What is Zhumang Coffee? Is Zhumang the Same as Yirgacheffe? How Much Does a Cup of Zhumang Coffee Cost?

90+ Coffee Beans: A Unique Naming Philosophy

90+ coffee beans are named differently from ordinary specialty beans. The naming process begins with a flavor concept, then moves on to regions and partner farms.

Rising Star: Nekisse's Contemporary

After Ninety Plus 90 rose to fame, Ethiopia's Sidamo Zhū Máng has gained popularity to rival Nekisse, another of 90+'s flagship coffees.

The Essence of "Best Approach"

Zhū Máng means "best approach" in the local dialect. Its enchanting fruit character inherits the captivating aromas of traditional natural processing, presenting a rounded, full-bodied flavor with long-lasting sweetness and mouth-watering fruit acidity. A clean, pure taste is extremely hard to achieve under natural processing, yet Zhū Máng combines the brightness of washed coffee with the gentleness of natural coffee, its complex florals and distinct layers of fruit acidity playing off each other beautifully.

Ethiopia's Diverse Coffee Cultivation

Ethiopia hosts every kind of coffee cultivation: vast wild coffee forests and semi-developed lands sit alongside traditionally managed small plots and modern plantations — everything is there. Roughly 50% of the coffee grows at altitudes above 1,500 meters.

Ethiopia's Nine Coffee Regions

Ethiopian coffee is divided into nine major regions, organized by the four production methods mentioned above: five specialty coffee areas — Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harar, Limu, and Lekempti — plus four commercial-bean regions: Djimmah, Illubabor, Tepi, and Bebeka. Each region uses either natural or washed processing, and the choice shapes the flavor. Currently natural processing accounts for about 80% and washed about 20%.

90+ Boutique Philosophy

90+ coffee beans follow a naming logic completely unlike ordinary specialty beans, dispensing with region and estate names. Each bean is named for its flavor — Zhū Máng, as noted, means "best approach" in the local dialect. Starting from a flavor concept, then naming it, and only then choosing regions and partner farms shows that 90+ is a brand run with a true boutique mindset.

The "Ninety Plus" Legacy

"Ninety Plus" does not mean every coffee scores above 90 points. Great coffee appears one year and vanishes the next; sometimes it emerges from different estates with wildly different flavor characteristics. "Ninety Plus" refers to a top-tier coffee series built on 13 flavor profiles. These coffees come exclusively from Ninety Plus Coffee, the American specialty coffee creators. All are Ethiopian heirloom varieties, cultivated in ecological environments until fully mature, then processed to artistic standards for flavor optimization.

The processing is Ninety Plus's special art: the coffees are separated by variety, microclimate, and harvest timing, each lot tasted individually, and a specific processing method designed for each flavor profile to achieve its distinct taste. Like designs from the great luxury houses, they are researched and crafted with heart and soul into pieces approaching art. Natural products go through extensive refinement and improvement before they present their most beautiful form to the world.

Drima Zede: Exceptional Quality

The ancient natural method rarely achieves pure flavor, but Drima Zede, with 90+'s technical support, uses only hand-selected, fully ripe cherries. Natural drying involves meticulous constant stirring to ensure consistency. The result is an exceptionally transparent, pure taste with striking variation between hot and cold — the aromas of fruit, flowers, and oak barrel are utterly captivating!

Zhū Máng Excellence

Also an Ethiopian natural-process coffee, Zhū Máng beans undergo strict supervision and selection, avoiding the annoying earthy impurities and high defect rates common in natural coffees. Instead, they foreground the captivating sweetness that made natural processing famous. Zhū Máng's enchanting fruit character inherits the aromas of traditional Ethiopian naturals, expressing without reservation a rounded, full-bodied flavor, long-lasting sweetness, and perfectly mouth-watering fruit acidity.

Zhū Máng is also easy to brew for daily drinking. The beans themselves are dense with flavor, and whether you use a clean drip method or a rich siphon, they express their intrinsic character perfectly.

Zhū Máng Coffee Brand Recommendations

The 90+ Zhū Máng beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee carry full guarantees in both brand and quality — and exceptional value, at 90 yuan for a half-pound (227 grams) pack. At 15 grams per pour-over, one pack makes 15 cups, so each cup costs only about 6 yuan. Against the dozens of yuan cafés typically charge per cup, the value is hard to beat.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To truly understand Yirgacheffe, start with the classic FrontStreet washed Yirgacheffe everyday bean, known for white jasmine florals, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like finish. Its friendly price has made it the first bean for countless people entering specialty coffee.

Yirgacheffe is a small town in southern Ethiopia's Sidamo province at roughly 1700-2100 meters, with coffee planted above 1800 meters — among the highest coffee elevations anywhere. The land was a wetland in ancient times, and the coffee's unmistakable white florals and lemon-citrus acidity have turned "Yirgacheffe" into a byword for Ethiopian specialty coffee. The name grew so famous that in 2010 the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange formally split it from the Sidamo designation.

What fewer people know is that the Yirgacheffe area breaks into many micro-regions and even single villages, home to experienced cooperatives whose coffee reaches an even higher level. The best representative is FrontStreet's washed Idido Cooperative from Idido village, in the Worka region at Yirgacheffe's southeastern edge. Originally part of the Worka Cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Union (YCFCU), it was "discovered" by coffee hunters worldwide as a "single micro-region" as demand for traceability grew. Washed the traditional way — dubbed the last pure land of Yirgacheffe — the coffee carries none of the usual bitterness: clean, bright citrus and lemon acidity wrapped in jasmine fragrance that wins people over at first sip.

For brewing, FrontStreet suggests a V60 at 90-91°C, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, ground to EK43s setting 10 (fine-sugar texture, 80% pass on a #20 sieve). Pour 30g for a 30-second bloom, then the next 95g (scale reading about 125g) within the first minute; when the bed drains to two-thirds, add the final 100g (scale reading about 225g), finishing the pour around 1:35. Drawdown completes at 2:00-2:10 — lift off the dripper and enjoy.