chena. "

Coffee cultivation in ● Ethiopia

Since Ethiopia changed the administrative division around 1995, the greatest impact on the coffee area is that the original Sidamo Sidamo province is divided into the new Sidamo Sidama (the original minority), and most of it is classified into the Oromia Oromia state, and Yegashifi, which used to belong to the Sidamo province, is now included in the new Gaio district Gedeo.

At present, there will be a mixture of new and old regional names in the Ethiopian coffee products in circulation on the market. Here we take the new regional division as the basis, combined with the administrative region to understand the coffee growing map of Ethiopia.

The coffee cultivation of [Sidamo] and [Yega Chuefei] mostly belongs to the pastoral coffee model, in which coffee farmers plant coffee trees near their living areas and harvest them during the harvest season. it is then sent to a nearby treatment plant built on water for unified treatment (or purchased by a middleman). In addition to a small number of plantations that have the strength to grow, pick and handle raw coffee beans independently, many coffee beans from different regions and varieties will be centrally processed by the processing plant and then sent to the auction house for official evaluation and grading.

This is one of the reasons why many Ethiopian coffee beans are named after processing plants or cooperatives, and it is also one of the reasons why the same batch of coffee beans are mixed with multiple coffee varieties. even the flavor of different batches of coffee beans produced by the same treatment plant will be significantly different.

If we want to buy coffee from Ethiopia, there are usually three channels.

● Farmers' Cooperative Union (coffee comes from subordinate cooperatives, small farmers)

● exporters (intermediaries, purchasing from ECX or local coffee markets)

Large ● public or private plantations (exporters of coffee produced and sold by themselves)

Farmers' Cooperative Union Farmers' Cooperative Union

In order to facilitate the direct export of farmers' cooperatives, farmers' cooperatives in various places have gathered and formed their own cooperative alliances. There are now six cooperative alliances (Farmers' Cooperative Union) in Ethiopia, namely

● Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU)

● Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU)

● Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU)

● Kafa Forest Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (KFCFCU)

● Bench Maji Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (BMCFCU)

● Tepi Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (TCFCU)

The advantage of cooperative alliance is to combine scattered small farmers and cooperatives to form a large collective, to participate in international projects, such as Firetrade, to provide a unified export to contact buyers, and a certain proportion of the harvest will be paid to cooperatives. Cooperatives deduct management costs, retain part for community development, and pay the rest to small farmers, so that small farmers can get more stable and convenient income. To cope with the cost of planting and living, this is why more and more small farmers are willing to join cooperatives.

The coffee grade of ● Essel

The score of raw bean:-Q1 is the highest, followed by Q2.

-common in China, only G1G4 classification →, regardless of washing or sun-drying beans, the choice of G1 should be able to get less defect rate and delicious coffee beans.

ECX has a further way to classify beans according to their own grades. Not the familiar "Yega Sheffield G1" or "Yega Sheffield G2". Fresh coffee beans harvested in that year must first make a primary score and get a G1-G3 rating before they will be further divided into Q1 and Q2 grades by testing the quality of coffee beans with SCAA cups.

Yejia Xuefei washed beans

Yega Shefi Sun-baked Bean

Q1 Highest grade: Coffee beans with a score of g1 or g2 above 80 in the primary grade + a score of 85 or above in the fine grade. The highest grade coffee beans.

Q2 Highest grade: G1 or G2 grade coffee beans in the primary grade +80~ 84.75 grade coffee beans in the fine grade score. It is the second highest grade coffee bean.

● about the two producing areas of [Yega Xuefei] and [Sidamo]

These four major planting systems are distributed in the following nine major producing areas of Ethiopia: Jinma, Sidamo, Yegashifi, Hara, Lim, Iruba, Gimbi (Lekanti), Tibby, and Bebeca.

Yejia Xuefei (boutique producing area): 1800m-2000m above sea level | Pastoral coffee system |

Yega Xuefei is affiliated to the Sidamo producing area, which is separated separately because of its unique flavor. In addition to the small town of Yega Xuefei, it also includes three by-product areas around Wenago, Kochere, Gelena and Abaya. Therefore, Yirgacheffe A, Wenago A, Kochere An and Gelena/AbayaA will be more expensive than B of the same name in the new Yega Sheffield rating system. In addition to washing and tanning, the recently launched semi-washed Yega Xuefei is also worth a try.

Yejia Xuefei body variety is a local native species, small grain species, the appearance is relatively round, the bean body is very small, mostly between 14 and 15 orders.

Sidamo (boutique producing area): 1400-2200m above sea level | Pastoral coffee system |

The flavor is similar to Yejiaxuefei, Sidamo, which is delicately washed or sunburned, has the same fragrance of flowers and oranges, and is worth as much as Yega Xuefei. The varieties in the two producing areas are similar, with medium-sized beans but also small seeds of dwarf plants, which farmers often sell separately. Common Kurmie, poor disease resistance; Wolisho; tall and strong; Deiga, medium tree shape, these three species are the main force of the boutique tanning series Beloya and Aretha.

The bean body is smaller than Longberry.

Nearly 2000 coffee varieties have been recorded in Ethiopia, including 1927 native varieties and 128 imported varieties. So just by looking at the appearance, Esther's coffee variety is "Grand View Garden", which has everything, long, short, thin, fat.

Long particles are found in all coffee growing areas in Ethiopia. From the actual proportion seen, there are more long particles in the western Jimma, including Limmu and Kaffa, and less in sidama (Sidamo) or yirgacheffe (Yega Sheffield).

Small granule species, the shape is relatively round, the bean body is very small, mostly between 14-15 orders, this species should be the most familiar to us. They are often seen in Sidamo and Yegashiri, and I have seen them in a harrar sample, as well as in raw coffee beans sold locally in Jimma, compared to other areas. There are many native varieties of this kind of small particles in sidama, yigracheffe and surrounding arsi and guji.

On the ● flavor

Due to the unique aroma of jasmine, bright and lively citrus acidity and black tea texture.

Sidamo is full of berries and tropical fruits.

[recommended]

Ethiopian Coffee | ECX trading system, cooperative system, single farm system

Coffee buyers take you to Ethiopia to uncover the mystery of coffee's origin

Yega Xuefei | five reasons to drink Yega Xuefei