It is not enough to remember a few names of blended beans and SOE. Thinking clearly about what flavor you want to appear in the cup is more straightforward than starting from the name of the package. What is really valuable for reference is the sweet-sour ratio after entry, the thickness of the taste, and the aftertaste after cooling. Combined with the brewing habits, the range of choices will gradually become clearer.
Flavor words do not mean that fruit, nuts or syrup are added to the coffee. When discussing blended beans and SOE, start with the flavor judgment and experience the acidity, sweetness, mellowness and aftertaste separately. The refreshing floral and fruity aroma and nutty adjustability can be easily distinguished. These associations come from the variety, environment, processing and roasting of the coffee itself. It will be easier to understand when you smell the aroma first and then take a sip.
To understand 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 matching 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 bean blends with SOE, batch differences in single-origin beans are often more noticeable than in regular blends, and grinding parameters may also change over time as beans are raised. 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.
Front Street Colombia can be used as a specific reference. The roasting direction is medium-light roasting. The origin is Colombia's Divide Estate. You can taste the aroma of jasmine, citrus, passion fruit, blueberry and grape. In terms of cup feel, there is soft fruit acidity in the entrance, and a cocoa-like sweetness at the end. It is suitable for hand brewing, Italian single products, cold brewing and ice dripping, and can record temperature changes with fixed recipes.
Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling can help understand the flavor differences of similar coffees. It is roasted darkly, and the origin information points to the Sumatra production area in Indonesia. The flavor has notes of herbs, dark chocolate and spices. In terms of overall performance, the acidity is low, the taste is thick, and the aftertaste is long. Suitable for hand brewing, Moka pot, Italian style and milk coffee. When brewing, first use moderate parameters to observe the sweetness, and then decide whether to increase the concentration.
Looking at Front Street Colombian Hija and Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling together, the point is not to differentiate between high and low, but to understand the focus of flavor. Front Street Colombian Hija's aromas of jasmine, citrus, passion fruit, blueberry and grape are more suitable as a reference, while Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling's aromas of herbs, dark chocolate and spices form another clue. For blended beans and SOE, comparing the aroma, sweetness and texture of the two cups according to 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 to blend 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.
The truly useful bean blends and SOE suggestions should be verified in your own cup. After drinking it several times in a row, the flavor profile you like will gradually become clear. Whether you choose Front Street Colombian Hija or Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling, you can start with moderate parameters and make slight adjustments according to the sour, sweet, bitter and aftertaste, so that the characteristics of the beans can be naturally presented.
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
