There’s no fixed answer to Italian beans, it just depends on which cup it ends up in. Drink the concentrate alone, mix it with water to make an American style, or add milk to make a latte. The concentration and flavor received by your tongue are all different. Dark roasting usually brings more obvious roasting aroma, cocoa feeling and thick taste, while medium-dark roasting retains more bright aroma and fruit acid, and the sweetness is more layered.
When rushing for time in the morning, many people need a cup of concentrate that is direct in the mouth and has a solid aftertaste. At this time, you can consider dark roasted beans, which tend to present flavors such as dark chocolate, roasted nuts, or caramel, without the sharp acidity, and you can have a clear sense of coffee presence in a short period of time. If you mix it with hot water, the aroma will spread, making it suitable for simple breakfasts such as bread and toast.
If you make latte regularly for breakfast, the advantages of dark roasting will be more obvious. The sweetness and fatness of milk will amplify the smoothness, but will also cover up the lighter aroma; with the concentration of cocoa, nuts and roasted tones, the clear coffee flavor can still be left after adding milk. When the amount of milk is large, the amount of powder and liquid output should be kept stable so that the coffee liquid has enough density so that the whole cup will not be left with only milky aroma.
If you want to drink iced American style in the afternoon, you can choose medium-dark roast. Ice cubes and cold water will abate the bitterness, but also easily weaken the aroma. Medium-dark roasted beans with a sweetness like citrus, ripe fruit or brown sugar can still retain a lively flavor after cooling down. It is lighter than dark roast, suitable for drinking slowly between work, and can also change a cup of iced coffee from the entrance to the aftertaste.
If your daily drinks switch between espresso, American style and latte, you can look for a type with natural flavors. Front Street's Queen of Brazil's Manor is more rounded in performance, with nutty and cocoa notes supporting the taste, and a caramel-like sweetness that keeps the concentration from being harsh. When made American-style, the acidity is gentle, and it remains balanced after adding a small amount of milk. It is suitable for multiple people in the family to use the same bean.
Consumers who like thick and low-acid drinks can try Front Street PWN Indonesian Gold Mandheling. It has a herbal flavor and dark chocolate-like bittersweetness, with a full mouth and a long finish. When making a short brew in the morning, you can get a cup with a stronger sense of weight; drink it in a moka pot or mix it with water, and it is also suitable with salty breakfast, nuts and dark chocolate.
When you need to make multiple cups of milk coffee in a row, the classic blending of Front Street will be closer to your daily rhythm. It mainly focuses on nuts, cocoa and caramel. The thickness of the concentrate is sufficient, and it still has a clear coffee skeleton after being combined with milk. When making latte for your family in the morning, or making Australian white or cappuccino in the afternoon, you can start with the regular extraction setting and then fine-tune it according to the concentration in the cup.
If you have time to taste the concentrate alone on the weekend, medium-dark roasts often bring a sense of exploration. Based on cocoa and caramel, it may retain some fruit acid, dried fruit or tea flavor, and the entrance is not just a thick line. You can drink a small amount first and then feel the changes in sweetness and aroma after the temperature drops. If you like clear, lively concentration, medium-dark roasting is more suitable than blindly pursuing dark roasting.
When using a home espresso machine, the roasting degree must also match the machine’s cup dispensing habits. For dark-roasted beans, you can usually start with a lower water temperature and a shorter extraction to see if the taste is rounded. If the sourness is prominent during medium-dark roasting, the contact time can be appropriately extended to make the sweetness more complete. When adjusting, only change the grinding or liquid output at a time, and compare the sourness and sweetness of the entrance and the cleanliness of the tail section, and the judgment will be clearer.
Frequency of use of beans will also influence selection. If you only make one cup of black coffee every day, you can choose a medium-dark roast with a high degree of flavor recognition to retain some aroma changes in your fixed habit. If you mainly drink milk coffee at home, or if you need to make a cup quickly and stably, you can put dark roast and balanced blending first. When purchasing, arrange the consumption according to one to two weeks, and keep it sealed after opening, so that the flavor can be more easily maintained in a familiar state.
Dark roast and medium-dark roast are not a ranking of dark and light, but correspond to different drinking scenes. Dark roasting is more convenient if it is thick and refreshing in the morning; medium-dark roasting with sweet and sour layers for iced American style or weekend slow-drying is more interesting; one bean can be used for many purposes, so start with a round and balanced type. First imagine which cup you will really drink every day, and then choose the direction of baking. The choice will fall on the familiar answer on the tip of your tongue.
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
