What Do Ninety Plus 90+ Coffee Beans Taste Like? How to Brew 90+ Coffee with V60 for the Best Flavor?

What does 90+ Coffee Bean Tchembe taste like? How to brew 90+ Tchembe with V60 for the best flavor?

Ninety Plus is an internationally renowned green coffee producer and trader, known worldwide for supplying rare and distinctive beans. Beyond direct partnerships with coffee farmers, the company also owns a 134-hectare estate in Panama. Since its official founding in 2007, its customers have spread across more than 40 countries. Named after "Haricho" and the Amaro Mountain variety "Bolo," Tchembe comes from Yirgacheffe and, when naturally processed, features longan and banana flavors with a thick, viscous texture accompanied by chocolate and layered citrus and berry notes.

In 2007, Joseph Brodsky officially founded Ninety Plus, and from the following year onward, Ninety Plus winners have appeared in coffee competitions of every size around the world. At the 2013 WBC World Barista Championship, three of the six finalists - from Italy, South Korea, and Canada - used Ninety Plus green beans. Meticulous cultivation and processing, excellent varieties, and a unique grading system have made Ninety Plus a top-tier, distinctive presence in the green bean market. Nuwak Coffee, committed to supplying high-quality green beans, became the exclusive agent for Ninety Plus in 2014 - offering exceptional green beans you should not miss.

Profile Processing System

The Profile Processing system exists to tailor-make a process for each bean variety - covering cultivation, harvesting, and processing - through repeated cupping and calibration, so that each variety shows its unique fruit flavors.

Solkiln™ Special Processing Method (SK = Solkiln™)

In 2013, the innovative Solkiln™ method was created, using wood-drying rooms to dry coffee beans. After wood is cut, it is typically stacked in a drying room where temperature, humidity, and air circulation are controlled to bring the moisture content of green wood down to 10-12%. Joseph Brodsky applied the same concept to coffee, creating the Solkiln™ (SK) method and officially launching two premium green bean products in 2013: Lotus Solkiln H2 and Silvia Solkiln N2.

Red Processing

This is a special method developed by the 90+ team using their patented drying technology. The cherries in parchment display varying degrees of red, from light red to ruby red. The process enhances aroma, making fruit flavors and sweetness more prominent.

Ruby Processing

This represents the ultimate expression of red processing, fully developing the fruit aroma and sweetness of the cherries. It carries a real risk of over-fermentation, demanding extensive manual care and cherry selection. Only cherries meeting ruby standards may be called ruby coffee beans, which makes them extremely rare after repeated screening and culling.

Maker Series

Starting in 2014, Ninety Plus invited international coffee experts, roasters, and competitors to create their own custom green beans - the Maker series. Unlike the centralized processing of estates and mills, individuals can choose cherry ripeness levels and process small batches of cherries according to their own ideas.

Ninety Plus's Excellent Coffee Varieties

In 2004, Joseph Brodsky's coffee career began with a search for the finest Geisha varieties. He selected flavorful heirloom varieties in Ethiopia and planted Ethiopian heirloom Geisha at the Ninety Plus Geisha Estate (NPGE) in Panama.

Ethiopia Heirloom Varieties

Panama Geisha

Ninety Plus's Unique Flavor Grading and Code Classification

Ninety Plus classifies its coffees by "fruit flavor intensity," which differs from the traditional washed/honey/natural labels. The coffees still fall into three codes - W2, H2, and N2 - but different processing methods can create the same flavor level, so you might taste a natural or a washed coffee within the honey-flavor "H2" classification. The company is renowned worldwide for supplying rare, unique green beans: since Joseph Brodsky founded Ninety Plus in 2007, customers have spread across more than forty countries, and Ninety Plus winners appear in competitions of every scale. At the 2013 WBC, competitors from Italy, South Korea, and Canada used Ninety Plus green beans among the six finalists.

Exquisite green bean cultivation and processing, excellent varieties, and a unique grading system have made Ninety Plus a top-tier, distinctive representative of the green bean market.

"Exquisite Green Bean Cultivation and Processing Methods"

The Profile Processing system tailors each process - cultivation, harvest, and post-harvest - to the variety at hand, through repeated cupping and calibration, so every lot shows its unique fruit flavors. The flavor coding likewise departs from tradition: W2, H2, and N2 denote flavor intensity rather than process, so a natural or a washed coffee can both appear under the "H2" honey-flavor classification.

W2 = Washed Flavor

H2 = Honey-Processed Flavor

N2 = Natural Process Flavor

90+ Tchembe

Country: Ethiopia

Altitude: 1750-2000 meters

Region: Amaro Mountains

Variety: Heirlooms

Processing: N2

Grade: Level 7

Named after "Haricho" and the Amaro Mountain variety "Bolo," Tchembe comes from Yirgacheffe and features longan and banana flavors when naturally processed, with a thick viscous texture accompanied by chocolate and multi-layered citrus and berry notes.

Flavor Description:

Berries, black cherry, raspberry, honey, citrus - thick and jam-like, juicy, with excellent clarity.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 91-92°C

Grind Size: Fuji grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g of grounds. First pour 25g of water and bloom for 25 seconds. Second pour to 120g of water, then pause. Once the water level in the bed drops to halfway, continue pouring slowly to 225g total. Extraction time approximately 2:00.

Analysis:

The three-stage pour clearly separates the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, pausing during the pour helps extend the extraction time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If 90+ Tchembe's longan-and-banana natural profile appeals to you, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe lineup offers equally expressive Ethiopian character at every price point. The classic starting bean is the FrontStreet Coffee washed Yirgacheffe: white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like body at a friendly price - the first bean many people drink on their way into specialty coffee. Yirgacheffe itself is a small town in Ethiopia's southern Sidamo zone at roughly 1700-2100 m, with coffee grown above 1800 m - among the highest growing regions on earth; so distinctive is its white floral character and lemon-citrus acidity that in 2010 the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange formally separated it from the Sidamo designation.

Within Yirgacheffe, the FrontStreet Coffee washed Guodingding Cooperative - from Guodingding village in the Worka area, independent since 2012 with about 300 member farmers and formerly part of the YCFCU's Worka cooperative - follows traditional washed processing, earning its reputation as the "last pure land" of Yirgacheffe: no traditional bitterness, just clean citrus-lemon acidity and jasmine fragrance. For a natural-process counterpart to Tchembe, the FrontStreet Coffee Natural Red Cherry uses only fully ripe, defect-free cherries, sun-dried three to five weeks on raised beds and turned every 2-3 hours early on to prevent uneven fermentation: citrus acidity, berry-like juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness, all with Yirgacheffe's classic profile plus tropical fruit.

For brewing, FrontStreet Coffee uses the V60 at 90-91°C, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, ground to fine-sugar texture (EK43s setting 10, 80% pass-through on a #20 sieve): bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 125g on the scale within about 1 minute, then finish with the remaining 100g (to about 225g) by 1:35, letting the drawdown complete at 2:00-2:10.