Understanding Ninety Plus Candle Glow Coffee
Ninety Plus Candle Glow is a naturally processed Ethiopian coffee from the Sidama region. The name reflects the flavor profile. This article covers the brand background, origin, flavor notes, and roasting approach. It also includes a grind size comparison experiment by Front Street Coffee to show how grind coarseness affects TDS and mouthfeel. The N2, H2, and W2 labeling logic is explained to help coffee lovers understand this unique bean and how to adjust their brewing.
For those interested in coffee roaster techniques, the roast profile is key to developing Candle Glow's fruity and floral notes. This naturally processed bean requires careful temperature control to avoid baked flavors. In brewing, grind size adjustment is critical. A finer grind may increase extraction and body, while a coarser grind can highlight clarity. The experiment by Front Street Coffee demonstrates how these changes impact the final cup, offering a practical guide for home brewers and professionals alike.
Candle Light Coffee is a naturally processed Ethiopian bean from the Ninety Plus LevelUp series, named for its flavor. It comes from the Sidama region, and its name means "best approach" in the local dialect. This article begins with the background of the Ninety Plus brand, sorts out Candle Light's origin characteristics, flavor profile, and roasting approach, and records a grind size comparison experiment that Front Street Coffee conducted with the same bean to see how different grind coarseness affects TDS concentration and mouthfeel. The article also organizes the N2, H2, and W2 labeling logic that Ninety Plus uses to classify flavor directions, helping coffee lovers understand what makes this bean unique and how to adjust their brewing.
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When Front Street Coffee cupped Candle Light Coffee, it was deeply impressed by the clean flavor this naturally processed bean presented. The efforts Ninety Plus has invested in pursuing ultimate flavor are admirable, and its practices in sustainable development models and environmentally friendly operations are also directions Front Street Coffee continues to learn from. The company was founded in 2006, and within just a few years it made coffee professionals around the world remember its name. The coffee series it first unveiled in 2007 was quickly regarded by industry experts as a precious choice worth paying attention to.
Introduction to 90+ (Ninety Plus) Company
Ninety Plus literally translates as "ninety plus," and can also be understood as 90 points or above. For people unfamiliar with the industry, what does a coffee bean scoring above 90 points mean? It means this bean is close to perfect. Whether it is a cupping score or an evaluation score from Coffee Review, achieving such a result is by no means easy.
In 2007, Aricha Selection7 became the first coffee released by Ninety Plus, earning a high score of 95 points from Coffee Review (roasted by Novo Coffee Roasters, under the founder of Ninety Plus).
In 2009, Aricha Micro Selection 14 won third place in the Specialty Coffee Association of America's Coffee of the Year world competition.
In 2009, Aricha Micro Selection 33 helped that year's World Barista Championship competitor Sammy Piccolo win the world runner-up title.
In 2012, Perci Red Geisha from a Panama estate was released for the first time, receiving Coffee Review's highest score ever at that time, 97 points (Barrington Coffee Roasting Co.).
In addition, Ninety Plus coffee has also appeared many times in major World Barista Championship events, helping multiple competitors take first prizes. Its CoffeeReview evaluation scores have also repeatedly reached 93, 94, 95, 96, and 97 points. The impressive results accumulated over many years are too numerous to list one by one here.
So what exactly are Ninety Plus coffee beans?
Nowadays many shops are eager to promote Ninety Plus (90+) coffee, and 90+ coffee beans are almost a symbol of honor in the coffee world. But what exactly is Ninety Plus (90+) coffee, and how should you introduce it to others? Below is a detailed introduction to 90+ coffee.
"90+" does not refer to all coffees that score above 90 in evaluations, but rather a top-tier coffee series containing 13 flavors. They sometimes come from different estates and each has different flavor characteristics. During processing, the coffee makers separate these coffees one by one according to variety, climate, and harvest timing, and taste each one. They are like works of art approaching perfection; the coffee makers pour their hearts into bringing them to their best taste and presenting them in their ideal form.
