If you want to talk about the characteristics of the Front Street store, one of them is the large selection of beans for Pour over(V60) coffee. Although not all the beans on Taobao and Tmall have been moved offline, there are more than 30 kinds at a rough count, and the choices should be considered very rich.Even though there are more than 30 types of beans to choose from, many friends have discovered that coffee with a mainly bitter taste and a so-called "coffee flavor" accounts for less than 10% of them, and the remaining 90% is sour coffee. This has made many friends curious: Why is most of today’s coffee sour? Is it true that good coffee that people say online is sour?These questions were mainly raised by some older guests and friends. Their impression of coffee was that it was burnt, bitter and fragrant. Because before 2000, the taste of coffee was almost always bitter, so they couldn't help but sigh and question such a change.First of all, we need to know that good coffee is not necessarily sour. Front Street believes that there is a certain ambiguity in the sentence "good coffee is sour". Our understanding of good coffee is that it usually means "higher quality". Although it is undeniable that most of the better-quality coffee on the market is sour, there are also some high-quality coffees that are mainly bitter in taste. For example, Front Street in Front Street Bean ListJamaica·Blue Mountain One。Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is a very famous representative of high-quality coffee in the last century, and its taste is mainly bitter. Chocolate, caramel, cream, and nuts are the very classic "coffee flavor" it exhibits.The quality of coffee is not a factor that affects the taste. It is just one of the key points in determining the taste of coffee. Friends who often read Front Street’s tweets should know that whether coffee is sour or bitter mainly depends on the degree of roasting of the coffee beans. When coffee beans are roasted lighter, the coffee is more acidic, and when coffee beans are roasted darker, the coffee is more bitter. The reason why many coffees are sour now is because the roasting degree of coffee is no longer dark roast.In the past, coffee was basically roasted darkly, so the taste was mainly bitter. The reason why dark roasting was the mainstream in the past is because there was no so-called dark and light roasting at that time. People's initial understanding of coffee roasting is just like our cooking, which involves frying the coffee beans until they are cooked.At that time, the standard for roasting coffee was that the coffee beans had to undergo a second burst, which is what we often call the second crack. Beans that have experienced the second crack will, without exception, have a rich burnt aroma and a dark appearance. And this is what people at the time thought coffee should be like.If that's not concrete enough, we can imagine tofu pudding. Before the Internet was developed, most people did not expect that tofu pudding could be made in different ways, such as salty, sweet, spicy, etc. The same was true for people at that time.Of course, Front Street also believes that people at that time had tried to roast coffee lightly, whether it was subjective or accidental. But after all, light roasting was not the mainstream at the time. Just like if you are used to a certain flavor of bean curd, you will think that another flavor of bean curd is not good. People cannot accept coffee with a sour taste.In addition, the quality of the coffee beans at that time was not high, the roasting theory was not that mature, the roasting methods were not so particular, and other reasons. In short, in the past, roasting coffee with a sour taste would be regarded as a failure, inferior, and under-roasted coffee. Therefore, for a long time, the mainstream roasting of coffee was dark roasting.One of the main opportunities that led to the change in everyone's concepts was the release of the concept of "specialty coffee".Ms. Oona KnudsenI believe that some high-quality coffee beans should be picked out individually to shine, and should not be buried in bulk commodities. But I never thought that this approach would indirectly lead to a change in the concept of roasting. Because the quality of coffee has been improved, people have found a "breakthrough point" and developed new ways of playing.And driving the gears of history to turn are the new forces whose ideas have not been affected too much! Front Street I believe everyone has heard of "Nordic Light Baking", right? The degree of coffee roasting at that time was often named after the mainstream roasting degree in a certain region, such as Italian roasting, French roasting, Japanese roasting... Nordic light roasting means that the mainstream roasting in the Nordic region is light roasting.Compared to places such as Italy and France, where the concept is already deeply rooted, the Nordic region came into contact with coffee relatively late, so it is a little younger in comparison, and the concept has not been affected much. Because of this, they were able to break the tradition and become the first places to popularize light roasted coffee.If the Nordic light roasting at that time is judged according to the color value, it is more of a medium roasting level. It has not reached the level of light roasting that we know today, but in the past it was a very, very light roasting level compared with Italian baking.The lighter roasting not only makes the coffee more acidic, but also reduces the burnt aroma of roasting that blocks the flavor of the coffee. As a result, the floral and fruity charm contained in the coffee is revealed, and people begin to drink more flavors from the coffee. It is no longer the same bitterness, but colorful acidity.This kind of taste is very suitable for the public's taste, because people always don't like bitterness. Therefore, in some regions/countries that have not experienced too much bitter coffee culture, coffee that is sour and unlike coffee is more easily accepted by people. Therefore, in these regions/countries, coffee will be roasted relatively lightly. No matter Italian style or single product! Not only because lighter roasted coffee is better accepted by people, but also because it can better show the differences between coffees.But then again, not all coffee beans can be light roasted. Because some lower-quality coffee beans will not be sweet enough, or have an unpalatable flavor defect. If we make this type of lower-quality coffee beans lightly roasted, the former will cause the coffee to have a pungent, sharp sour taste because the sweetness is not high enough, and the latter will cause the coffee to have an unacceptable flavor.Beans like this are more suitable for dark roasting. Dark roasting produces more burnt aroma, thus covering up the defective taste of coffee. In other words, light roasting is also a touchstone. Only beans that meet the conditions and are of relatively good quality can be cooked with light roasting.But again, this doesn’t mean that the saying “all good coffee is sour” is correct. Because the final flavor of the coffee and the degree of roasting used mainly depend on the specific needs! For example, the Front Street Essai Oiran sold in the Front Street Taobao Tmall store has two optional roasting levels. One is a light roast for Pour over(V60), single-origin coffee, and the other is a medium roast suitable for Italian-style production.The former can better highlight the flavor characteristics of Oiran. When we use it for hand brewing, we can taste the aroma of orange blossom, citrus, strawberry, and cream. The taste is mainly sour and sweet. And if you want to use this bean for making espresso, Front Street recommends choosing the latter - medium roast.Because Italian coffee is not only black coffee, but also latte, Australian white, dirty and other fancy coffees with milk added. Only when the coffee is roasted darker will the flavor of the coffee not be easily masked by the milk, so we can taste more coffee flavor from the milk coffee.To sum up, we can know that the reason why many of today's coffees are sour is because these non-bitter coffees are more suitable for public tastes. At the same time, they can better show the differences between different coffee beans and better interpret the regional flavors of each production area. The taste of coffee is not entirely affected by quality, but mainly depends on the needs of the roaster~
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
