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【90+ Torchlight】 Ethiopia Natural Sidamo, A Premier Selection from World-Class Specialty Coffee Brand 90+

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, ETHIOPIA, SIDAMO, DrimaZede Natural Sidamo Ninety Plus Torchlight 01 | Region Introduction Sidamo grows in the southernmost Ethiopian highlands at altitudes between 4600-7200 feet (Sidamo Province), making it a renowned specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia,

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ETHIOPIA, SIDAMO, Drima Zede

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Natural Sidamo

90+ Candlelight

Country: Ethiopia

Region: 90+ SNNP, Sidama

Altitude: 1750-2000 meters

Processing: Natural Process

Variety: Ethiopian Heirloom

Roast Level: Light Roast

Flavor: Floral aroma, nectarine, tropical fruits, blackberry, blueberry, plum, cream, cinnamon

Acidity: Medium-high

01 | Region Introduction

Sidamo grows in the southernmost Ethiopian highlands at altitudes between 4600-7200 feet (Sidamo province). It is a famous specialty coffee region in southern Ethiopia, bordering Kenya, located southeast of Jimma and directly south of the capital. It typically has distinct sweetness and is preferred by many people, with an annual production of about 225,000 bags/60kg.

The coffee flavor of Sidamo is very diverse. Different soil types, microclimates, and countless native coffee varieties, combined with towering mountains, highlands, plateaus, valleys, and plains within the region, create diverse topography. The geology consists of nutrient-rich, well-drained volcanic soil, with soil depth of nearly two meters, and surface soil showing dark brown or brown colors. The region's greatest advantage lies in maintaining soil fertility through organic matter cycling, using fallen leaves from surrounding trees or plant residues as fertilizer.

90+ · What exactly is 90+ coffee?

Ninety Plus Coffee, a specialty coffee supplier from the United States, was founded in 2006.

"90+" does not 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. "90+" refers to a premium coffee series of 13 flavor profiles. These coffees come exclusively from American specialty coffee creators - Ninety Plus Coffee. They are all Ethiopian heirloom old varieties, cultivated to maturity in ecological environments, and processed to artistic standards for flavor optimization.

The processing process is 90+'s specialty, separating these coffees by variety, microclimate, and harvesting timing, tasting each one individually, and designing specific processing methods for each flavor profile to achieve a characteristic taste, much like how major fashion designs are created - meticulously researched and crafted with dedication to complete an artistic craft. Natural products undergo extensive refinement and improvement before presenting their most beautiful form to everyone.

90+Ninety Plus Coffee founder Joseph Brodsky

Starting in 2006, Ninety Plus founder Joseph Brodsky decided to dedicate himself to changing the deeply entrenched commercial coffee cultivation model. Ninety Plus saw an opportunity to cultivate shade-loving and flavorful Ethiopian heirloom varieties while planting in tropical lands, while also creating a new model to incentivize and improve the quality of life for coffee cultivation professionals.

The Ninety Plus team currently owns and/or operates over 1500 hectares of coffee forest restoration projects in Panama and Ethiopia, and has established an international brand to promote the success of taste-driven models in ecologically and socially oriented agricultural economies.

90+ Profile Processing

However, as coffee gradually moves toward the high-priced specialty market, 90+ pioneered the establishment of its own green bean production system - Profile Processing. To ensure quality, 90+ adopts a cooperative model with local estates, maintaining complete control from planting, sampling, harvesting to subsequent processing and cupping. 90+'s exclusive Profile Processing ensures that each coffee bean released has unique and stable flavor profiles and quality. 90+ coffee adopts a marketing approach similar to premium wines, standing out in the market.

When the 90+ company first started, it only selected the most outstanding coffee cherries from various Ethiopian coffee farmers, beginning with processing methods to apply the most refined treatment to existing good beans. This led to the debut of the initially famous 90+ representative beans: Aricha and Beloya. But the results of these experiments were already astonishing, with incredibly rich fruit flavors and high quality that shocked the specialty coffee community.

Simply put, Profile Processing extends management scope upstream, controlling everything from coffee farmer planting varieties, origins, climate, cultivation methods, harvesting, processing methods, etc., allowing production of high-quality coffee beans according to personal preferences. The reason Profile Processing is remarkable lies in mastering the technology that controls flavor expression, enabling the planning and setting of highest standards, surpassing the luck-based green bean selection and purchasing methods of typical green bean merchants. Exceeding quality standards is not luck but the average level, which has always been the core value upheld by the 90+ company.

New season products may cancel the original L grading system (original L7\L12\L39\L139), while product and product line divisions are based on more significant taste differences. The product line is divided into four major series: NinetyPlus Ethiopia, NinetyPlus Panama, Ninety Levelup, NinetyPlus Limited.

90+ beans are named completely differently from conventional specialty beans, without region and estate names. Each 90+ bean is named according to its flavor. For example, Candlelight means "best approach" in the local dialect. Starting from a flavor concept, then naming, and then selecting regions and cooperative farms, this shows that 90+ is a brand with boutique management style.

02 | Processing Method

High Rack Natural Processing

Drima Zede (Candlelight) means "Best Approach" in the local dialect. According to information provided by the manufacturer, this Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is a specialized product series developed from 90+'s years of experience. The ancient natural processing method is difficult to obtain pure flavors, but Drima Zede, with 90+ technical support, only hand-selects the most mature coffee cherries. The natural drying process requires constant careful stirring to ensure uniformity. The final result is a very transparent and pure taste with significant changes between cold and hot brewing, with charming fruit, floral, and oak barrel aromas.

