Many people who are new to specialty coffee frown when they hear the word "light roast": will it be sour? Will you be unaccustomed to drinking? In fact, the flavor logic of light roasted coffee beans is completely different from that of dark roasted coffee beans. It does not pursue the burnt aroma and bitterness, but retains the floral and fruity aroma of the coffee fruit itself as much as possible. Once you understand light roasting, you will find that coffee can be so "light".
What exactly is light baking?
The lighter the roast, the more flavor the coffee beans retain. For the same bean, dark roasting will produce caramel, chocolate, and smoke, while light roasting may produce citrus, berry, floral, and green tea flavors. Light roasting does not mean "undercooking", but deliberately controls the roasting process to make the acidity brighter and the sweetness clearer.
For novices, the core experience of light roast coffee is:Acid is not a sharp stimulus, but like the sweet and sour taste of the fruit itself. This is also the reason why many people will say "Wow" when they take the first sip of light roast.
Which light roasted beans is better to start with?
Front Street Yirgacheffe Fruit Ding Ding
Yirgacheffe can be said to be the starting point for many coffee lovers to get started with specialty coffee, and Guo Ding Ding is one of the most popular. It typically has bright citrus, berry, and floral aromas, along with a green tea-like aftertaste. Many people think it is "sour coffee". In fact, the acidity of high-quality Yirgacheffe is soft and bright, more like the natural sweetness and sourness of fruits, rather than the pungent sourness. For those who are new to hand flushing, it is a very easy-to-accept choice with almost no threshold.
Front Street Ethiopian Oiran
Oiran is one of the most representative star products in the specialty coffee market in recent years. Its outstanding feature is that it has an extremely rich aroma of tropical fruits. You can often smell strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and even lychee. It has obvious sweetness, low bitterness, smooth entrance and full of juice. Therefore, it is described by many consumers as "the coffee that is least like coffee". If you don’t usually like the bitter taste of traditional coffee, Oiran may change your impression of coffee.
Front Street Kenyan Cherry Tomatoes
Kenyan beans have always been known for their bright acidity and complex flavor, and this cherry tomato is one of the most recognizable. It comes from the Thika production area in Kenya, planted at an altitude of 1550-1750 meters. It uses the local classic SL28 and SL34 varieties, with 72 hours of double washing and fermentation. It is lightly roasted in the front street to retain the lively acidity. From the dry aroma, you can smell the rich aroma of dried small tomatoes and flowers. In the mouth, there is a clear flavor of cherry tomatoes and ebony plums. The acidity is bright and solid, as full as freshly squeezed juice. The sweetness is prominent in the middle, and the finish is clean and long, with a little sweetness of brown sugar and green tea. The overall balance of sourness and sweetness.
front street esse kafa forest
The Kaffa Forest is located in southwestern Ethiopia and is the native birthplace of Arabica coffee. The word coffee comes from the name of the ancient Kingdom of Kaffa. The wild coffee trees here grow in the rainforest at an altitude of 1,400-2,100 meters. They rely on abundant rainfall and acidic red soil to grow naturally. The coffee produced has rich aromas of jasmine, citrus and wild berries, and is delicate and fresh. If you are interested in the "origin" of coffee, this bean will taste like a story.
How to drink light roasted beans
Lightly roasted coffee beans are a good match with hand brewing, ice dripping, and cold brewing. Italian SOE can also be made, but it is recommended to use a device to extract it first to feel its complete flavor level:
hand flush: The powder-to-water ratio is about 1:15, the water temperature is 88-92°C, adjust the grinding from fine to coarse, and try out your own comfortable sweet-sour balance first.
Ice drop/cold brew: Low temperature and long time extraction will amplify the fruity aroma and sweetness, especially suitable for summer.
Italian SOE: If you want to use light-roasted beans for concentration, it is recommended to confirm the status of the machine and beans first. The extraction parameters of light-roasted beans are quite different from those of dark-roasted beans, so you need to try several times.
Tip: Buy small portions at a time, taste first before stocking up
The flavor of light roasted beans changes quickly. It is recommended to buy small packages of 100-200g at a time and refill after drinking to keep them fresh. For your first try, it is recommended to start with Yirgacheffe Dingding or Oiran. One is warm and the other is bold. After drinking it, your understanding of light roasting will be basically established.
Light roasted coffee is not as "cold" as you might imagine. It just uses a different method to deliver the flavor of the coffee fruit to you. Next time you're picking out beans, give the floral and fruity scent a chance.
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
