The coffee brewed by the Moka pot has a concentrated aroma and full taste, which is suitable for those who want to get a rich flavor at home. When choosing beans, you can first imagine when this cup of coffee will appear: drinking alone in the morning, with a snack in the afternoon, made into an American style after a meal, or added with milk to make a latte. Different drinking methods will reveal different characteristics of soybeans. A strong aroma does not mean a single taste.
If you are used to drinking black coffee in the morning, it is recommended to choose medium-dark roasted beans with soft acidity and round sweetness. The Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise has a cleaner aroma after being cooked. It is not overly irritating in the mouth and has a smooth texture with a mild sweetness. It is suitable for drinking directly after being extracted with a Moka pot. You can also add a small amount of hot water to let the aroma spread out and become a long-lasting cup of morning coffee.
If you want a cup of coffee with a sense of presence in the afternoon, you can choose beans with cocoa and roasted aromas. The flavor of Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling focuses on herbal notes, dark chocolate and thick taste. Its low acidity makes it more stable in the moka pot. When the extract is added with water to make an American style, the aroma is still clear, and it goes well with cream cookies and nut snacks.
If you drink it after a meal, the ending of the coffee should not be too sharp. It will be more comfortable with some bittersweetness and mellowness. You can make the moka pot coffee slightly stronger and add hot water according to taste to make the dark chocolate-like texture lighter. Those who like herbal and dark flavors can start with Golden Mandheling; those who prefer softer and sweeter flavors can turn to nuts and caramel-oriented beans.
When entertaining friends at home on weekends, it is suitable to choose a type that has a friendly flavor and is acceptable both hot and cold. Front Street Queen of Brazil has a sweet aroma reminiscent of nuts, cocoa and caramel, with mild acidity, and the liquid cooked in the Moka pot is round and heavy. Drink it directly and you can feel the sweetness after roasting. After adding ice, it still retains the cocoa and nutty tones. It is not easy to lose the coffee flavor when paired with milk.
For those who like milk coffee, the focus when choosing beans is the concentration of the coffee liquid and the penetration of the aroma. Milk will make the taste smoother, but it will also cover some of the delicate aroma, so beans with cocoa, nuts, and caramel tendencies are easier to form a complete cup feel. When making a moka pot latte using Queen's Manor, you can add less milk to allow the sweet caramel aroma to stay in the front part, and the thickness of the coffee itself will be more obvious.
The powder bowl of the Moka pot should be filled and gently scraped flat. The powder layer should be kept loose and avoid pressing hard. The grinding can be set between hand brewing and Italian style. If it is too fine, the liquid will be slowed down, and if it is too coarse, the aroma and concentration will be insufficient. The amount of water in the pot is limited to the bottom of the safety valve. Use low heat to let the heat rise steadily. Pay attention to the color change after the coffee starts to flow out continuously.
If you want the aroma to be more concentrated, you can add hot water to the lower pot, then put the powder bowl and lock the pot body, which can shorten the heating time of the coffee powder. Do not open the lid frequently to check during the heating process. If you hear obvious splashing sounds or see the liquid color becomes lighter, you should remove the heat source. Gently stir the pot of coffee and then divide it into cups. The concentration of the front and back portions will be integrated, making the entrance more balanced.
If the finished product smells great but tastes bitter, you can usually start with heat and grinding rather than replacing the beans right away. Lowering the heat, ending the heating early, or grinding the powder slightly coarsely can reduce over-extraction at the end. If the coffee is too thin, you can check whether the powder bowl is filled enough and the pot body is tight, and then consider grinding slightly finer to slow down the flow of water through the powder layer.
The roasting date and storage state of the beans will also affect the aroma expression of the Moka pot. After opening, it should be placed in a sealed container, away from sunlight, heat sources and humid environments. It is more convenient to buy according to the consumption rate at home to maintain the flavor. Smell the dry powder before brewing, and feel the sweetness and aftertaste of hot drinks and cooled drinks after cooking. You can gradually judge whether you are more suitable for soft nutty, dark cocoa, or thick herbal.
Put the Moka pot into daily life, and the selection of beans will become specific: for morning black coffee, you should look for smoothness and low acidity, for afternoon American style, you should look for cocoa and thickness, and for weekend milk coffee, you need nuts, caramel, and sufficient concentration. Start with the cup that appears most often, and then adjust the intensity with heat, grinding, and water ratio, so that the rich aroma can be stably integrated into your daily drinking habits.
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
