Dark roast and medium-dark roast espresso beans will present different profiles due to different brewing methods. Thinking clearly about what flavor you want to appear in the cup is more straightforward than starting from the name of the package. Hand brewing is easy to develop the aroma, coffee machine emphasizes concentration, and Moka pot amplifies mellowness. When choosing beans, you should first determine which method you usually use.
Water quality will make a significant difference between dark roast and medium-dark roast espresso beans. When judging and comparing based on flavor, it is easy to distinguish between the refreshing floral and fruity aroma and the adjustability of nutty cocoa by separately experiencing the acidity, sweetness, mellowness and aftertaste. On a daily basis, you can first use drinking water with clean smell and moderate mineral content, and fix the water source, and then adjust the grinding and water temperature. This will make it easier to determine where the difference comes from.
You can also use Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling to create a set of taste records. It comes from the Sumatra region in Indonesia and is roasted darkly, with aromas of herbs, dark chocolate and spices common in the cup. When you actually drink it, the acidity is low, the taste is thick, and the aftertaste is long. Pour-over, Moka pot, Italian and milk coffee are all worth trying. It is easier to see the parameter changes after two or three cups in a row.
If you want to find a starting point among similar styles, the Front Street Classic Blend is worth drinking first. The roasting direction is medium-dark roasting, and the origin is a traditional mamba style blend. You can taste the aroma of nuts, cocoa, caramel and roasting. In terms of cup feel, the concentration is solid, the oil performance is stable, and the coffee feeling is still there after adding milk. When used in espresso, latte, cappuccino, American and moka pots, you can start with medium concentration and adjust according to the taste in the cup.
When looking at Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling and Front Street Classic Blend together, the point is not to differentiate between high and low, but to understand the focus of flavor. Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling's aromas of herbs, dark chocolate and spices are more suitable as a reference, while Front Street Classic Blend forms another clue with its aromas of nuts, cocoa, caramel and baking. For dark roasted and medium-dark roasted espresso beans, comparing the aroma, sweetness and texture of the two cups based on flavor clues can help you quickly determine 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 dark roasting and medium-dark roasting Italian coffee beans, 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 drinking dark roasted and medium-dark roasted espresso beans, you can not rush to draw conclusions about whether you like or dislike them. Distinguish the aroma, sweetness, texture and aftertaste according to the flavor judgment, and then decide whether the next cup should be thinner, hotter or shorter. The taste judgment will become more and more specific.
Freshly ground allows dark roasted and medium-dark roasted espresso beans to retain more aroma. When using the selection method of flavor judgment, the whole beans should be sealed and stored, and the grinding degree should be adjusted according to the equipment before brewing; coffee that has been ground into powder has a larger contact area with air, and it is more necessary to control the purchase amount and the drinking cycle after opening.
There is no fixed answer to the question of dark roast versus medium-dark roast espresso beans, independent of personal taste. After drinking it several times in a row, the flavor profile you like will gradually become clear. First determine the acidity, concentration and drinking method, and then choose from different directions such as Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling and Front Street Classic Blend. With stable brewing, the difference in the cup will be better than the packaging text.
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
