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90+ Guji Speciality Coffee Beans: Is Guji Sidamo or Yirgacheffe?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, In Ethiopia, various coffee cultivation methods can be found: from vast wild coffee forests and semi-developed lands to traditionally managed small plots and modern plantations, offering everything one could need. Approximately 50% of coffee is grown at altitudes above 1,500 meters. Ethiopian coffee, according to the four different production methods mentioned above, can be divided into nine major coffee-producing regions throughout the country, including five specialty regions.

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90+ Coffee Beans: Premium Quality and Competition Favorite

90+ coffee beans have always been renowned for their high quality, becoming the preferred choice for many competition participants. Their Ethiopian coffee bean named "Candelilla" has also been widely loved. FrontStreet Coffee is here to share with you about this Candelilla coffee bean.

What is 90+?

Ninety Plus Coffee, a specialty coffee supplier from the United States, was founded in 2006. In the decade since its establishment, Ninety Plus has already made coffee professionals worldwide recognize its unique charm, leading an unprecedented wave of specialty coffee enthusiasm globally. Since the first coffee in 2007, it has been the precious preferred choice for industry experts and competition participants. Today's Ninety Plus has become synonymous with the world's top specialty coffee, with taste and quality far surpassing any other precious coffee.

Naming Philosophy and Brand Style

90+ coffee beans adopt a completely different naming approach compared to conventional specialty beans. They don't feature region and estate names. Instead, each bean is named according to its flavor profile. For example, Candelilla means "best approach" in the local dialect. Starting from a flavor concept, then naming, followed by selecting regions and partner farms, this shows that 90+ is a brand with boutique management style.

"Ninety Plus" doesn't refer to all coffees scoring above 90 points in evaluations. Good coffee appears one year and may not the next. Sometimes it appears in different estates with various flavor characteristics. "Ninety Plus" refers to a series of 13 top-tier flavored coffees. These coffees come exclusively from Ninety Plus Coffee, the American specialty coffee creator. They are all Ethiopian Heirloom old varieties, cultivated in ecological environments, and processed under artistic standards for flavor optimization. The processing process is Ninety Plus's specialty - they separate these coffees by variety, microclimate, and harvesting timing, tasting each one individually, designing specific processing methods for each flavor to achieve particular flavor characteristics, much like major fashion designers' dedicated research and effort to complete near-artistic crafts. Natural products undergo extensive refinement and improvement before reaching their most beautiful state to be presented to everyone.

FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Sidamo Candelilla

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Sidamo 90+SNNP
Altitude: 1750-2000 meters
Processing: Natural processing
Variety: Local native varieties
Roast level: Light to medium roast

Coffee Region

The source region of [Ninety Plus Candelilla] is actually Sidamo, not Yirgacheffe. Sidamo is located on the southernmost Ethiopian plateau at altitudes between 1400-2100m. It's a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia, bordering Kenya, southeast of Jimma, and directly south of the capital. Sidamo coffee typically has distinct sweetness, which is why Sidamo is generally more popular among people.

Sidamo's geographical conditions are exceptionally superior, and its coffee flavors are very diverse. Different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties create obvious differences and characteristics in coffee produced by each town area.

Processing Method

The ancient natural processing method makes it difficult to achieve pure flavors, but Drima Zede, with 90+ technical support, only hand-selects the most mature coffee cherries. The natural drying process involves meticulous constant stirring to ensure uniformity. Sidamo green coffee beans are slightly grayish, with some parts coarse and others fine. They possess both gentle and bright acidity, moderate body, sweet and spicy flavors, making them one of the garden coffees from Ethiopia's southern highlands. Unlike typical African coffees, Sidamo has clear fruit acidity, smooth texture, and delicate floral and herbal aromas.

The final result is a very transparent and pure taste with significant changes between hot and cold. The aromas of fruit, flowers, and oak barrels are very charming. Unlike typical African coffees, Sidamo coffee has clear fruit acidity, smooth texture, and delicate floral and herbal aromas.

As an Ethiopian natural-processed coffee, Candelilla has undergone strict supervision and selection, avoiding the annoying soil off-flavors and high defect rates common in natural beans. Instead, it highlights the charming sweetness that natural processing is known for. FrontStreet Coffee believes that Candelilla's charming fruit notes inherit the fascinating aroma of traditional Ethiopian natural processing, unreservedly expressing round, full-bodied sweetness with a long aftertaste and just the right mouth-watering fruit acidity. Candelilla is also very easy to brew daily. The bean itself is rich in flavor. Whether using refreshing drip brewing or rich siphon brewing, it can well express its own character.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee's roaster believes that to bring out the explosive fruity aroma of Candelilla coffee, we use fast roasting to extract the coffee's aroma, with light to medium roast.

Preheat the roaster to 200°C, add beans with air damper at 3. After 30 seconds, adjust heat to 150°C, keep air damper unchanged. Return temperature point at 1'32", 103.7°C. Dehydration time at 5'21",此时豆表变为黄色，青草味完全消失。Adjust heat once at 150°C when dehydration is complete, reduce heat to 100°C, adjust air damper to 4.

At 8 minutes 45 seconds, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface. Toast aroma clearly transforms to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. First crack starts at 9'00. At this time, listen carefully to the sound of first crack, reduce heat to 80°C, fully open air damper to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that crack sounds disappear). 1'55" after first crack, remove from roaster at 195°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions

Filter: Hario V60
Water temperature: 90°C
Coffee dose: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Medium-fine grind (BG 6m: China standard 20-mesh sieve pass rate 80%)

To brew Candelilla coffee's tropical fruit aroma, round and full-bodied texture, and pleasant fruit acidity. Use segmented brewing method.

Use 30g of water for 30-second bloom. When continuing to pour water to 120g with small water flow in circular motion, segment. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop pouring. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the filter cup (timing starts from bloom). Extraction time is 2'00".

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925