How did Panama Eleta Coffee come about? How are Panama coffee beans classified?

Ninety Plus

Ninety Plus was founded in Ethiopia in 2006 by Joseph Brodsky. It stunned coffee connoisseurs in 2007 with its debut coffee, leaving an unforgettable aftertaste. The exceptional top-tier flavors that amazed everyone are inseparable from meticulous handling at every step. The company takes part from the moment farmers plant the crop, and harvested beans are separated individually by variety, climate, and timing, with customized storage and processing methods tailored to each bean to achieve extremely high-quality coffee.

During his time in Ethiopia, Joseph Brodsky wanted to find varieties that could surpass Geisha but could not. Since he could not outdo Geisha in variety, he decided to build on Geisha's foundation to create the highest-quality Geisha. The experimental processing methods accumulated over his years in Ethiopia were exactly what Ninety Plus excelled at. In 2009, Joseph Brodsky established the Ninety Plus Gesha Estate in Panama.

Red processing, Ruby processing, and Solkiln (SK processing) are all Ninety Plus's patented special processing methods; they also use N2-W2-H2 to describe a processing method.

Ninety Plus's baristas give their works impressionistic names based on first impressions, similar to Nekisse (Intimate Kiss) and Juliette, elegant and romantic. Others, like Drima Zede (Candle Light) and Danch Meng, come from local planting-area sayings or direct English translations.

In 2019, they also acquired a plot near Barú Volcano and named it "90+ Barú Estates." The name comes from Panama's famous Barú Volcano, and recent eruptions have made the soil nearby fertile, giving coffee an excellent growing environment.

Drima Zede Region Introduction

Sidamo grows in the southernmost Ethiopian highlands at altitudes between 4600 and 7200 feet (Sidamo Province). It is a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia, bordering Kenya, southeast of Jimma and directly south of the capital. It typically has pronounced sweetness and is favored by most people, with an annual output of about 225,000 bags of 60kg.

Sidamo's coffee flavors are extremely diverse. Different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties, along with towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains within the region, create diverse topography. The local geology consists of fertile, well-drained volcanic soil almost two meters deep, with a dark brown or brown topsoil. The region's greatest advantage is that soil fertility is maintained through organic-matter cycling, using fallen leaves from surrounding trees or plant residues as fertilizer.

Ninety Plus Drima Zede

Name Origin: Drima Zede (Candle Light, the name of this Yirgacheffe) means "Best Approach" in the local dialect. According to information from the producer, this Yirgacheffe is a specialized series developed from Ninety Plus's years of experience. Ancient natural processing makes pure flavors difficult to achieve, but with Ninety Plus's technical support only the most mature cherries are hand-picked, and the natural drying involves careful, constant stirring to ensure uniformity. The result is a very transparent, pure taste with major changes between hot and cold temperatures and captivating fruit, floral, and oak-barrel aromas.

Origin: Ninety Plus Ethiopia SNNP, Sidama Region
Altitude: 1750m-2000m
Processing Method: Natural Process
Variety: Ethiopian Heirloom
Roast Level: Light Roast
Flavor: Floral aroma, nectarine, tropical fruits, blackberry, blueberry, plum, cream, cinnamon
Acidity: Medium-High

About LevelUp

LevelUp is a sub-brand of the specialty green-bean processing company Ninety Plus. It is an Ethiopian green-bean series launched jointly by the company and green-bean trader Bodhi Leaf. The coffee names are based on flavor profiles rather than growing regions, all in local Ethiopian languages, giving clear flavor descriptions for each coffee while preserving Ninety Plus's remarkable flavors at more accessible prices.

Ninety Plus Danch Meng

Name Origin: Danch Meng actually comes from Ninety Plus's sub-brand Level Up, an Ethiopian green bean launched jointly by the company and green-bean trader Bodhi Leaf in 2013. Danch Meng translates locally as "Perfect approach" (Good Path) and is grown by small farmers in Yirgacheffe's Goldina Abaya Dumonso area. It is a product built on Ninety Plus's professional flavor-processing background, using their natural-processing technology to give Danch Meng a very distinctive Yirgacheffe flavor.

