90 Danqi Meng Coffee - Danqi Meng Coffee Characteristics - Brief Introduction to Danqi Meng Coffee Flavor Profile

FrontStreet Coffee, An Introduction to Ninety Plus Danqi

Ninety Plus N2 Danqi

"Ninety Plus" is exactly what it sounds like: coffee scoring 90 points and above. To anyone outside cupping circles that may not sound dramatic, until you understand how the scoring works. With a strict deduction system spanning more than a dozen criteria, holding a 90 is like writing ten essays that all score a perfect 10 and still clearing 90 overall. For coffee lovers, a 90-plus score means a coffee hovering near perfection.

These coffees come exclusively from Ninety Plus Coffee, the American coffee creator behind the series. All are Ethiopian heirloom, ancient native varieties, grown in carefully managed ecological conditions and processed to an almost artistic standard to maximize flavor. Since the company's founding in 2006, thirteen distinct lots have made this one of the richest premium coffee series in the world, its range and quality outclassing other luxury coffees and making it a go-to for connoisseurs and competition baristas alike.

Danqi, natural process, is fermented more heavily than Zhuman or Huayu, so the first thing in the cup is a rich, lingering natural winey aroma. Behind it come mature nectarine and Sanhua plum, layered with deep sweetness. As the cup cools, an interesting chocolate-cookie note surfaces, while the winey undertone runs through the entire tasting.

In Short

A 90-point natural Ethiopian heirloom like Danqi is a special-occasion coffee, and if you love this style, the wider Ethiopian family has plenty more to offer.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, home to countless native varieties and a treasure trove for flavor chasers. Here are FrontStreet Coffee's favorite Ethiopian lots:

• FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe, the ideal first sip. Yirgacheffe, a small, misty, spring-like town in southern Ethiopia, grows coffee with clear jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity, light and elegant with a tea-like body, like a clean, refreshing lemon tea.
• FrontStreet Guji Dingding Cooperative, Ethiopian coffee is mostly garden-grown, with smallholders delivering cherry to village processing stations; hence all the cooperative lots (Dingding, Worka, Konga). Dingding, at Yirgacheffe's southeastern tip in the Worka area, split from the YCFCU-affiliated Worka cooperative in 2012 with about 300 member farmers, chasing traceability. Washing strips the fruit before drying, so its character is crystal clear: citrus and lemon over elegant white florals, bright and delicate.
• FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry, the Red Cherry Project's rigor is the point: defective cherries culled first, two weeks of full sun until moisture drops to 12%, then hulling, density and color checks, defect culling, and a final hand-sort. Every bean is premium, spotlessly clean with rich, captivating fruit. Peach, cocoa, honey, lemon.
• FrontStreet Natural Huakui, from a 200-hectare farm in Hambella, Guji, Sidamo. Cherries dry 21 days on raised beds, turned constantly and hand-sorted every 3–5 days against mold and off-flavors, then hulled and sorted once more. Medium-light roast: light winy fermentation, florals, citrus, and mango, with honeyed sweetness, cocoa, and a hint of spice over a thick body and long finish.
• FrontStreet Sidamo Natural Hamasho 74158, the Hamasho washing station is a fixture on Ethiopian green coffee competition winner lists. Its lots lean on JARC's 74-series disease-resistant varieties; 74158's smaller beans carry standout floral-fruity character, perfume lemon, strawberry, and star fruit on the nose, sweet strawberry, star fruit, and green grape on the palate, with soft florals trailing behind.
• FrontStreet Kaffa Forest, not garden coffee but wild coffee: trees grow shaded at 1,400–2,100 meters in virgin forest on red soils with abundant rain. Medium-light roast: pronounced white florals, bright lemon acidity, sweet orange and bergamot, a faint melon-and-nut sweetness on the finish, and a texture like green tea.