Santa Vini Anaerobic Natural 74158Coffee Bean Intro:

Front Street Coffee: Ethiopia Sidamo Santa Vini 74158 Coffee Beans

Country: Ethiopia

Grade: G1

Region: Sidamo

Processing Station: DWD Santa Vini Processing Station

Elevation: 2050 meters

Processing Method: Fully red cherries 96-hour anaerobic natural

Variety: 74158

Flavors: citrus, pineapple, guava, wine-like finish

Region Introduction

The DWD Santa Vini Processing Plant is about a 40-minute drive from the town of Santa Vini. It is one of DWD’s high-altitude processing stations (the company owns a total of 17 processing plants). If you have the chance to visit the Santa Vini Processing Plant, you’ll see farmers processing large quantities of freshly harvested red coffee cherries. This is all thanks to a project launched in 2007 called the “Red Cherry Project.”

In 2007, Dutch green coffee buyers, aiming to obtain higher-quality Ethiopian coffee beans, proposed the “Red Cherry Project.” This project required cherries to be handpicked instead of machine-harvested, and only ripe cherries were to be selected. Ripe coffee cherries are red in color, while unripe ones are mostly green. Machine harvesting often mixes in unripe cherries, which can introduce undesirable flavors during brewing.

Compared to the Gorse Processing Station, also under DWD, Santa Vini has a dryer climate and lower average temperatures, resulting in slower growth of coffee cherries and allowing them to absorb more nutrients over a longer period. After harvest, the cherries are sorted, and qualified ones are placed in fermentation tanks. Carbon dioxide is then injected to initiate a 96-hour anaerobic fermentation process.

After fermentation, the cherries are spread on raised beds to dry. They are regularly turned to ensure even drying, and shaded during excessively high temperatures to prevent over-drying. The drying process takes about 20–24 days until the moisture content drops to 12%, at which point they are stored.

What does “74158” mean?

After 1970, Coffee Berry Disease (CBD) rapidly spread across Ethiopian coffee-growing regions. Cherries infected with CBD turn from green to gray-black and eventually necrotize on the branches. Once infected, a coffee tree may lose up to 80% of its yield.

In 1972, growers began using chemical fungicides to prevent CBD. While somewhat effective, relying solely on pesticides was not a long-term solution. The real solution was to identify natural varieties with strong resistance to CBD.

In 1973, Ethiopia’s coffee research institute JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center) selected 19 sites in the southwestern region for sample collection. By 1975, researchers had collected 639 seed samples, conducted lab analyses and field trials, and ultimately selected 13 varieties resistant to CBD, as well as drought-tolerant, high-yielding, and flavorful.

The subsequent 74*** and 75*** series were developed from these parent plants, and JARC categorized them as “1974/1975 CBD-Resistant Selections.” Thus, the “74” indicates the year 1974, when the variety was cataloged, and the last three digits are the sample ID numbers. The well-known 74 series varieties were all recorded during this period.

Here, the “74” means the bean was discovered in 1974, and “158” is its sample number. The beans are medium-sized. The 74158 variety gained fame largely due to Ethiopia’s Cup of Excellence (COE), and the Santa Vini with 96-hour anaerobic natural processing was among the award-winning winners of the competition.