SOE is a concentrate made from coffee beans from a single origin or batch, and the flavor in the cup is often more discernible than common blends. Dark roasting can push the nuts, cocoa and caramel side more obviously, while light roasting can easily retain the floral aroma, fruit acid and tea feeling. The choice that truly suits you should start with how you drink it every day, rather than just looking at the label "dark" or "light".
If you need a quick-drinking American cup in the morning, dark or medium-dark roast SOE will be more comfortable. The concentrate itself has a toasty aroma and a thicker taste, and the taste is still supported after adding water. It is not easy to appear thin when paired with breakfast bread, eggs or salty foods. If you don’t like obvious acidity, you can start with beans with cocoa, nut and caramel tones. The sweetness will be rounder as the drinking temperature drops.
If you want to drink a cup of concentrate without added sugar in the afternoon, lightly roasted SOE can bring a more vivid change. There may be a sour and sweet taste like citrus or berry in the mouth, and then it turns to floral, tea or ripe fruit aroma, which is suitable for slowly holding it in the mouth. Such beans are more sensitive to machine status, grinding uniformity and extraction ratio. If you are willing to spend a few minutes adjusting the parameters, you can get a more layered short drinking experience.
If the daily drinks are mainly latte and Australian white, dark roasted SOE is usually easier to form a complete taste with milk. The dark chocolate, roasted nuts or caramel flavor in the coffee liquid will combine with the sweetness of the milk, making it taste thick but not empty. Light roasting can also be used to make milk coffee, but it is more suitable to be paired with a smaller amount of milk to keep the sour aroma of the fruit in the cup; if too much milk is added, the delicate characteristics of the production area may be covered by the soft taste.
When making iced Americano, sparkling coffee or iced latte in summer, you can give priority to light roasted SOE with fresh aroma. Ice cubes will lower the temperature, making the acidity refreshing and the fruity aroma more easily perceptible; if dark roasted beans are used, they will show a steady direction like cocoa, caramel and roasted nuts after being chilled. If you like the taste of juice, you can use light roasting for black coffee. If you like a taste similar to chocolate drinks, you can choose dark roasting and add a small amount of milk.
Front Street Colombian Claw is suitable for trying fruity SOE. In its concentrated state, it will have the aroma of tropical fruits and dark berries. After adding an appropriate amount of ice water, the sweet and sour taste will be more like a glass of refreshing juice. When made into an ice latte, the fruit tone will be wrapped in milk, making the taste softer. For those who want to switch from dark-roast to light-roasted Italian beans, these flavorful beans can make the difference visible.
For those who like delicate floral aromas and usually have time to sit down and drink, try Front Street Panama Emerald Estate Red Label Geisha. Its aroma leans towards white flowers, citrus peel and black tea, and the layers gradually unfold as the concentrate cools. Use a short liquid volume to make a pure concentrate, and the aroma is concentrated; add water to make a small cup of American style, and it will be easier to feel the light tea taste, which is suitable for drinking in the afternoon without milk.
If you more often make iced coffee at home, you can also pay attention to Yirgacheffe Dingding on Front Street. When lightly roasted, it will bring citrus, berry and floral aromas into the concentrated liquid, making the sweet and sour flavor more lively when made into an iced American style. After adding ice and letting it sit for a while, the sourness will converge, and a refreshing aftertaste similar to green tea will appear at the end. It is also suitable for making small-proportion milk coffee, retaining a small amount of milk, so that the fruity aroma and milky sweetness can be retained in the cup at the same time.
After light-roasted SOE enters the Italian machine, it usually needs more complete extraction to release the sweetness. You can start with higher water temperature, finer grinding and longer liquid output ratio. If the entrance is sharp and the texture is thin, it means that the coffee liquid has not brought out the sweetness; if the tail is dry and astringent, the liquid output can be reduced or slightly thickened. Dark roasted beans can use a shorter extraction method to avoid bringing burnt bitterness and dryness into the cup.
When purchasing, you should also look at the machine and habits in the same picture. Semi-automatic machines with temperature control and stable pressure make it easier to try light-baking single products; simple-to-operate household machines or fully-automatic equipment will make it easier to obtain a stable concentration if you choose medium-dark baking. After the amount of beans, liquid output and milk are fixed, then adjust according to the sourness and sweetness of the entrance, the intensity of the aroma and the thickness of the mouth. After a few cups, you can judge which roasting degree is more suitable for your daily life.
Therefore, SOE does not have an answer that can only use a certain degree of roasting. Morning American style, low-milk latte and iced coffee can correspond to dark roast, balanced and light roast respectively. If you want to drink the aroma of the production area, light roast has more room to play. If you want a rich and smooth taste, dark roast is more suitable for your needs. First select beans from the most common drinking scenarios, and then match the parameters with the flavor. The coffee beans can truly serve that cup of coffee every day.
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
