Guest: "What is the roasting level of your (coffee beans)?"
Front Street: "medium light roast"
Guest: “Do you have very light roasted coffee beans?”
Front Street: “No!”
In the world of Chinese cuisine, "cooking" is usually the first priority. Most ingredients are cooked thoroughly because we believe that only in this way can the delicious food be "forced" out of them. If dark roast refers to the degree of complete ripeness, then "very light roast coffee" sounds like a medium-rare steak in Western food. We only see its slightly burnt surface, but we don't know what the taste is inside. Today, let's talk about "very light roast coffee" that many people are very unfamiliar with.
Where did "very light roast coffee" first come from?
The term "very light roast" comes from "Nordic baking"（Nordic Roast）”, sometimes called “Nordic light roast” because it first emerged in Nordic countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. It only started to develop in about 2004 and is a specialty roasting school in the current coffee circle.
Nordic roasting is usually applied to single-origin specialty coffee beans from Africa or the Americas. The purpose is to present the "regional flavor" of the coffee beans as much as possible. After roasting, the surface will be yellowish and light brown, and dry without a trace of oil. Ideally, the Nordic light roast can highlight the coffee's bright and lively acidity, delicate floral and fruity aroma, and light and clean flavor, which is often described as "like drinking tea or juice." But correspondingly, this ultimate light roasted bean will show a lighter color, thinner taste, and higher acidity whether it is used to make espresso, hand brew, or milk coffee.
What is the difference between Nordic light baking and traditional baking?
During the roasting process of coffee beans, the "first crack" is usually considered to be a symbol of "ripeness", so they can be released at any time after the first crack. The earlier they are released, the lighter the roasting degree of the coffee beans; the later they are released, the darker the roasting degree of the coffee beans.
Experienced friends basically know that coffee roasting can be divided into three major systems: light roasting, medium roasting, and dark roasting. The color and general taste of coffee beans change with the degree of roasting. Dark roasted coffee is dark brown and tastes a little bitter, such as Front Street Mandheling; light roasted coffee is light brown and tastes more sour, such as Front Street Yirgacheffe; while medium roasted coffee is chestnut color and has a more balanced taste, which can also be said to be bitter, sour and sweet, such as Front Street blackberry. By understanding these three basic roasting styles, we can quickly find the target coffee beans by combining extraction methods and personal taste.
So compared to the conventional baking style (light, medium and dark), can Nordic baking just shorten the heating time? The answer is no, because it does not refer to a certain degree of roasting, but more to a roasting rhythm.
If Japanese-style dark roasting uses low fire, slow pace, and long time to present the strong, mellow, and fragrant coffee, then Nordic light roasting pursues "fast, accurate, and ruthless." Based on the characteristics of a certain coffee, it uses high temperature and high fire to roast the beans in the shortest possible time until they are just right out of the oven, reducing the caramelization reaction and Maillard reaction that occur during roasting. It hopes to retain the lively acidity and clean fruit flavor of the coffee beans themselves, making them more recognizable and at the same time not masked by "bitterness". Therefore, Nordic light roasting not only requires higher quality of green coffee beans, but also requires roasters to have more professional skills, otherwise it will highlight the defects of the beans.
You must know that the transformation of coffee from green beans to mature beans is not simply heating. As the temperature, time and roasting stage change, a series of complex chemical reactions will occur inside the coffee beans, which ultimately directly affects the appearance color, aroma, acidity, sweetness, bitterness, mellowness, oil performance, etc. Therefore, from a professional perspective, Nordic light baking does not simply shorten the time, but also combines equipment, baking parameters, color values, etc. to summarize its commonalities.
Why aren’t there very light roast coffee beans on Front Street?
I don’t know if you have noticed that most of the coffee beans sold in domestic boutiques are medium-light roasts. There are very few coffees that are truly "very light", and Front Street is no exception. As a store that specializes in self-roasted coffee beans, Front Street first targets domestic consumers, especially those who make their own coffee at home. Therefore, the first priority of our production is to ensure that the coffee beans retain their regional flavor and make ideal extraction easier to achieve.
For example, the reason why Front Street Tomato adoptsmedium light roast, because its main notes are the rich acidity of berries, pears, and blackberries, and we hope to enhance the mellowness and viscous texture of the coffee by enhancing the caramel feel, so that whether it is hand brewed, cold brewed, or simply soaked in hot water, it can better show the "Kenya"Flavor".
On the other hand, most people who use espresso machines actually prefer to drink it with milk. At this time, it is obvious that"Extreme" light roasted beans are not their thing. In order to make coffee with a stronger taste and better-looking latte art, these customers have toPrioritize the use of beans with low acidity, full body, and obvious caramel flavor, that is, medium/medium/dark roasted coffee。
Although it belongs to the fruit-acid category like the common medium-light roasted coffee on the market, the ultimate light-roasted coffee has a short development time, a hard interior, and retains a large amount of chlorogenic acid, malic acid, citric acid and other substances. Therefore, when brewing without providing sweet substances, the coffee can easily have a sharp sour taste due to insufficient extraction. This is why many people say that "very light-roasted coffee beans are particularly difficult to brew."
A cup of well-roasted Nordic light roasted coffee can explode in the mouth like a "fruit bomb", giving people a highly recognizable regional flavor, such as the bergamot and jasmine aroma of Gesha, Panama, and the sweet and sour chamomile and apricot of Gesha, Ethiopia. However, if the roasting process is not done properly, the coffee may become "half-cooked", or it may not be roasted at all, and it will taste grassy and astringent. At this time, using "very light roasted" coffee becomes meaningless.
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