Also an Ethiopian natural bean, FrontStreet Coffee's 90+ Candlelight, after undergoing strict supervision and selection, avoids the annoying earthy impurities common in natural beans and the high defect rate, instead highlighting the charming sweetness that natural processing is known for.

FrontStreet Coffee's Candlelight inherits the charming aroma of traditional Ethiopian natural processing, unreservedly expressing round, full-bodied sweetness with lingering aftertaste and恰到好处的 mouth-watering fruit acidity. FrontStreet Coffee's 90+ Candlelight is also quite easy for daily brewing. The beans themselves are rich in flavor, whether using clean drip brewing or rich siphon brewing, they can perfectly showcase their inherent characteristics.

Traditional Ethiopian natural processing involved directly spreading wild-picked coffee fruits on the ground for sun exposure. This method has two disadvantages:

1. After picking, beans are not specially screened or processed, with uneven appearance and maturity mixed together, making the process relatively crude, resulting in unstable coffee bean quality and prone to defects.

2. Farmers usually find an open space near their homes for processing, so the ground often has many impurities or dirt, and coffee easily picks up undesirable flavors.

Improved natural processing addresses these two traditional disadvantages:

1. When picking beans, only fully mature deep red coffee cherries are picked. Before sun exposure, beans are first screened for defects at the processing plant, making bean size and maturity appear more uniform.

2. Next, elevated wooden frames or entire trellis structures are used for sun exposure, avoiding the risk of beans picking up impurities from the ground. During the sun exposure process, beans must be carefully monitored to ensure even drying; every three to five days, coffee workers manually remove defective and moldy beans. Therefore, by the time sun exposure is complete and beans enter depulping, the beautifully sun-dried deep red coffee cherries are already of very low defect grade.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

At 90+ farms, pickers only carefully select red cherries. This is the color of mature coffee. As coffee matures, sugars develop to create the best flavors.

It's crucial to help workers understand the physical changes cherries undergo. He told me that if they squeeze cherries and count how many drops escape, they can see how much mucilage there is. One study found this can explain 20% of cupping score variations, with higher mucilage levels meaning better-tasting coffee. More than three drops is a good sign.

After picking, Carlos and his team measure cherry weight and density in one-liter containers. Results are divided by variety for comparison, and yield records are kept in logs.

Coffee cherries are hand-sorted before and after being placed on raised beds. Workers must remove any unripe cherries and look for any with coffee berry borer (broca) holes.

Raised beds allow cherries to remain on a clean surface with air circulation, helping them dry evenly. The key is keeping cherries in thin layers and moving them regularly to ensure uniform drying.

Drying period:

For the first three days, cherries are exposed to sunlight and cold nights. After the third day, they are shaded between 12 PM and 2 PM when the day is hottest. When coffee is shaded, it's important to leave space on the beds.

After 20-25 days, coffee reaches ideal moisture content - 10.5% for natural coffee, rather than the more common 11-12%. He explained that high sugar levels still reacting inside the cherry mean greater risk of over-fermentation.

He checks his coffee with a moisture meter. He also recommends measuring humidity during the coldest part of the day for greater accuracy.

Cherry Storage:

When stored, coffee cherries are placed in GrainPro bags to protect them from insects. They are then stored in warehouses avoiding direct sunlight. Raised wooden courtyards keep bags off the floor. Moisture content (60-65%) and temperature (19-25°C) inside the warehouse are carefully controlled.

Coffee takes an average of three months to prepare for export. During this time it continues to stabilize, any herbal flavors disappear, and acidity and sweetness continue to develop.

90+ coffee is famous for processing. But great coffee doesn't happen without significant investment. And professional-grade natural processing is no exception.

FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo green beans are slightly grayish, with some areas large and others small, combining gentle and bright acidity, appropriate body thickness, sweet and spicy aroma, making them one of the courtyard coffees of southern Ethiopian highlands. Unlike typical African coffees, FrontStreet Coffee's Sidamo coffee has clear fruit acidity, smooth mouthfeel, and delicate floral and herbal aromas.

04 | Roasting Analysis

Beans with such brilliant flavors are naturally not suitable for medium-dark roasting, so this FrontStreet Coffee 90+ Candlelight coffee is intended to use light slow roasting to best showcase its round and sweet characteristics with rich floral and fruit aromas.

Roasting machine: Yangjia 600g semi-direct heat

Using quick stir mode, preheat to 200°C, set air damper to 3. After 30 seconds, adjust heat to 160°C, air damper unchanged. At 150°C, adjust heat once - at this point the bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, dehydration is complete, adjust heat to 120°C, air damper to 4.

At the 8th minute, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast aroma clearly changes to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the first crack sound. At 8'49" first crack begins, reduce heat to 70°C, open air damper fully to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, not too small to stop cracking sounds). 1'48" after first crack, unload at 195°C.

After optimization, FrontStreet Coffee's 90+ Sidamo Candlelight has further enhanced sweetness, with subtle citrus notes and vanilla aroma, while nectarine, mango, and other tropical fruit flavors become more prominent.

05 | Brewing Analysis

Hand Brewing FrontStreet Coffee 90+ Candlelight Reference

Using Key's dripper, 16g coffee to 32g water, bloom for 30 seconds, extract with 89-90°C water at 1:15 ratio, medium-fine grind (small Fuji 3.5). Second pour to 110ml then pause, wait for water to drop before slowly pouring again, maintaining even speed, water level should not be too high. Third pour to 233ml then stop. Extraction time 2:15 seconds - rich natural sweetness, everyone can fine-tune according to personal taste.