About LevelUp
LevelUp is a sub-label under the specialty green bean processing company NinetyPlus, jointly launched by the company and green bean trader BodhiLeaf, and belongs to an Ethiopian green bean series. The beans are not named based on region, but are named according to flavor. The names are mostly taken from local Ethiopian languages and are descriptions of each bean's distinctive flavor. It retains the stunning flavor of 90+ while being more affordable.
Introduction to the Candle Light Producing Region
Sidama grows on the highlands at the southernmost tip of Ethiopia, at an altitude of about 4,600-7,200 feet (Sidamo Province), and is a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia. It borders Kenya and is located southeast of Jimma and directly south of the capital. It usually has obvious sweetness and is relatively favored by most people, with an annual output of about 225,000 bags/60 kg.
The coffee flavors of Sidama are very diverse. Different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties have created the region's diverse terrain of towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains. The geology here consists of fertile, well-drained volcanic soil, with soil depth of nearly two meters, and the topsoil is dark brown or brown. The greatest advantage here is that soil fertility is maintained through the cycling of organic matter, and the fallen leaves of surrounding trees or residual plant roots all become fertilizer.
Ninety Plus Candle Light
Drima Zede (Candle Light, the name of this Sidama coffee) means "Best Approach" in the local dialect. According to materials provided by the producer, this Sidama coffee is a specially developed product series based on 90+'s years of experience. The ancient natural process makes it difficult to obtain a clean flavor, but with 90+ technical support, Drima Zede selects only the ripest coffee cherries by hand, and during the sun-drying process it is carefully stirred constantly to ensure uniformity. The final result is an extremely transparent and clean mouthfeel, with dramatic changes between hot and cold, and very charming aromas of fruit, flowers, and oak barrel.
Natural Sidama Ninety Plus Candle Light
Country: Ethiopia
Region: 90+SNNP, Sidama
Altitude: 1,750-2,000 meters
Processing Method: Natural Process
Variety: Ethiopian Heirloom
Flavor: floral aroma, nectarine, tropical fruit, blackberry, blueberry, plum, cream, cinnamon
Candle Light Roasting Suggestions
Sidama green coffee beans are slightly gray, coarse in some places and small in others, with both soft and intense acidity, moderate body, and sweet and spicy notes. It is one of the garden coffees of the southern Ethiopian highlands. What makes it different from ordinary African coffee is that Sidama has clear fruity acidity, a smooth mouthfeel, and delicate herbal and floral aromas.
A bean with such a brilliant flavor is certainly not suitable for medium-dark roasting, so Front Street Coffee uses a light, slow roasting method to bring out its mellow and sweet characteristics with rich floral and fruity aromas.
Roaster Yangjia 600g semi-direct fire
Use a fast-roasting mode, charge when the drum temperature reaches 200°C, set the damper to 3, after 30 seconds adjust the heat to 160°C, keep the damper unchanged, adjust the heat once at 150°C, when the bean surface turns yellow and the grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is complete, adjust the heat to 120°C, set the damper to 4;
At the 8th minute, ugly wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time you need to listen clearly for the sound of the first crack point. At 8'49" first crack begins, reduce the heat to 70°C, open the damper fully to 5 (adjusting the heat must be done very carefully, and must not be so low that there is no crackling sound). 1'48" after first crack, discharge at 195°C.
After optimization, the sweetness of Candle Light Coffee is further enhanced, with a slight citrus note and vanilla aroma, and the flavors of tropical fruits such as nectarine and mango become more obvious.
Grinding coffee beans is the first step in pour-over coffee brewing, but it is also a key factor that easily makes coffee taste bad. Either the coffee beans are ground too fine or too coarse, which indirectly affects the coffee's mouthfeel. To precisely control the coarseness of coffee grounds, it is recommended to use a "sifter" for adjustment.
Front Street Coffee selected Natural Sidama Ninety Plus Candle Light Coffee for the experiment. To ensure consistency in the brewing experiment, the entire experimental process changed only the coffee grind size, with all other parameters unchanged: a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, a water temperature of 90°C, and as consistent a technique as possible.
