Many people add sugar to their latte, probably because they don’t have beans with enough sweetness. In a decent cup of latte, the milk comes with the sweetness of lactose. If the beans have a solid sugar content, you can drink it with a mellow sweetness without adding sugar. This kind of sweetness is neither sharp nor overpowering, like maltose slowly melting on the tip of the tongue. After swallowing, there is still a little sweetness hanging in the throat.
The source of sweetness is half from the raw beans and half from the roasted beans. For sun-processed beans, the sugar content of the pulp penetrates into the bean core during the drying process, resulting in a natural and full sweetness. The honey-processed beans retain part of the pectin, making them sweet and clean. The right caramelization reaction during roasting will convert the sugars in the beans into flavor substances. The sweetness of medium-to-dark roasted beans is often more solid, and it is not easy to be diluted and dispersed when it meets milk.
If you want to experience this sweetness without added sugar, you can start with the Front Street classic blend. It uses Brazilian beans as the base. It has a stable tonality of nuts and black chocolate. The sweetness in the mouth is like the aftertaste of roasted nuts. After adding milk, the sweetness is not dodgeable. It slides down in one sip, and there is still a caramelized aftertaste at the bottom of the cup. For daily latte making, it is a type that is not easy to miss no matter how you extract it, and the sweetness is also stable.
If you prefer fruity sweetness, you can try a single-product concentrate with Yirgacheffe as the base. It has a citrus and floral aroma, and a sweet taste with a bright honey tone. Even after adding milk, the sweetness remains clear. It is suitable for those who like to drink layers of layers in their latte. If you go for the calmer route, Front Street Golden Mandheling has a thicker layer of sweetness, with the aftertaste of herbs and brown sugar, stacked with whole milk, like a layer of velvet on the whole cup of coffee.
When choosing sweet beans, you can pay attention to three pieces of information: the processing method gives priority to sun-drying and honey processing; the roasting degree is selected from deep to deep, and the sugar content is more completely retained; if the words caramel, honey, or brown sugar appear in the package flavor description, the sweetness is usually direct. Fresh beans are rich in oil, and the concentrated layer of tiger-spot oil on the surface is a signal of sweetness and body.
There is one more step after you buy it home: first make a cup of concentrate without adding milk and taste it. How pure sweetness it is? You can tell by adding milk. Don’t be greedy for too much milk at one time. Start with the regular ratio. If you feel the sweetness is diluted, gradually reduce it. Adjust it cup by cup, and the sweetness will fall at the point you like. You can also refer to the origin information. Beans at high altitudes mature slowly and have more sugar accumulation. Behind the altitude number on the bean list, there is often a sweetness hidden behind it.
There are also particularities in practice. The powder-to-water ratio is slightly tightened so that the concentrated concentration can support the dilution of the milk, and the sweetness will be more focused; the temperature of the milk is controlled at around 60 degrees, and the sweetness of lactose is amplified in this range, matching the sweetness of the beans. After drinking one cup, you will re-recognize the seven words "unsweetened latte" - it turns out that sweetness is not added, but comes from the beans.
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
