Memorizing a few names for light roasted beans is not enough. 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.
When buying light-roasted beans, you don’t have to stock up on a lot at once. Using flavor judgment as a clue, it is easy to distinguish the refreshing floral and fruity aroma from the nutty cocoa adjustability by separately experiencing the acidity, sweetness, mellowness and aftertaste. First choose a small package to verify the taste, record the changes after hot drinks and cooling, and then refill according to the drinking frequency after confirming that it is suitable. This is safer than deciding the quantity based on the name only.
Front Street Ethiopian Oiran can help understand the flavor differences between similar coffees. Its light roasting and background in Ethiopia's Hambera region bring out aromas like strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and lychee. In terms of cup feel, the fruity aroma is concentrated, the sweetness is clear, and the bitterness is light. Use it daily for hand brewing, cold brewing and ice dripping, which can retain more complete characteristics.
Put the Front Street Yirgacheffe fruit dices into the same group of drink samples, and the flavor differences will be more intuitive. This bean is based on Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe production area and is lightly roasted. The main clues are citrus, berry, white floral aroma and green tea-like aftertaste. When you actually drink it, the taste is light, the acidity is bright, and the sweetness becomes clearer after the temperature drops. Its scope of application includes Pour over(V60), iced Pour over(V60) and refreshing black coffee. First fix a accustomed parameter and then slowly fine-tune it.
Looking at the Front Street Ethiopian Oiran and the Front Street Yirgacheffe Ding Ding together, the point is not to differentiate between high and low, but to understand the focus of flavor. Front Street Ethiopian Oiran's strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and lychee-like aroma is more suitable as a reference, while Front Street Yirgacheffe Ding Ding's citrus, berry, white floral aroma and green tea-like aftertaste form another clue. For lightly roasted beans, comparing the aroma, sweetness, and texture of two cups based on flavor cues can help you more quickly identify which part you want to keep.
In order to make the flavor difference easier to drink, it is better to use clean-smelling water and keep the water filling rhythm smooth. Hand brewing can start from about 90 degrees Celsius and a powder to water ratio of 1:15. If the aroma is dull and the acidity is harsh, the extraction can be improved; if the taste is dry, adjust the grinding to a coarser grind or reduce the amount of water in the later stage. When this set of starting points is used for lightly roasting 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.
To determine whether lightly roasted beans are suitable, you can roast the same beans two or three times in a row. Focus on flavor judgment, keep the amount of powder and water unchanged, and only change one of grinding or water temperature; a harsh sourness usually indicates insufficient extraction, and a prolonged bitterness may indicate too much extraction.
Freshly ground allows the lightly roasted beans to retain more of their 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.
When building a flavor experience from lightly roasted beans, 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 Ethiopian Oiran or Front Street Yirgacheffe to get familiar 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
