The ideas for selecting beans in a home semi-automatic Italian machine are similar but also different from those used in commercial scenarios. They are similar in that they all pursue oil and stability. The difference is that the pressure and temperature control of home machines are not as good as those of commercial machines. When selecting beans, you must consider the suitability of the equipment. Grain blended beans are an everyday Italian choice for home use. The bean blend is specially designed for Italian-style production, with excellent oil performance and a mellow and warm taste. The pressure of domestic machines is usually 12 to 15 bar, which is slightly higher than the 9 bar of commercial machines but less stable. The complementary characteristics of blended beans in multiple production areas can compensate for equipment fluctuations. The classic blend uses the Mamba formula, Mandheling gives the mellow layer, Brazil gives the nutty sweetness, and the taste is warm, and a home machine can also extract good oils. The black cocoa is blended with 100% Arabica beans. It has sufficient oil and a mellow taste. The price is affordable, taking into account both quality and cost performance. It is a rational choice for household rations. The exquisite blend uses Brazilian Cerato and Colombian Whelan. The flavor is classic, just like the familiar Italian coffee taste in memory. It is suitable for home and commercial use. Autumn Chestnut is a blend of Honduran Caturra and Papua New Guinea Typica. It has a nutty sweet aroma like roasted chestnuts in the mouth and is suitable for those who like a mellow taste. Advanced SOE is the exploration direction of home Italian style. SOE uses beans from a single production area to concentrate and has distinctive flavor characteristics. Mandheling SOE makes homemade Italian style. It has a rich flavor of dark roasted herbs and dark chocolate, with very low acidity and a mellow and long taste. It is suitable for making milk coffee base. Brazil's Empress Manor SOE makes homemade Italian style. It has a rich aroma of nuts and cocoa, obvious sweetness of caramel, and a warm taste. It is delicious as a latte. Papua New Guinea's Bird of Paradise SOE makes home-style Italian. It is called Little Blue Mountain because its flavor and texture are close to those of the Blue Mountains. It has a clean and pure taste with outstanding sweetness. It is good for American style and latte. The performance of the floral and fruity SOE on a home computer should be looked at separately. The strawberry candies are mixed together to make a homemade Italian style. The sweetness of the strawberry gummies is well retained, and the fruity aroma is obvious when making milk coffee. It is a very unique product. Colombian Xizhao makes SOE, and the passion fruit and blueberry juices are outstanding. However, when the pressure of the home machine is not stable enough, the acidity is prone to imbalance, and the parameters need to be adjusted to produce a satisfactory product. When selecting beans for home use, oil performance should be considered. The pressure and temperature control of home machines are not as stable as commercial machines. Choosing beans with good fat can make up for the shortcomings of the equipment. If there is a production area with outstanding fat in the blended beans, such as Mandheling or some Brazilian sun-dried beans, the whole cup of fat will be guaranteed. When making a latte from beans with good fat, the lines between the milk foam and the coffee liquid will be clearer and the taste will be smoother. The cost considerations for home Italian bean selection are more flexible than those for commercial use. If you consume one or two cups a day at home, your bean consumption is small, so you can choose beans of better quality. A 250-gram pack of blended beans can produce about 14 cups of concentrated beans. At 35 yuan per pack, the cost of each cup of beans is 2.5 yuan. Adding milk is about 3.5 yuan. The overall cost of a cup of latte is less than 5 yuan, which is much more cost-effective than buying outside. SOE beans are more expensive, but it’s worth making a cup once in a while to explore the flavor. The recommendation for selecting beans is to prepare a pack of SOE for daily blending and use it for rations, and switch to an SOE for advanced tasting on weekends. The two lines run in parallel, which saves money and gives you a sense of freshness.
The recommended parameters for home Italian style are to fix the powder volume at 18 grams, the liquid weight at 36 grams, and the time at 25 to 30 seconds. This set of parameters can produce good results on most household semi-automatic machines. Extract a cup every day before opening to confirm whether the parameters are within the target range. If there is any deviation, fine-tune the grinding degree.
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
