As the atmosphere of domestic specialty coffee becomes more and more intense, high-quality single-origin beans from various origins around the world are frequently on the menus of many cafes. Not only does each coffee come with detailed traceability information, but many single-origin batches leave a deep impression on people with their unique aroma. For example, the bean menu at the Front Street store has a large blackboard with nearly 50 products listed, ranging from sour to sweet and bitter, fresh to strong, you can choose from them.
In the past, people often only had a few simple blends of beans to choose from when making Italian coffee, and most of them were darkly roasted. The coffee they made had a richer taste and a more single flavor. Nowadays, as there are more and more types of beans to choose from, many friends expressed their desire to try using single-origin coffee beans.SOE, hoping to extract a cup of distinctive espresso.
what isSOE？
Let us review it again. SOE comes from the abbreviation of Single Origin Espresso. When translated into Chinese, it means "espresso made from coffee beans from a single origin". The focus is on the keyword "single origin".
The simple understanding is that when you spend 25 yuan on Front StreetYirgacheffeA cup of espresso made from ration beans is called "Yirgacheffe SOE"; if you use 158 yuan of Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans to make an American style, it is "Blue Mountain SOE American"; if your wallet is very powerful, choose a pack of the most expensive Front Street Jade Red Label Geisha coffee and make it into a latte. This milk coffee can be named "Red Label Geisha SOE Latte".
What kind of coffee beans should I choose to make SOE?
We need to know that whether we use blended beans or single-origin beans, they will eventually have to go through the high temperature, high pressure, and fine grinding extraction conditions of the espresso machine, allowing the hot water to penetrate the coffee powder in just tens of seconds and then become concentrated. In this case, the flavor of the coffee beans themselves will be doubled along with the entire extraction stage.
The most common situation is that when single-origin beans that are roasted too lightly are used, the sourness of the concentrate soars sharply and the aroma is bland; while coffee that is roasted too darkly is extracted, leaving only bitterness and burnt flavor in the concentrate, and the flavor has no personality at all. Therefore, if you want to make a delicious cup of SOE, choosing the right coffee beans must be the first condition. Judging from previous experience, we might as well start from the three aspects of the production area, roasting degree, and processing method of the coffee beans, which can allow us to more quickly confirm the type of SOE that suits us.
Friends who like fresh and sweet tones can first focus on sun-dried items from African production areas, such as Ethiopian ones.Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, and Guji are all relatively representative single-origin production areas currently on the market. The flavor of brewed coffee generally shows a higher sweetness, rich fruit and floral aroma. However, since this type of beans is mostly used in hand brewing, cold brewing, and smart cups, the roasting level is usually light or medium-light. If used directly on espresso, it will easily lead to insufficient extraction, coffee liquid splashing, and thin oil.
For this reason, for customers who like Ethiopian production areas and have the need to make SOE, Front Street specially selected three types of sun-dried single-origin coffee, and adjusted a separate Italian roasting curve for them, and launched them separately.Oiran SOEcoffee beans, chakaSOE coffee beansand red cherry SOE coffee beans.
If you prefer Italian coffee with a rich fruity aroma and rounded sweetness, then high-altitude beans from some Central and South American countries may be your cup of tea. Coffee from countries such as Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, etc. is usually medium roasted in order to present the sweet aroma and caramel texture of the origin/variety, so it is compatible with a variety of extraction methods.
In addition, if you want to maximize the fruity aroma of SOE coffee, you might as well start with single-origin beans processed by sun-drying, honey processing or anaerobic sun-drying, such as Front Streetcolombia japanUsing double anaerobic sun-drying processing, the SOE American style has obvious flavors of blueberry juice, passion fruit, and ripe grapes; the other one also comes from Colombia, butAnaerobic solarizationbig belly buttonMadeSOE latte has the aroma of orange, nuts and toffee.
If none of the items mentioned above are your favorite type, or you don’t like sour coffee, then it’s better to look for items from Asia and South America, preferably items with a medium to deep roasting range. For example, espresso coffee made using Front Street Brazilian Cerato and Colombian Queens Estate beans can exhibit low acidity, not bitterness, and a balanced taste.
How to make something deliciousSOECoffee?
In fact, make something deliciousSOE is not difficult,Just like debugging espresso coffee, the first step in making SOE is still to apply the basic formula of "powder to liquid ratio 1:2" and control the time within 25 to 35 seconds. The grinding degree depends on whether the flow rate can fall within the above time range.
For example, Front Street uses 20g OiranSOEWhen the coffee powder extracts 40g of coffee liquid (18g of coffee powder corresponds to 36g of coffee liquid), if the time is far less than 25 seconds, it means that the grinding degree is too coarse and needs to be finer; if the coffee liquid flows out in about 30 seconds, it means that the thickness of the powder is roughly OK, and there is no need to change the scale.
Since SOE will eventually be made into fancy coffees such as American, Latte, and Australian White, once the espresso is determined, we have to make some fine adjustments to the extraction plan in advance based on SOE's own flavor profile.
If you are using medium/medium light roasted Ethiopian coffee beans, the flavor of the production area is fresh tones such as floral, bright fruit acid, and berry. When it is concentrated, the oil will be thin or even non-existent. At this time, we can add 0.3 to 0.5g of powder to make up for the aroma substances in the coffee. For example, Front Street will use 20.5g of Oiran SOE coffee powder to extract 40g of coffee liquid in 31 seconds as the base. The American style produced can show a refreshing and sweet taste. The coffee concentration of the latte will also be increased, so that you can better feel the aroma of concentration and milk.
When we make SOE from single-origin beans with a fruity aroma and a certain fermentation flavor, the concentration will bring a strong sweet and sour flavor. If we want the American SOE to also show a rich aroma, we might as well increase the concentrated extraction amount by 3 to 5g, which can make it more delicious. Coffee is sweeter and has a longer-lasting finish; if you are making an SOE latte and want to highlight the aroma of single-origin coffee, you only need to reduce the amount of milk. Suppose you originally used 200g of fresh milk, then you can change the amount to 160-180g.
The last common situation is that when using medium-dark roasted single-origin beans, the SOE shows pungent flavors such as tires, hay, smoke, coke, etc., indicating that the concentration has probably been over-extracted, which is why the American latte is so difficult to drink. The way to save it is very simple. Reduce the extraction volume of the coffee liquid by 3 to 5g, which can effectively remove the imperfect aftertaste;
But if your coffee has a light aroma, short aftertaste, and obvious sourness, it meansSOE may be under-extracted, and the grind needs to be slightly finer to extend the extraction time by 2 to 3 seconds to ensure that the coffee concentration is moderate.
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
