Ethiopia Guji Hambella Huacai 11Coffee Bean Intro:

Qianjie · Ethiopian Huacai Coffee Beans

Flavor : Floral, jackfruit, dried fruit, apricot, juicy

So, how does this year’s 'Huacai 11' taste? Does it still have that 'Huacai flavor'? To find out, join Qianjie in today’s little retrospective story~

Before 'Huacai coffee' became 'Huacai', it was actually an award-winning competition-grade coffee bean from Ethiopia. In February 2017, Ethiopian DW Coffee Company participated in the TOH (Ethiopia National Taste of Harvest competition) hosted by the African Fine Coffee Association and submitted a natural-processed coffee bean from the Buku Abel Processing Station in Hambella, Sidamo Region (at that time Guji Hambella was still part of Sidamo ). With its intense berry fragrance and creamy texture, it won the championship in the natural category that year.

In the same year, this champion batch caught the eye of a Beijing-based green bean trader. Due to its championship status, it was named 'Huacai' upon its release in the domestic market, symbolizing 'the queen of all flowers, outshining all others.' Soon after, this 'Huacai' was also used by a Chinese barista (China regional) competing in a coffee brewing competition. It defeated opponents using Gesha and won the runner-up spot that year—this was also the first time Huacai 'made a name' for itself in China.

As the popularity of the competition stage soared, this traditional natural-processed bean from the Buku Abel Processing Station also successfully 'debuted.' Coupled with its affordable price and pleasant flavor, it quickly became a high-quality Ethiopian coffee widely recognized within the industry.

In our impression, the naming of coffee beans usually follows some kind of logic, and once established, it generally doesn’t change—for example, Gesha is a variety, Blue Mountain is a region, and Gu Ding Ding is a processing station, etc. But Huacai is particularly unique. It’s like Apple’s iPhone, needing a new 'version name' every year to be released. Why is that?

In fact, before this bean was called 'Huacai,' it only had the English name 'Hambella,' translated as 'Hambella.' In short, what we call 'Huacai coffee' is a traditional natural-processed G1 coffee bean from the Hambella region, with the 'Buku Abel' processing station being its more detailed traceability information, located in Dimtu Town.

After 'Huacai' became famous, to meet the surging market demand, DW Company added up to five independent green coffee drying processing stations in Hambella Wamena Wereda, all located within the core production area of Dimtu Town. In addition to the original Buku Abel, four other small villages—Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, Tirtiro Goye, and Seke Bokosa—also joined the production of natural-processed coffee beans. It is reported that at this time, the annual production of 'Huacai' under DW Company had reached tens of millions of tons.

Since the 2018 harvest season, Huacai (natural G1 coffee beans) from the same growing areas and processing stations has shown some changes in flavor.

In subsequent years, domestic green bean trading companies, counting from 2017 onward, assigned an X.0 suffix to each subsequent year’s batch. For example, the 2018 batch was called 'Huacai 2.0,' the 2019 batch was called 'Huacai 3.0 and 3.1'... The latest 2026 batch is named Huacai 11.

If we take the word 'Huacai' literally, we might think it’s a coffee with 'intense floral aromas.' But that’s not quite the case. The floral notes of Huacai are not particularly strong; instead, its fruit aromas are especially prominent—such as cream strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus, blueberry, etc.—possessing the unique ripe tropical fruit character of Sidamo natural beans. Therefore, it often leaves a deep impression, and it was precisely this rich berry fragrance that helped Huacai win first place in the TOH green bean competition that year.

But as everyone knows, coffee is fundamentally an economic crop. The yield and quality of each year are first influenced by factors such as climate rainfall, altitude soil, fertilization, and weeding. Then, differences in processing details (sunlight duration, temperature, humidity) will present varying flavor profiles. Huacai is no exception. Therefore, each year’s Huacai beans will have more or less variation in taste compared to the previous year.

These days, the Huacai 11 purchased by Qianjie has finally arrived. While it’s still fresh off the boat and it’s been a whole year of anticipation, of course we have to give it a good taste. To highlight the delicate floral and fruity flavors of the Sidamo region while retaining the coffee’s caramelized aroma, Qianjie’s roasters used a medium-light roast to present this bean.

The medium-light roasted Huacai 11 displays rich fruity sweetness, with dense aromas of guava, jackfruit, apricot, dried fruit, citrus, and pink floral notes. When hot water is poured in, you can smell the sweet scents of honey, berries, and chocolate.

Through sipping, in this Qianjie. Huacai 11, you first experience the interplay of sweet and sour from multiple fruits—dried mango, jackfruit, orange, passionfruit—clear juiciness, and a rounded mouthfeel. As the temperature slightly drops, the bright acidity of berries and the fresh sweetness of peach begin to emerge. After swallowing, you can feel a lingering aftertaste reminiscent of drinking black tea, with a very rich layering.