Thanks for the Yrgacheffe.

[ArtieD2]

I had never heard this word 'til having discovered this forum. I saw it a couple of times in some posts here. My wife and I went to one of our favorite local coffee stores, (Barnies), to get our usual roast, and there it was. We bought some.

Wow. Great coffee. Not flavored, not too robust. Just right. A great rich flavor without being overpowering. This might well become our "baseline" coffee. The "line" from which we judge others.

Thanks folks. Now . . . if I can just learn to pronounce it.

Artie

 

[rcc5k]

If you like Yirga (One of my favorites) try Harar and Sidamo....they are great coffees.

 

[ArtieD2]

Thanks rcc. I'll keep an eye out for those also. I've seen the Harar mentioned here several times.

 

[CafeBlue]

Hi Artie;

Welcome to the kind of taste experience sought after by true coffee connoisseurs. Ethiopian Yirrgacheffe is one of the world's premier coffees. It even remains a fair value - largely because of reasonably available crop, and relatively low labor cost in Ethiopia.
I have seen Yirrgacheffe translated into several different spellings (sometimes one word - sometimes two words) and pronounced a few different ways, too. To my best understanding it is pronounced: YER-guh SHEF-ay.
Yirrgacheffe is the name of a small geographic growing region where one of the first modern coffee improvement programs (about 40 years ago) established a network of green coffee washing stations to process, sort and grade the local crop. Up to this point most wet-process (or washed) arabica coffees were produced in Central and South America, while the northeast African coffees were primarily dry processed (also called natural preparation). This program was so successful that the Ethiopians are in the process of trademark registration for the appellation of Yirrgacheffe (and also Sidamo and Harrar), in the manner of Champagne, Bordeaux, Parmagiana Reggiano and Vidalia.
Yirrgacheffe is a top choice coffee for benchmarking, because it delivers fantastic aroma and complex cup characteristics, while it is exceptionally well prepared and "clean" in the cup. It consistently brews a distinctive taste, unique to the specific growing region - due to tree varieties, agriculture management, soil, climate conditions and of course the wet processing method. Because it tastes and roasts great (in a variety of different roast styles) it is a favorite green coffee for North American specialty coffee roasters. Therefore, you can use your Yirrgacheffe experience and observations to readily evaluate the roasting style, freshness and quality commitment of many different craft roasters.
The best Yirrgacheffe coffees exhibit phenomenal fragrance and aroma, very bright and complex acidity, balanced body and a clean, crisp finish. Secondary aroma and taste characteristics can include: mint, citrus, lime, lemon, lemon zest, grapefruit, jasmine, honeysuckle, chocolate, cocoa, wine, lemongrass, cedar, apricot, honey and more and more.
Since you like the Yirrgacheffe, look for similarly exciting coffees like: Ethiopian Harrar (dry process, wilder, fruitier, more full bodied, distinctive blueberry tones), more widely available Sidamo (usually washed process, less complex, more cocoa-y body), Yemen Moka Mattari (Dry process very wild - too bold for some folks, very fruity, sometimes shows light ferment, less citrus, more red wine character), Kenya AA plus cup or AA fine cup (also washed coffee, very dry, crisp acidity, lemon citrus, blackberry or currant fruit notes).
Enjoy the complex, and ever-expanding coffee experience!