What Makes 90+ Coffee Beans Unique: Brand Recommendations and Geisha Coffee Pricing

Mention "90+" and most people think of a score, but in the coffee world the name always sparks immediate discussion. The questions are always the same: what new beans has 90+ released, and what novel processing methods did they use this time? Below, FrontStreet Coffee explains exactly what 90+ is.

What is 90+?

90+ (Ninety Plus) is the name of an American green coffee bean company. In coffee cupping it stands for a score of 90 or above, and generally only beans of exceptional quality reach such a score. People therefore often read the company's name as meaning it sells only beans that score above 90.

That reading is not without reason, because the beans 90+ produces really are exceptional. The Eleta, with its longan and spice flavors, or the Juliette, with grape and champagne flavors, both currently sold by FrontStreet Coffee, are examples. Taste them beside other beans and it is easy to pick out that they belong to the 90+ series; their uniqueness cannot be replicated elsewhere. That uniqueness comes entirely from 90+'s own production system: Profile Processing.

90+ Profile Processing

As mentioned, 90+ is the name of a green coffee bean company, and "green coffee beans" simply means unprocessed coffee. In short, they are green bean merchants, and what sets 90+ apart from other merchants is the Profile Processing system established by founder Joseph Brodsky at the company's inception.

Conventional green bean merchants, when buying beans, generally do just what we do: taste the flavor through cupping first, then purchase the high-quality coffees that taste good. That is a matter of acquiring high-quality green beans produced by others and reselling them. What makes 90+ different is that they did not intend to be responsible only for purchasing. They wanted to handle everything from bean selection and breeding through processing themselves—in other words, to produce their own high-quality green coffee. After the company was founded in 2006, that plan got underway.

At first, 90+ was not large-scale and lacked the funds to cover every aspect of green coffee production. They could only start with processing, since that is where the technology to control flavor expression sits. The operation was to buy freshly picked cherries from nearby farmers, bring them back to the processing plant for refined post-processing, and from that work Aricha and Beloya were born.

Those two beans carried extremely rich fruit flavors and caused a sensation on release, which gave 90+ tremendous fame in its very first attempt. Along with fame came substantial income, which allowed them to venture into other aspects of green coffee production. Riding that momentum, 90+ began selecting promising coffee farmers and gradually entering every part of the process. Eventually they could offer farmers and processing plants varying degrees of guidance based on the flavor they wanted, guiding each lot closer to the profile originally set.

Even that did not satisfy 90+. They would reselect the produced beans until they found those that best matched their new vision before releasing them for sale. That is why 90+'s bean quality stays at a consistently high level—not through luck or opportunism, but through diligent maintenance of its own standards, which has always been the company's core value.

90+ Estates

By 2009, having achieved great success in Ethiopia, 90+ returned to Panama with years of accumulated technology and experience and established the "90+ Geisha Estate" (Ninety Plus Geisha Estate). Because they had not found varieties in Ethiopia comparable to Geisha, they decided to work with Geisha directly and apply their technology to it, making Geisha surpass Geisha. Five years later, in 2014, the estate finally produced coffee beans, and the 90+ series was born. The Eleta Geisha and Juliette Geisha both come from this series.

Introduction to 90+ Estate Geisha Coffee Beans

On FrontStreet Coffee's bean list there are two beautifully named 90+ Geisha coffees: Juliette and Eleta. A medium roast interprets their full juice body and rich floral notes. FrontStreet Coffee is confident these two beans live up to the 90+ reputation.

FrontStreet Coffee: Panama Ninety Plus 90+ Geisha · Eleta Coffee Beans

Country: Panama
Grade: SHG
Region: Volcán Region
Estate: Ninety Plus
Variety: Geisha
Altitude: 1400-1800 meters
Processing Method: 90+ Special Processing
Flavor: Bergamot, Sweet Orange, Pineapple, Longan, Preserved Fruit, Apple

FrontStreet Coffee: Panama Ninety Plus 90+ Geisha · Juliette Coffee Beans

Country: Panama
Grade: SHG
Region: Volcán Region
Estate: Ninety Plus
Variety: Geisha
Altitude: 1400-1800 meters
Processing Method: 90+ Special Processing
Flavor: Muscat Grape, Champagne, Perfumed Lemon, Full and Rounded Body, Long and Pleasant Sweet Aftertaste

Brewing Suggestions for 90+ Geisha Coffee

Coffee Beans: 90+ Eleta Geisha, 90+ Juliette Geisha
Dripper: V60
Water Temperature: 92°C
Coffee Amount: 15g
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: Fine sugar size (80% passes through #20 sieve)

Both beans belong to 90+ special processing, and after tasting them FrontStreet Coffee believes they are likely anaerobic natural, so a finer grind is recommended. That lets them reach proper extraction despite their faster water flow.

Fold the filter paper to fit the dripper, wet it with a small amount of water so it adheres better, and pour out the water from the lower pot. Then add the coffee grounds and tap gently to distribute the bed evenly. For the first pour, gently inject 30 grams of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. For the second pour, inject water to about 135 grams, circling evenly and steadily outward. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and when it reaches halfway, inject the final water to 225 grams. Wait for all the coffee to finish dripping. Total extraction time is generally around 2 minutes, and a cup of 90+ Geisha coffee is ready.

Fast forward to 2019: following the Geisha Estate, 90+ acquired another plot of land and established a new estate. This plot sits near the Barú Volcano, so 90+ named it "90+ Barú Estates" (Ninety Plus Barú Estates). With the nourishment of volcanic soil, 90+ should be able to produce even more delicious coffee. With its establishment in 2019 and 5 years of cultivation, it may not be long before the new delicacies from the 90+ Barú Estate can be tasted.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

90+ made its name by pushing Geisha toward ever more expressive flavors, and FrontStreet Coffee carries several coffees that explore the same variety from different directions. The Grana Gesha comes from a rare estate that grows only one variety: a single-variety washed lot from a processing station established in 2014 at the border of Ethiopia's Kochere and Grana Abaya areas, where roughly 700 hectares of mostly uncultivated, fertile, shade-covered land surround the station. Cherries are hand-picked fully ripe and dried on raised beds for 14-20 days depending on the weather. Roasted medium-light, it shows bright citrus acidity, elegant ginger lily, ripe-fruit sweetness and the refined, delicate finish that marks the Geisha variety.

If you would rather drink Geisha every day, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy Gesha blend pairs a honey-processed Costa Rican coffee with a washed Panamanian Geisha for fine florals and sweet fruit, and it lends itself to cold brew as well as pour-over and espresso. As a cold brew, 30g of the blend ground to fine-sugar size—9 on an EK43s, or 24 on a C40 hand grinder—goes into a clean vessel with 360g of room-temperature water at a 1:12 ratio; stir, cover and refrigerate for 8 hours, then filter out all the grounds and let the liquid rest sealed in the fridge for another 3 hours. The result tastes of grape juice, rose, sweet orange and fruit wine. For a full Geisha Village experience, the Gold Label belongs to the Geisha 1931 variety and makes up 10% of the village's output—refined, naturally processed and complex, it is the estate's top non-auction coffee and a familiar sight at international barista competitions.