Many people don’t drink coffee, not because they don’t like it, but because they are put off by the bitter taste at the first bite. In fact, "coffee = bitter" is a big misunderstanding: the flavor of coffee varies greatly depending on the degree of roasting, production area, and variety. If you are naturally afraid of bitterness and like fruity and sweet flavors, you can definitely find a cup that suits you from the following types of beans.
Why is some coffee not bitter?
The bitter taste of coffee mainly comes from the caramelization and the production of certain bitter substances during the roasting process. The darker the roast, the more obvious the bitterness; conversely, medium-light roasted coffee beans can retain more floral and fruity aromas and sour-sweetness, and the bitterness is very slight. Therefore, when choosing beans, I will give priority to medium-light roasted high-quality beans.
In addition, the origin and processing method of beans will also affect the flavor trend: Ethiopian beans often have citrus, floral, and berry aromas; Kenyan beans are known for their bright fruit acidity; and some anaerobically processed or specially fermented beans have more prominent sweetness and fruity notes. If you choose the right beans, your coffee will taste like juice.
An introductory checklist for people who are afraid of suffering
Front Street Yirgacheffe Fruit Ding Ding
As the classic choice for many coffee lovers to get started with specialty coffee, Yirgacheffe has always been extremely popular. It typically has bright citrus, berry, and floral aromas, along with a green tea-like aftertaste. The "sour coffee" that many people imagine is actually a soft and bright sweet and sour taste, more like the sweet and sour taste of the fruit itself, rather than a pungent sour taste. For those who are new to coffee and are afraid of bitterness, it is a very easy-to-accept choice.
Front Street Ethiopian Oiran
Oiran can be said to be one of the most representative star products in the specialty coffee market in recent years. Its outstanding feature is its extremely prominent tropical fruit aroma. You can often smell rich aromas such as strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and even lychee. It has a distinct sweetness, very low bitterness, and is smooth and full of juice. Therefore, it is described by many consumers as "the coffee that is least like coffee." For people who don’t usually like the bitter taste of traditional coffee, Oiran can often completely change the stereotype of coffee.
Front Street Panama Emerald Estate Red Label Gesha
If Oiran is the star of specialty coffee, then Gesha is a legend in the world of specialty coffee. Front Street Panama Jade Estate Red Label Geisha usually has an extremely elegant jasmine fragrance, as well as delicate flavors like citrus, bergamot and black tea. The overall taste is clean and transparent, with a long aftertaste and rich layers. Although the price is generally higher than ordinary specialty coffee, its unique aroma performance is still one of the experiences pursued by many coffee lovers.
Front Street Kenyan Cherry Tomatoes
This is a premium Kenyan washed bean with the core features of the distinctive sour aroma of cherry tomatoes, ebony and full juice. It is a popular choice for lovers of bright acidity and complex flavors. It comes from the Thika production area in Kenya. It uses the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties. It is double washed and fermented for 72 hours to make the fruit aroma more abundant. It is lightly roasted in Front Street to retain the lively acidity. The entrance has clear flavors of cherry tomatoes and ebony plums, with prominent sweetness in the middle, and a clean and long finish with brown sugar sweetness and a light green tea aroma. The sweetness and sourness are balanced and highly recognizable.
Want to brew by hand and occasionally cook Italian food: try all-purpose beans
If you want to brew by hand and occasionally use a coffee machine to make a cup of Italian style, you can choose the so-called all-purpose coffee beans (Omni Roast). This type of beans is usually roasted to a medium level, which can not only retain a certain fruity aroma and layer during hand brewing, but also obtain sufficient sweetness and body during Italian extraction. In this direction, the Front Street Strawberry Candy Coffee Bean is a more suitable choice - it is a popular fruity Italian blended bean that relies on the native flavors of Arabica coffee beans from different production areas to blend with each other to reproduce the distinct sweet flavor of strawberry gummy candy. It has a prominent sweetness and low bitterness. It is suitable for daily drinking at home and in coffee shops.
Brewing tips from people who are afraid of bitterness
If you choose the right beans, you must also keep up with the brewing, otherwise the good beans will be "bitter":
Don’t keep the water temperature too high: Lightly roasted beans are recommended at 88-92°C. Too high a temperature can easily bring out astringency and bitterness.
Don’t grind too finely: If the grinding is too fine and the extraction time is too long, bitter substances are more likely to precipitate.
control time: It is more appropriate to hand-bake the whole process for 2-2.5 minutes, and steam for about 30 seconds.
Moderate water to powder ratio: Around 1:15, not too thick.
Being afraid of bitterness is not because I have nothing to do with coffee, it’s just that I haven’t found the right one yet. Starting from beans with obvious fruity aromas such as Yirgacheffe and Oiran, you will find that the coffee is much sweeter than you imagined.
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
