The sweet flavours and aromas of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee are its strongest asset along with a medium to light body.
Overall the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee is very spicy and fragrant, often with a slightly chocolaty or nutty quality. Subtleties include notes of citrus or tangerine (which is why it is often preferred for iced coffee).
This coffee is wet processed.
The wet processing of coffee beans involves first washing off the coffee fruit (coffee cherry) in order to remove and fleshy or fruity material on the fruit. This is done right after harvest while the fruit is still moist, to remove the pulp from the Ethiopian Yirgacheffee coffee fruit and then the mucilage is removed through the process known as fermentation.
Typically the coffee beans are soaked in water in order to soften the fleshy material and then they are de-pulped and placed in a fermentation tank in order to remove the mucilage.
Once fermentation is complete then the coffee beans are dried either by direct sunlight, or through forced air-drying methods.
The goal is to lower the moisture content of the 10.5 percent.
What is so good about Wet Processing?
The benefits of wet processing are that it produces what is termed as a “clean cup” of brewed coffee. The benefit of a clean cup of coffee is that the acidity allows the coffee to “shine.”
The one detraction to the wet processing as opposed to dry processing is that dry processing of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee fruit tends to result in coffee beans with a fuller body though not as clean.
In general the wet processing produces a coffee with a higher acidity than a dry processed coffee and the wet processed coffee will tend to be much cleaner and have floral and winey flavour.
