What Does 90+ Candling Taste Like? How to Brew Candling Coffee

90+ Level Up Series: Candela Flavor Profile

The 90+ Level Up series Candela offers flavors of nectarine and tropical fruits with a clean, bright taste that stuns from the very first sip.

Product Information

Manufacturer: Coffee Workshop
Address: FrontStreet Coffee, 10 Bao'an Qianjie Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou
Contact: 020-38364473
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Roasted coffee beans
Sugar Content: Sugar-free
Origin: Ethiopia
Roast Degree: Light roast

Flavor Characteristics

Candela's captivating fruit notes inherit the enchanting aroma of traditional Ethiopian natural-processed coffees. It holds nothing back: a rounded, full-bodied sweetness with a long aftertaste, paired with perfectly balanced fruit acidity that wakes up the palate. Candela is also remarkably forgiving to brew day to day. The beans themselves are dense with flavor, and whether you brew them through a clean dripper or a rich siphon, they show off their inherent character beautifully.

Origin Details

Country: Sidamo
Altitude: 1,750-2,000m
Region: Sidamo
Roast Level: Light roast
Processing Method: Natural
Variety: Local indigenous varieties
Processing Station: NinetyPlus
Flavor Notes: Nectarine, tropical fruits, oak barrel aroma

The NinetyPlus Philosophy

90+ names its beans in a completely different way from conventional specialty coffees: no region, no estate. Each coffee is named for its flavor profile instead. Candela, for instance, means "best approach" in the local dialect. Concept first, name second, then the selection of regions and partner farms - boutique management in coffee form.

Ethiopian Coffee Cultivation

Ethiopia grows coffee in every mode imaginable: sprawling wild coffee forests, semi-developed land, traditionally managed small plots, and modern plantations. Roughly 50% of its coffee grows above 1,500 meters. Across these four production systems, Ethiopia divides into nine major coffee regions - five specialty zones (Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harrar, Limu, and Lekempti) and four commercial zones (Djimmah, Illubabor, Tepi, and Bebeka). Each region uses either natural or washed processing, and the choice shapes the flavor: today naturals account for about 80% of output, washed about 20%.

Brewing Recommendations

For hand-pour Sidamo: 15g of coffee ground medium-fine (Fuji Rancilio at setting 3.5), V60 dripper, water temperature 91-93°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Once the water level drops halfway, continue pouring slowly to 225g total. Skip the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

The NinetyPlus Difference

"Ninety Plus" doesn't mean every coffee scores above 90 points. Great coffee appears one year and may vanish the next, sometimes surfacing on different estates with different flavor characters. "Ninety Plus" refers to a premium series of 13 flavor profiles, all from Ninety Plus Coffee, the American specialty coffee creators - all Ethiopian heirloom varieties, grown in ecological environments and processed to artistic standards with flavor optimization.

Processing is Ninety Plus's specialty. They separate coffees by variety, microclimate, and harvest timing, cupping each individually. For every flavor profile they design a specific processing method to hit a distinct flavor target - much the way major fashion designers research and refine each piece like a work of art. Natural products go through extensive refinement before they reach their most beautiful form.

Exceptional Quality

The ancient natural method rarely achieves pure flavor, but with 90+'s technical support, Drima Zede uses only hand-selected fully ripe cherries, stirred frequently through the natural drying to ensure consistency. The result is an exceptionally transparent, pure taste with dramatic changes between hot and cold, and fruit, floral, and oak barrel aromas that are utterly captivating!

Conclusion

As an Ethiopian natural, Candela is supervised and sorted rigorously, avoiding the harsh earthy impurities and high defect rates that plague typical naturals while amplifying the enchanting sweetness natural processing is famous for. Its captivating fruit notes inherit the classic Ethiopian natural aroma, expressing a rounded, full-bodied sweetness with a long aftertaste and perfectly balanced fruit acidity. And it stays easy to brew: dense with flavor, it performs beautifully whether you drip it clean or brew it rich in a siphon.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Candela's clean take on the Ethiopian natural excites you, FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Red Cherry delivers the same philosophy in a classic Yirgacheffe form. Only fully mature, defect-free cherries make the cut: they're screened at the mill, then dried whole on raised beds, turned every 2-3 hours over the first days to prevent uneven heating and over-fermentation, and sun-dried for three to five weeks before the dried fruit is stripped away. Because the fruit dries on the bean, the cup keeps Yirgacheffe's citrus-like acidity while adding berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness, peach, cocoa, and a cream-smooth body.

For a natural with real star power, FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Huakui comes from the Hambella zone of Guji, Sidamo, on a 200-hectare farm using traditional natural processing. To keep mold and earthy taints out of the drying fruit, workers sun the cherries on raised beds for 21 days, turning them constantly for even drying and hand-removing defective beans every three to five days, then hull the hardened skins and run one final visual sort before export. Roasted medium-light, it shows a faint fermented wine aroma, florals, citrus, and mango - a much denser, more complex cup with honey sweetness, cocoa undertones, a touch of spice, thick body, and a long finish.

And if you'd like to hear the washed side of Ethiopia, FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Yirgacheffe daily bean pours white jasmine and bright citrus-lemon acidity over a clean, tea-like frame - the same bean family that trained most of the world's palates. All three brew beautifully on the V60 used above: 15g, a 1:15 ratio, 90-93°C water, and a gentle three-stage pour.