When we search for coffee beans on shopping platforms, two types usually appear: one is single-origin coffee beans with detailed origin information, which is suitable for most extraction methods, such as hand brewing, French press, cold brew, etc., and is usually within half a pound. If you are just starting to learn how to make coffee, buy entry-level Front Street Mandheling, Front Street Yirgacheffe, Front Street Geisha, Front Street Brazilian Cerato, and Front Street Colombian Cymbidium. Each of them has a unique flavor and taste, allowing you to quickly improve your tasting skills.
The other type is Italian beans specially used for espresso machine extraction and concentration. They are usually blended and roasted a little darker. They are often sold in specifications of 500 grams, 1 pound or more. They have a rich and mellow taste and are affordable, such as Front Street Classic Blend, Front Street Boutique Blend, Front Street Black Cocoa Basic Blend, and Front Street Commercial Blend. Since the amount of a single package is relatively large, some friends who consume it slowly may wonder, can these kinds of Italian beans also be used to make Pour over(V60) coffee? Does it taste good?
What are the characteristics of espresso beans?
Taking into account the need to adapt to the espresso machine that extracts under high temperature and pressure, so that the espresso can show a more stable flavor and taste, espresso beans are usually selected from batches of more than 2 different origins, using a darker roasting degree, so that the espresso has both appropriate oil and good richness. Therefore, Italian beans are often directly called blended beans.
For different purposes, the recipes for Italian blended beans will vary greatly, but they are usually considered from three aspects, including cost-effectiveness, stability, and flavor performance.
For example, when customizing a Front Street commercial blend of coffee beans, it is positioned to meet the dual needs of families and coffee shops. It uses a combination of washed Colombian and semi-dried Brazilian, and adds a small amount of Robusta, so that the concentrate can have rich oil and nutty aroma, and it also has the advantage of being inexpensive. When customizing the blending of Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso, we focused on the flavor expression of Italian coffee, hoping that it would have both floral and fruity aromas as well as nutty milky aromas, so we combined the triple flavors of Yirgacheffe, Colombia and Costa Rica to enrich the flavor at once.
All coffee beans can be used for hand brewing, and the same goes for Italian beans
Hand brewing is just a very common brewing mode. As long as you have the appropriate equipment and raw materials (coffee beans/powder), you can extract it by hand. So we can understand that any roasted coffee beans can be used for hand brewing, including the Italian coffee beans we have been talking about. Whether it tastes good or not depends on the quality of the coffee beans and whether you have a good grasp of the brewing parameters.
As mentioned above, the roasting degree of Italian coffee beans is mostly darker, and usually presents a roasted burnt aroma spectrum, such as dark chocolate, nuts, caramel, cream... When it is made into concentrate, the taste will be more prominent and full of aroma, and if it is extracted by hand brewing, the taste will be more mellow and solid, sweet and bitter. If the coffee beans are used to make SOE, in order to highlight the fruit acid, they are usually roasted lighter. When extracting by hand, you need to adjust the brewing parameters to medium-light roasted coffee beans.
You’re all here~ Try how it tastes?
Now that we have talked about this, with a curious attitude, we also "dig" some Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso beans from the bean warehouse and brew a pot of coffee to see how the Pour over(V60) Front Street Sunflower Warm Yang Blend tastes~
Since the Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso blend uses a medium-to-dark roast, I used lower water and medium grinding to brew Front Street this time, hoping to avoid too much negative bitterness. In order to highlight the tropical fruit acidity of Front Street sun-dried red cherries, Front Street chose a v60 filter cup, combined with a 1:16 powder-to-water ratio, to make the coffee flavor more layered and active.
Coffee beans: 15g Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso blend
Pink to water ratio: 1:16
Water temperature: 88℃
Grinding degree: No. 20 screen passing rate 75% (EK43s scale 10.5)
Technique: Three-stage water injection
Filter cup: KONO
Extraction time: 2 minutes and 4 seconds
Hand-brewed extraction of Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso coffee beans shows obvious flavors of roses, creamy chocolate, and raisins, with a slight fermentation aroma, citrus acidity, smooth as cream in the mouth, medium-to-high mellowness, and a trace of caramel aroma remaining in the mouth after swallowing.。
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
