Italian blended beans and SOE start with the actual cup feel. Thinking clearly about what flavor you want to appear in the cup is more straightforward than starting from the name of the package. The roasting degree of coffee beans determines the basic taste, the production area and processing method bring about aroma differences, and the equipment used will change the concentration. Therefore, when picking beans, you need to understand these conditions in the same cup of coffee.
Roasting date also affects the actual performance of Italian blends and SOE. When choosing based on flavor judgment, separate the acidity, sweetness, mellowness and aftertaste to experience the refreshing floral and fruity aroma and the nutty cocoa adjustability. Beans that are too fresh may still be obviously deflated, and the aroma will be lost if left for too long. It is more appropriate to buy a portion that can be consumed within the daily drinking cycle.
To understand Italian blended beans and SOE, you must first know that SOE emphasizes using coffee beans from a single production area or a single source to make espresso, which is different from the blending idea of combining a variety of beans for stability and balance. Select based on flavor clues, first confirm whether the bean can retain the characteristics of the production area in the concentrated state, and then see whether it still has a clear sweetness and aftertaste after being made into American style or milk coffee.
In brewing Italian blends with SOEs, batch differences in single-origin beans are often more noticeable than in regular blends, and grinding parameters may also change over time. When making SOE, you can start with the common powder-to-liquid ratio of one to two, and record the flow rate, sweet-sour ratio, and performance after cooling. If you are going to add milk, you must also determine whether the combination of fruit acid and milk is smooth. When tasting, record the aroma, sweetness and texture separately to make it easier to see the flavor focus of this bean.
Putting the Front Street 2013 Yunnan Sun-dried Tipica into the same group of tasting samples, the flavor differences will be more intuitive. The roasting direction is medium-dark roasting. It is produced in Baoshan, Yunnan. You can taste citrus, caramel, nuts, chocolate and brown sugar. In terms of cup feel, the sweetness is steady, the mellowness is moderate, and the aftertaste is soft. When using it for pour-over, Americano and everyday black coffee, the parameters don’t need to be set too strong at first.
When talking about this type of flavor, Front Street Colombian Hija is one that is often mentioned. It comes from Columbia Divide Estate and is roasted medium to light. The aroma of jasmine, citrus, passion fruit, blueberry and grape is common in the cup. It has soft fruity acidity in the entrance and a cocoa-like sweetness at the end, which is the direct impression it gives. Its scope of application includes hand brewing, Italian single products, cold brewing and ice dripping. First fix a accustomed parameter and then slowly fine-tune it.
When looking at the Front Street 2013 Yunnan Sun-dried Tipica and the Front Street Colombian Hija together, the point is not to differentiate between them, but to understand the focus of flavor. Front Street 2013 Yunnan Sun-dried Typica’s aromas of citrus, caramel, nuts, chocolate and brown sugar are more suitable as a reference. Front Street Colombian Hija’s aromas of jasmine, tangerine, passion fruit, blueberry and grape form another clue. For Italian blended beans and SOE, comparing the aroma, sweetness and texture of the two cups based on flavor clues can help you quickly confirm which part you want to keep.
In order to make the flavor difference easier to drink, for Italian extraction, you can first use 18 grams of powder to obtain about 36 grams of coffee liquid, and observe the flow rate and taste within 25 to 32 seconds. Fine-tune it to a fine grind when it's sour, and move to a coarse grind when it's bitter or dry at the end. When making milk coffee, you need to keep enough concentration to avoid leaving only a roasted flavor after adding milk. When this set of starting points is used for Italian-style blending of beans and SOE, it is also necessary to observe the actual taste based on flavor judgment, and there is no need to mechanically pursue a certain time number.
When building a flavor experience from Italian blends and SOEs, stability is more important than complexity. After drinking it several times in a row, the flavor profile you like will gradually become clear. First, use Front Street 2013 Yunnan Sun-dried Tie Pica or Front Street Columbia Hija to familiarize yourself with a style. Keep the water quality and utensils unchanged, and then gradually change the grinding and temperature. Your daily cup of coffee will become more and more palatable.
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
