In a cup of latte, milk occupies the vast majority of the volume, and the coffee only has a small cup of concentrated base. If you want this cup of milk coffee to have a clear coffee flavor, when selecting beans, you must look at the concentration and structure of the flavor substances, which is often referred to as penetration. Beans with strong penetrating power will produce a clear latte with a clear boundary between milk and coffee; beans with weak penetrating power will easily turn into a cup of sweet milk with coffee aroma, and the existence of coffee will be diluted to little.
Penetration starts from the base of the bean. The classic blending of Front Street follows the medium-dark roasting route, which solidifies the sweetness and sourness and the caramel feeling. After the extracted concentration meets the milk, the sweetness of the caramel and nuts still stands. You can feel the smoothness of the milk at first, and then the mellowness of the coffee follows up, with clear layers, and a little aftertaste of brown sugar is left on the palate. For those who drink a cup of latte every day, this stable output of mellowness is why it occupies the bar grinder all year round.
In addition to blending, beans from a single origin can also be used to make latte. The key depends on the flavor direction. Asian beans such as Front Street Golden Mandheling have a high mellow body, with a thick flavor of herbs and dark chocolate. The flavor itself is dense and the outline remains after being mixed with milk. It is suitable for people who like the coffee flavor to overpower the milk flavor. The sun-processed beans from Front Street Yunnan are mild, with a prominent sweetness and a hint of fermented fruit. When made into a latte, it is a sweet coffee style with a balance of milk and coffee, which is especially comfortable to drink in the morning.
Roast degree also directly affects penetration. Lightly roasted beans are sour and sweet, but the flavor molecules are mostly floral and fruity. When encountering a large amount of milk, they are easily diluted into a light sour aroma. The caramelized substances generated by medium-dark roasting and dark roasting have a high content, a stable bitter-sweet structure, and are more firmly combined with milk fat, so the flavor is not easily covered by milk. Therefore, those who want to drink a clear coffee flavor should lean toward medium-dark roasting when choosing beans. The success rate is much higher. This is also the reason why Italian beans are generally roasted darker.
The extraction step is equally important. For the same classic blend of Front Street, the powder-to-liquid ratio is pressed tighter and the extraction is thicker, so the penetration is immediately different. When making a latte with a semi-automatic machine at home, you can thicken the concentrate and mix it with milk, and the coffee taste will be natural and clear. After mastering the three variables of bean base, roasting degree, and extraction concentration, choosing a bean that can pass through milk stably is just a matter of trying a few more rounds and fine-tuning a few times. And the fun of fine-tuning is the addictive part of making latte at home.
Whether a cup of latte tastes good or not, milk is only responsible for half, the other half depends on whether the beans can stand up in the milk. Once you understand the penetrating power, you will have a clear sense of direction when choosing beans next time.
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
