Most people's way of preparing beans is: first look at the production area, then read the flavor description, and finally place an order. But this order is not friendly to novices - Ethiopia, Colombia, Guatemala, these place names are just place names if you don't understand them. A more convenient way is to reverse the order: first find out what flavor you like, and then work backwards to determine which production area you should go to. This article talks about the specific usage of the reverse bean selection method.
Decide on your taste first. Think back to the coffee you drank and had a good impression on, and ask yourself three questions: Do you like acidic or non-acidic coffee? Do you like a light tea taste or a rich taste? Do you prefer floral and fruity scents or nutty chocolate scents? Combining the three answers, the taste coordinates are determined. For example, "acid, light, floral and fruity" is a typical picture of African beans; "not sour, thick, nutty chocolate", the answer is basically in South America.
The second step is to lock candidate production areas according to coordinates. For those with more sour, sweet and bright flavors, Ethiopia is the main battlefield: the citrus jasmine from Front Street Yirgacheffe and the tropical fruit notes from Front Street Oiran are both in this range; the berries and black currants from Kenya are more acidic and suitable for taste buds with a high tolerance for acidity. The taste is balanced and mild, and Colombia and Brazil are safe places: nutty caramel, low acidity and smoothness, no matter how you drink it, it will not be abrupt. If the taste is more mellow and heavy, go to Indonesia: Front Street Mandheling’s herbal dark, thick body is the standard answer to the strong coffee taste. Yunnan beans have made significant progress in recent years. The tonality of brown sugar cereals is between South America and Indonesia. It is worth a try from a cost-effective perspective.
The third step is to segment the flavor within the production area. There are also spectrums within the same production area: Ethiopian beans are washed clean and clear, and sun-dried beans have a rich fruity aroma; in Columbia, Front Street Whelan’s nutty notes and Na Linglong’s fruity acid notes follow two different routes. The production area is only the general direction, the processing method and the specific production area are the precise positioning - this is also the advanced use of the reverse bean selection method: from "finding the production area" to "finding the production area and processing method".
The fourth step is to verify the direction by comparison. Buying two or three small bottles of different production areas at a time, and brewing them with the same parameters in succession, the comparative memory of your taste buds will be much deeper than drinking them alone. After three rounds of drinking, your understanding of your taste coordinates will be more accurate than reading a hundred reviews.
The beauty of the reverse bean selection method is that the starting point is your own tongue rather than someone else’s recommendation. The taste coordinates will slowly move with the experience of drinking coffee - half a year ago, someone who loved the acidity of fruit may be obsessed with the calmness of dark roast half a year later. If the coordinates change, just try again. Treating the production area as a map of taste rather than a knowledge test, the task of selecting beans changes from a burden to a pleasure.
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