Experiment One:
Brewing parameters: water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, grind: Baratza Vario Home 5G, extraction time 2 minutes.
Sifting process:
Weigh 10 g of coffee beans for sifting (the standard cupping grind size requires a total sifted weight of 7.0-7.5 g; for pour-over grind size, about 8.0 g is recommended)
Brewing technique:
Bloom with 30 g of water for 30 seconds, pour in stages to 125 g, wait for the water level to drop and continue pouring to 225 g to finish brewing. After the water has fully dripped through, remove the dripper. Total extraction time 2 minutes.
Experiment Two: (change grind size)
Brewing parameters: water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, grind: Baratza Vario Home 5F, extraction time 2 minutes.
Sifting process:
Weigh 10 g of coffee beans for sifting (the standard cupping grind size requires a total sifted weight of 7.0-7.5 g; for pour-over grind size, about 8.0 g is recommended)
Brewing technique:
Bloom with 30 g of water for 30 seconds, pour in stages to 125 g, wait for the water level to drop and continue pouring to 225 g to finish brewing. After the water has fully dripped through, remove the dripper. Total extraction time 2 minutes.
Experiment results:
Experiment One: The TDS coffee concentration measuring device showed: TDS equal to 1.36%
Experiment Two: The TDS coffee concentration measuring device showed: TDS equal to 1.29%
According to the golden cup theory, coffee concentration is 1.2%-1.45%. The coffee concentration in both Experiment One and Experiment Two fell within the golden cup theory range. The difference is that compared with Experiment Two, Experiment One tasted more bitter, while Experiment Two had a more comfortable mouthfeel, with a slightly more obvious citrus note, and when it cooled down it showed the typical flavor of an Ethiopian natural bean.
Finally, the general method for adjusting a grinder's grind size is: first look at the sieve pass-through rate for the finest grind and the coarsest grind, then take a middle value for fine-tuning. If you do not have a sieve at home, then you can only adjust through the most intuitive method, namely by tasting the flavor of the brewed coffee.
Ninety Plus 90+ Profile Processing Unique Production System
90+ beans are named in a completely different way from ordinary specialty beans. First, unlike usual practice, the names do not include region and estate names. Each bean is named according to flavor. For example, the very famous Nekisse originally meant "nectar" from Shakisso.
90+ naming usually starts with a flavor concept, then a name is chosen, and only then does it move on to selecting the region and cooperative farms. In this respect it is very different from ordinary specialty beans, and it is a brand with a boutique management style.
With ordinary beans, it is not hard to find the three letters N, H, or W, for example Ethiopian Yiagacheffe G3 N. This is the relatively commonly seen "Natural Yirgacheffe G3" on the market, where N stands for Natural. And H = Honey and W = Washed. Here, 90+ also has a different view. They believe that rather than using processing methods to distinguish beans, flavor direction should be used instead. Generally speaking, beans of each processing method will have relatively representative flavors, for example:
Natural: bold fruity aroma
Honey: more prominent sweetness
Washed: relatively cleaner flavor
But 90+ believes that sometimes under different processing methods there can still be the same flavor direction. For example, a bean using honey processing may end up expressing a flavor similar to what is generally considered a washed bean. So they introduced three basic flavor labels: N2, H2, and W2. The flavors are distinguished by the intensity of fruity aroma and mouthfeel:
W2: (Low) lower fruit character, emphasizing brightness, acidity, and floral aroma
H2: (Moderate) moderate fruit character, emphasizing sweetness, fruity mouthfeel (not aroma), and tea-like notes
N2: (High) stronger fruit character, emphasizing bold flavor expression, sweet acidity, jammy notes, and dried fruit
Front Street Coffee's original intention is to taste coffee beans from all over the world. In this process, Front Street Coffee's purpose is to understand each coffee-producing region, different coffee varieties from the same region, different processing methods for the same coffee variety, and to build corresponding databases, as well as comparisons between different coffee-producing regions. Front Street Coffee hopes to let more coffee lovers understand the world of coffee. We hope our sharing can provide a little help on your journey to understanding coffee.
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
