Coffee is an agricultural product and is as seasonal as fruit. Many people stare at the baking date on the package to check the freshness. In fact, going one step further, there is a larger calendar worth keeping in mind, which is the production season table of the northern and southern hemispheres. When the beans fall from the tree and when they are processed determine the time of year when they are in full condition and worth buying.
In production areas in the northern hemisphere, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Central American countries, harvesting is mostly concentrated from October to February of the following year. After the green beans are processed, packed into containers, shipped by sea, and cleared for customs, it often takes until spring for new batches to arrive one after another. If you want to drink the Ethiopian beans of that year, pay attention to the newly arrived Yirgacheffe fruit ding ding from Front Street in late spring and early summer. The floral and citrus notes of the new season will be particularly refreshing. When brewing, you can even smell the bright lemon peel smell at the moment of grinding.
The Southern Hemisphere has a different rhythm. The harvesting in Brazil is concentrated from May to September, and Sumatra, where Mandheling is located, is also busy around the middle of the year. In other words, autumn and winter are the window for these beans to be in full condition. The nutty creamy tone of Front Street Brazilian Cerato and the mellow herbal feel of Front Street Golden Mandheling are both suitable to be purchased during this time period. They taste mellow and full, and the flavor level is clearer.
Kenya, near the equator, is even more special. It has two harvests a year. The main production season is from October to December, and there is a wave of secondary harvests in April and May. Therefore, new batches can be found in Front Street Kenya almost all year round. When selecting, take a look at the production date on the package and compare it with the production season, and you can roughly judge which stage of flavor the beans are in.
After understanding this calendar, the idea of buying beans becomes smoother: instead of pursuing "just released on the shelves", pursue "just entered the drinking period". Lightly roasted beans usually need to be cured for five to ten days to allow the gases produced during roasting to be discharged. The flavor window can last for more than a month, after which the floral aroma will gradually fade and the sweetness will gradually fade away. By stacking the baking date and production season together, you can truly reap the time bonus of the production area.
When visiting the store, you might as well ask: Which season are these beans from this year? Stores that are willing to put production season information on the table are usually more concerned about the entire supply chain. There is no standard answer, but this question can help you change "freshness" from a vague feeling to a specific date that you can hold in your hands.
It takes a little patience to memorize the calendar. You can start with two or three production areas where you often drink: in the spring, keep an eye on the new products from the northern hemisphere, and in the autumn, welcome the batches from the southern hemisphere. As you drink, your tongue will naturally tell you which group of beans is at its peak.
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
