When making Arabica Italian style, blending is the most common and sophisticated way. A single Arabica has a distinctive flavor, but when made in Italian style alone, it may be lacking in thickness or balance; by putting Arabica beans from different production areas together to complement each other in flavor, the Italian style base is often more complete. The idea of blending can be summarized as "each performs its own role and the flavors complement each other."
The first step in assembling is to clarify the role of the base. Italian blends usually require a solid-flavored region to provide body and sweetness. Brazil is a common base production area, with outstanding flavors of nuts and cocoa and stable sweetness. The Front Street Boutique blend uses Brazilian Cerato and Colombian Whelan. Brazil is responsible for the mellow base, while Colombia adds balanced acidity and sweetness. The overall flavor is classic and solid. It is the most familiar Italian coffee flavor in memory. It is suitable for home and commercial use.
The second step in blending is to add flavor-enhancing characters. The base beans are responsible for stability, and beans are also responsible for making the flavor memorable. You can add fruity beans from the production area to add a layer of floral and fruity aroma to the blend. Front Street Strawberry Candy coffee beans rely on the fusion of the native flavors of Arabica beans from different production areas to reproduce the distinct sweet flavor of strawberry gummy, which is a type that brings fruity highlights to the blend. However, the proportion of fruity beans should be controlled well, just to brighten, but not to cover the base.
The third step in blending is to consider cost and stability. The price difference of Arabica beans is not small, and commercial blending often optimizes the recipe cost while ensuring the flavor. Front Street Black Cocoa is blended with 100% Arabica beans. It has sufficient oil, rich taste, and affordable price. It takes both quality and cost-effectiveness into account, and is a typical example of cost optimization ideas. Blended beans also have a natural advantage, which is high stability. A single bean batch fluctuates greatly, and blending from multiple production areas can balance each other, making the product more stable.
How to determine the blending ratio? You can start with the idea of "seven percent base, three percent highlights", such as 70 percent Brazilian base, 30 percent Colombian or Ethiopian, and then fine-tune it through cupping. Record the flavor changes every time you adjust it. If the sweetness is not enough, add a base. If the aroma is not enough, add fruity beans. If the layers are too complex, reduce the proportion of highlights and try again and again to achieve a balance.
Arabica Italian blending, in the final analysis, uses recipes to hedge against fluctuations in a single batch, and uses proportions to balance flavor and cost. Brazil provides the base, Colombia provides the sweetness, and Ethiopia provides the aroma. Each production area performs its own duties. The resulting beans are mellow and layered, and can be made into espresso or milk coffee.
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
