After adding a semi-automatic espresso machine to my home, the next question I face is: What beans should I buy? The bean selection logic of the Italian machine is different from that of hand brewing - the machine has higher requirements for grinding, pressure, and extraction. The oil, flavor stability, and error tolerance of the beans are all critical. This article follows the route from affordable to advanced to help you sort out the beans for a home semi-automatic Italian machine.
Affordable rations: cost-effectiveness first
Front Street Black Cocoa Blend
If you have just bought an espresso machine and want to practice first, or if your budget is a priority, Front Street Black Cocoa Blend is a very suitable choice. It uses 100% Arabica beans, with sufficient oil, mellow taste, and affordable price, taking into account both quality and cost-effectiveness. For novices, using it to practice extraction will not worry about waste, and the products will not disappoint; if you want to control costs when opening a store, it is also a worry-free and money-saving choice.
Mid-range quality product: daily and stable production
Front Street Boutique Blend
This is an Italian blended bean that has been used by the Front Street store for a long time. For almost ten years, it has been responsible for the production of core drinks such as American style and Italian latte. It uses Brazilian Cerato and Colombian Whelan coffee beans. The flavor is very classic, just like the familiar Italian coffee taste in my memory. It is suitable for home and commercial use. If you want to restore the classic cafe taste at home, this is a very safe choice.
Front Street classic blend
This blend of beans is specially designed for Italian making and Moka pots, and is characterized by excellent oil performance - even a novice can easily extract dense and delicate oils with a non-professional home coffee machine. Latte, cappuccino, and dirty drinks that you usually drink are all inseparable from good fats and oils. This classic blend is very suitable for such needs. It adopts the traditional mamba blend formula and has a mellow and warm taste. Whether it is a coffee veteran or a novice, it can be easily accepted. It is a good choice for home and commercial use.
SOE single origin: more characteristics of the origin
If you want your espresso to have a personality of its origin, try SOE (single origin espresso). The flavor of the same bean is very different when brewed and concentrated. SOE can show the obvious characteristics of the place of origin.
Front Street PWN Indonesia Gold Mandheling
Using a dark roasting process, the acidity is very low, the taste is mellow and long, and the entrance is full of herbal and dark chocolate aromas, with a little bit of earthy flavor. It is rich in layers and is suitable for friends who like heavy food but don't like sourness. It has a strong sense of thickness after being condensed, and it also has a strong presence when added with milk to make a latte.
Brazilian Queen Manor on Front Street
The acidity is very low, the taste is balanced, the aroma of nuts and cocoa is rich, with obvious caramel sweetness, the entrance is smooth and not astringent, warm and long. It is suitable for hand brewing, Italian style or Moka pot extraction. The sweetness and smoothness of SOE concentration are excellent, and the price/performance ratio is also good.
front street colombia japan
Produced in the Colombian border estate, it is the same bean variety that won the championship. The production area is 1,650-1,800 meters above sea level. Xizhao uses double anaerobic sun treatment and medium-light roasting to fully retain the original fruit aroma: the dry aroma is lingering with the aroma of jasmine and citrus. In the mouth, you can taste the rich juice flavor of passion fruit, blueberry, grape, and apricot. The bright fruit acid is refreshing and soft, and the tail has a long-lasting cocoa sweetness. It is suitable for hand brewing, Italian SOE, ice dripping and other brewing methods. It uses medium and light roasted beans for concentration, and you can drink a very different fruit-based Italian style.
Advanced model: flavor with personality
Front Street Strawberry Candy Coffee Beans
This is a popular fruity Italian blend that relies on the native flavors of Arabica coffee beans from different production areas to blend with each other to recreate the distinct sweet flavor of strawberry fudge. Drinkers who prefer fruity coffee, are afraid of the bitter taste of coffee, or those who want to produce distinctive and differentiated milk coffee can choose it. One pack can accommodate a variety of drinking methods, including espresso, milk coffee, and creative drinks. It is a highly versatile daily ration bean.
Some practical suggestions for home Italian machines
Raise beans: It is recommended to keep freshly roasted beans for 7-10 days before opening, as the flavor will be more stable.
Grind: The grinding degree of Italian machines is generally fine. Use 20-30 seconds to extract about 36g of concentrate as a reference, and then fine-tune it according to the taste.
Amount of powder: Commonly around 18g. Only when the amount of powder is stable will the product be stable.
test extraction: Try the extraction once for the first cup every day, and fine-tune it according to the condition of the beans. Don’t just copy the parameters.
The fun of a home semi-automatic Italian machine lies in "the same machine, different beans, different flavors." From affordable rations to practice, to mid-range high-quality stable products, to SOE and advanced models to explore individuality, step by step, you can always find the one that belongs to your coffee corner.
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