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

Derar Ela | The Dreamer

Flavor: More intense aromatic qualities, rich tropical fruits, lime aroma, unique chamomile fragrance

Lomi Tasha | Lomi Tasha

Flavor: Soft lemon, honey, wild ginger flower aroma, delicate green tea taste

Faya Deraro | Faya Deraro

Flavor: Blueberry, strawberry cookie, cherry, white wine, raspberry

Nitsu Ruz | Rosemary Fresh Fragrance

Flavor: Floral, lemon peel, lychee, prune, kumquat, black tea

90+ Eleta | Ninety Plus Eleta Coffee

Country: Panama
Grade: SHG
Region: Volcán Region
Estate: Ninety Plus
Altitude: 1400-1800 meters
Processing Method: 90+ Special Processing
Variety: Geisha
Flavor: Bergamot, sweet orange, pineapple, longan, dried fruit, apple

Eleta is a high-quality Geisha that FrontStreet Coffee recently acquired, coming from Ninety Plus. It shows rich fruit sweetness with chocolate and chocolate-liqueur flavors when brewed.

Starting in 2006, Ninety Plus founder Joseph Brodsky decided to dedicate himself to changing the deeply entrenched commercial coffee cultivation model. He saw an opportunity to plant shade-loving and delicious heirloom Ethiopian varieties while cultivating tropical lands, and to create a new model that would inspire and improve the quality of life for coffee professionals.

Ninety Plus Coffee Founder Joseph Brodsky

The Ninety Plus team currently owns and/or operates over 1,500 hectares of coffee-forest restoration projects in Panama and Ethiopia, and has established an international brand to advance taste-driven models for ecologically and socially oriented agricultural economies.

Ninety Plus's founder discovered early on that the world's high-quality coffee beans all originate from Ethiopia, whose many different-tasting varieties are no fewer than the 10,000 grape varieties that produce a million different fine wines.

Ninety Plus's green beans all come from Ethiopia's original varieties, including the Geisha on their Panama estate, transplanted from Ethiopia's heirloom original varieties. Processing is Ninety Plus's specialty: they separate these coffees by variety, microclimate, and harvest timing, tasting each one individually and designing special processing methods for each flavor profile to reach a specific character, much like master designers meticulously completing crafts that approach art. Natural products undergo many refinements before reaching their most beautiful form.

In 2006, Joseph Brodsky founded Ninety Plus (90+). Joseph began his journey amid the craze caused by the appearance of the Geisha variety in Panama in 2003 and 2004. When he did not find the results he expected in Panama, it gave him another idea: perhaps among Ethiopia's more than 10,000 coffee varieties, there were still varieties with untapped potential.

To ensure quality, 90+ adopts a cooperative model with local estates, keeping complete control from planting, sampling, and harvesting through to subsequent processing and cupping. 90+'s exclusive Profile Processing ensures that every bean released has a unique, stable flavor profile and quality. Ninety Plus markets its coffee much like premium red wines, which makes it stand out in the market.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Eleta has you curious about Panama Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Washed Geisha is the ideal way in. An estate-level entry Geisha grown at 1600 meters on fertile volcanic-ash soil, it offers the varietal's signature jasmine florals, green tea, honey, citrus, and orange, letting you taste the classic Panamanian "orange-blossom honey" character at a friendly price.

For the top of the range, try FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha. Picked from a single plot above 1700 meters with cupping scores above 90 and its own batch number, it shows the refined orange-and-honey elegance that made the estate the discoverer and promoter of the Geisha flavor.

To trace Geisha back to its homeland, FrontStreet Coffee's Granja Geisha comes from the Genlana Gesha farm in Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. Hand-picked whole ripe cherries are dried on raised beds for 14-20 days depending on the weather, then given a medium-light roast that brings bright citrus acidity, an elegant ginger-flower aroma, the full sweetness of ripe fruit, and the fine, silky mouthfeel and refined finish that mark the Gesha variety. Brew Gesha at about 91°C with 15g of coffee at a 1:16 ratio in a V60, pouring in three stages, for a clean and layered cup.