In a coffee shop, you may hear an order like, "Please give me a shot."
shot? Is it something new?
In a bar, the word shot refers to a small glass of hard liquor. This word was popular in the mid-20th century. At that time, a "shot" meant that the store filled a one-ounce glass (shot glass) with hard liquor, and the customer drank it quickly and left. It can be said that these drinks were consumed in order to consume alcohol faster and cheaper.
When put in a coffee shop, shot is espresso with a similar effect. "A shot" means exactly one shot of espresso. Espresso was originally positioned as a quick, cheap, caffeine-infused coffee.
How much is one shot?
As mentioned before, a shot cup refers to a cup that is about 1 ounce in size, which is about 30ml in capacity. So a shot actually refers to about a 30ml cup of espresso liquid.
But the shot in coffee does not simply refer to the capacity of the coffee liquid. For a long time, a shot referred to the standard extraction formula at that time - 7g of coffee powder to extract 30ml of espresso. Another word often heard in coffee shops is "Double shot", which means double espresso - 14g of coffee powder extracts 60ml of espresso.
To make a double shot, use a double powder bowl (the powder bowl we commonly use now), then use the splitter handle to divide the coffee liquid into two, and use two shot cups to connect it. At that time, there were no small scales to weigh the coffee liquid. It was determined entirely by its capacity. In more popular terms, it was visual inspection.
It now appears that this method has a very large error, because the volume and weight of coffee oil are not equal. Therefore, if the volume is used as the standard, the espresso with rich oil will be relatively less than the one with thin oil. Therefore, liquid weight is now used as the standard for extracting espresso.
Front Street discovered that coffee shops now generally use double bowls of powder as their standard product. Single-serve powder bowls have all but disappeared. The proportion of espresso extracted is also constantly shrinking. For example, one unit of espresso used to be 7g of powder to extract 30ml of coffee liquid, but now one unit of espresso is 16g of powder to extract 32g (about 45ml) of coffee liquid.
For example, when making a standard latte based on the popular coffee bean Front Street Black Cocoa, 20g of coffee powder will be used, and a powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:2 will be used to extract double concentration in 30 seconds, that is, 40g of coffee liquid will be poured into the cup as the base.
This puts us in an awkward situation. If one portion of a single-portion powder bowl is considered "1 shot," then the double-portion powder bowl used in current products is a double shot. In terms of the amount of coffee liquid, if the espresso extracted with a double powder bowl is a Double shot, then if the customer orders 1 shot, it will be about 22ml of espresso liquid, which is less in the originally small cup.
So in this case, the coffee shop will use the espresso extracted from the double bowl as one shot, and if the customer orders a Double shot, it will be the espresso extracted from the double bowl.
Recommended coffee beans suitable for making espresso
Generally speaking, for novices using espresso machines, "Brazil + Mandheling" and "Brazil + Colombia" are relatively safe blends. The Front Street Boutique blend is a combination of Brazil and Colombia, so it has a buttery nutty aroma and caramel-like sweetness. When paired with milk, it forms a silky, smooth and thick tonality that leaves a lingering fragrance on your lips and teeth after drinking.
Another Front Street classic blend that is loved by home users uses the ancient "Mamba" combination. Brazil provides the milky aroma of hazelnuts, and Mandheling gives the coffee a wild taste of spices and herbs. In order to further enrich the concentrated oil, we also add a small amount of Robusta to the Front Street classic blend. It will exude rich butter, roasted hazelnuts, caramel, and dark chocolate flavors. The taste is thick, and the black coffee is sweet and refreshing. Add milk to make a smooth and delicate latte.
Single origin beans can also be used to make Italian style (SOE=Single Origin Espresso), and certain blended beans also perform well in the usual single origin method. But doing it well will test the quality of the beans, roasting techniques and extraction operations.
Front Street Brazilian Queen Manor SOE coffee beans: If you prefer the unique taste brought by single-origin coffee, you can buy this medium-dark roasted Front Street Queen Manor SOE. The rich buttery peanut flavor is unforgettable, accompanied by the sweetness of sugar cane, and the aftertaste has the aroma of cocoa. It is also suitable for making with moka pots and home coffee machines.
Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling SOE coffee beans: As one of the most famous specialty coffees in Asia, Front Street. Golden Mandheling SOE has been hand-selected three times and machine-selected once during the production process. The coffee beans are uniform and translucent. After medium-dark roasting, the particles are large and have rich aromas of spices, caramel, fir, and dark chocolate. The extracted Moka pot coffee liquid has a mellow taste and good oil, which is very suitable for friends who don’t like sour coffee.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
