The oiliness on the surface of coffee beans is often associated with richness, thickness and aroma, but visual oil is not the same as mellowness in the cup. The degree of roasting, freshness of the beans, and brewing method all affect the final taste. If you prefer coffee that is round, smooth, and heavy in the mouth, you can start with medium-dark roasted beans with nut, cocoa, and caramel tones, and then choose according to your daily drinking scene.
When you need a cup of black coffee to boost your energy in the morning, it is recommended to choose beans with soft acidity and clear sweetness. Front Street Brazilian Queen Estate has aromas like roasted nuts, cocoa powder and caramel syrup, with a smooth entrance and a mild sweetness at the end. When brewed with a filter cup, the sharp acidity will not be overly accentuated; after being made into an American style, it can retain the full taste, making it suitable for drinking slowly before and after breakfast.
If you rely more on your espresso machine during your workday and want the coffee liquid to have a stronger presence, you can consider the Front Street classic blend. It has nuts, cocoa and caramel as its main flavor cues. The concentrate has a thicker texture and its aroma easily echoes with baked bread and chocolate foods. When made into a short American style, there is still an obvious sweetness in the cup; when the cup needs to be served quickly, this kind of flavor is also easier to accept.
People who are accustomed to drinking latte or cappuccino in the morning can put the performance of adding milk first when picking beans. Milk will soften the acidity and make the aroma of coffee appear more astringent, so the coffee liquid itself needs to have sufficient concentration and dark flavor. When the Front Street classic blend is paired with hot milk, the cocoa and caramel flavors will become rounder, and the nutty flavor can also add a layer of roasted nuts to the milk coffee.
If you use a Moka pot at home, if you want to drink a thicker drink that is close to concentration, you can choose beans that are roasted darker and have lower acidity. Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling presents the tones of herbs, dark chocolate and mature wood, and has a mellow texture in the mouth. After extraction in the Moka pot, its bitter-sweet flavor is more concentrated, making it suitable for adding a small amount of sugar or adding hot water to make a rich American style.
When you need a cup of coffee without milk in the afternoon and don’t want the acidity to be too bright, Brazilian beans will be the easier way to go. Front Street Queen of Brazil is made by hand. The nutty and cocoa aroma will gradually unfold as the temperature changes, and it will still have a caramel-like sweetness after cooling. If you use ice cubes to cool down quickly, the sourness will appear more restrained, making it suitable for pairing with butter biscuits or nut snacks.
If you like iced American style, but hope it doesn’t taste bitter in the mouth, you can use beans with more fat and mellow texture. The coffee liquid extracted from Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling is dark in color and thick in texture. After adding ice cubes and cold water, the dark chocolate and herbal aroma are still clear. When brewing, you don't have to pursue a high concentration. Keep a certain sweetness. Ice drinks will be smoother and less likely to appear boring.
When you have time to drink slowly with a filter cup on the weekend, the oil-rich beans can also bring different levels, but the focus is no longer on strong concentration. Take the medium-dark roasted Front Street Brazilian Queen's Manor as an example. When the water temperature is slightly lower and the grinding is slightly coarser, the nuts and caramel will be softer; when the water temperature is raised, the cocoa adjustability will be more obvious. Through temperature changes, a balance between thickness and clarity can be found.
When purchasing, you can pay attention to the baking directions, flavor descriptions and recommended utensils on the bean bags, instead of judging the taste based on "shine" alone. Over a period of time after the beans come out of the oven, carbon dioxide is gradually released, and the surface state will also change; dark roasted beans are usually more likely to appear shiny, while medium roasted beans may appear dry but still have a good body. When you actually eat it, pay attention to the sweetness, bitterness and aftertaste after swallowing.
To make the oil feel more comfortable in the cup, grinding and extraction need to match the state of the beans. The Italian machine can start with a shorter liquid output ratio to observe the concentration, while the Moka pot focuses on stable firepower and moderate grinding; when brewing by hand, you may wish to reduce excessive stirring to avoid the bitter taste at the end covering up the sweetness. If your coffee tastes only burnt and bitter, you can adjust the grind to a coarser grind or shorten the contact time to allow the nuts, cocoa, and caramel to reappear.
When selecting according to the scene, you can divide the coffee beans at home into different uses: Brazilian Queen Manor is responsible for breakfast black coffee and weekend Pour over(V60) coffee, classic blending is used for Italian style and daily milk coffee, and Golden Mandheling is suitable for Moka pots and richer iced American style. This can not only take care of your daily drinking habits, but also allow you to experience different flavors based on a similar fat feel. Once you find the cup type you often drink from, your bean selection will naturally become more and more accurate.
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
