90+ DanchMeng Flavor Description - Which DanchMeng Coffee Brand is Best

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Danch Meng

Origin of Name: Danch Meng is in fact the sub-brand Level Up of the NINETY PLUS company, an Ethiopian green coffee launched by the company together with green-bean trader Bodhi Leaf in 2013. Danch Meng is locally translated as "Perfect approach." It is grown by smallholders from Yirgacheffe Kilenina Abayudumonso, and it arrives with NINETY PLUS's professional flavor-processing background behind it, the company's 90+ natural processing technique giving Danch Meng a very distinctive Yirgacheffe flavor.

Product Name: FrontStreet Coffee 90+ Danch Meng

Origin: Ninety Plus Ethiopia SNNP, Kambata Region

Altitude: 1700m - 2000m

Processing Method: Natural

Flavor: Cocoa, black raspberry, plum, juicy, floral aroma, blueberry, dark chocolate

Drima Zede

Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk
Origin: Ethiopia

Level Up Drima Zede

Country: Sidamo
Altitude: 1750-2000m
Region: Sidamo

To brew FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo as a pour-over: use 15g of coffee ground to a medium-fine size (Fuji ghost-tooth grinder setting 3.5) in a V60 dripper, with water at 91-93°C. First pour 30g of water and let it bloom for 27 seconds. Pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level drops halfway before continuing the pour, slowly, until the total reaches 225g, discarding the tail end. The water-to-coffee ratio is 1:15, and the extraction takes 2:00.

Danch Meng is translated as "Perfect approach," meaning "good path." This batch comes from Kambata, and thanks to 90+ natural processing technology, Danch Meng possesses a very distinctive Yirgacheffe flavor.

Level Up is a sub-brand of the renowned Ninety Plus company, jointly launched by 90+ and green-bean trader Bodhi Leaf in 2013. The Level Up team's quality control is managed by Semeon Abay, who invited Ashenafi Agraw, former chairman of the Sidamo Farmers' Cooperative Union, to serve as project supervisor.

Ninety Plus is an American coffee company unlike typical green-bean traders. It advocates origin procurement, seeking good beans and long-term operation. To find good beans, its people roll up their sleeves and work alongside local coffee farmers to build their own brands and cooperative brands. The 90+ company also places great importance on post-harvest processing of coffee cherries, with its own unique green-bean methods. Even in naming it stands apart: rather than naming beans by region like everyone else, 90+ names them after their flavors, established through rigorous cupping.

According to how much fruit flavor influences the taste during processing, the coffees are categorized from low to high as W2, H2 and N2. These three distinctions can be understood simply as processing methods: W2 = washed processing; H2 = honey processing; N2 = natural processing.

W2: Low fruit tones; emphasizes brightness, acidity and floral aromas.

H2: Moderate fruit tones; emphasizes sweetness, fruit texture (rather than fruit aroma) and tea-like qualities.

N2: High fruit tones; emphasizes bold, sweet-tart, jam and dried fruit flavors.

Roast Level: Light roast

Processing Method: Natural

Variety: Local landrace

Processing Station: Ninety Plus

Flavor: Nectarine, tropical fruits, oak barrel aroma

"Ninety Plus" does not mean every coffee scoring above 90 points. Good coffee appears one year and disappears the next; sometimes it shows up in different estates and carries different flavor characteristics. "Ninety Plus" refers to a premium coffee series of 13 flavor profiles. These coffees come exclusively from Ninety Plus Coffee, American specialty coffee creators. All are Ethiopian heirloom varieties, cultivated to maturity in ecological environments and processed under artistic standards to optimize flavor. Processing is Ninety Plus's specialty: they separate these coffees by variety, microclimate and harvest timing, taste each one individually, and design a specific processing method for each flavor profile to reach a targeted taste characteristic — much like the design process of a major brand, dedicating heart and soul to a craft that approaches art. The natural products go through much refinement and improvement before reaching their most beautiful state for everyone to enjoy.

The ancient natural processing method makes a pure flavor difficult to achieve, but with 90+ technical support, only the most mature cherries are hand-selected, and the natural drying process involves meticulous, constant stirring to ensure uniformity.

90+ beans take a completely different approach to naming than usual specialty beans — they carry no region or estate names. Each bean is named according to its flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's Zhu Mang, for example, means "best approach" in the local dialect. Starting from a flavor concept, then naming, then selecting regions and cooperative farms, shows that 90+ is a brand with a boutique operational style.

In Ethiopia you can find every kind of coffee cultivation: from vast wild coffee forests and semi-developed land to traditionally managed small plots and modern plantations. About 50% of coffee is grown above 1,500 meters. Ethiopian coffee can be divided into nine major regions according to four different production methods, including five specialty areas — Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harrar, Limu and Lekempti — and four general commercial bean regions: Djimmah, Illubabor, Tepi and Bebeka. Each region uses either natural or washed processing, and the method affects flavor. Today natural processing accounts for about 80%, while washed accounts for about 20%.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the natural-process Ethiopian character of Danch Meng is what draws you in, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Sun-Dried Red Cherry delivers a closely related experience. Only fully ripe, defect-free all-red cherries are used; they are screened at the processing station and then spread on raised beds to dry, turned every 2-3 hours in the first days to prevent uneven heat and over-fermentation, and after three to five weeks the outer fruit is machine-scraped away and the beans are moved into storage. Because the fruit dries with the bean, the coffee keeps the classic Yirgacheffe profile while adding the tropical fruit of a natural process: citrus-like acidity, a berry-juice quality, honeyed sweetness and a creamy smoothness. For a lighter, more classic cup, FrontStreet's Washed Yirgacheffe is the everyday alternative, known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity and a tea-like finish.

To brew the sun-dried Yirgacheffe, use a V60 at 90-91°C with 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, ground to about the size of fine sugar (roughly 80% passing a No. 20 sieve). Pour 30g for a 30-second bloom, then add 95g so the scale reads about 125g, finishing that pour around one minute; when the water level drops to two-thirds of the bed, add the remaining 100g to reach about 225g, finishing by 1:35. The drawdown should complete in 2:00 to 2:10, after which you can remove the dripper and serve.