For more specialty coffee knowledge, please pay attention to: Frontstreet Coffee
The world's three major beverages are cocoa, tea and coffee. Among them, coffee has only been introduced to China for more than a hundred years, but it is only in recent years that coffee has developed more and more in China, and the number of people drinking coffee has become larger and larger. FrontStreet Coffee has also grown with it. Every time a friend who is new to the industry can name the beans from the famous producing areas on every continent.
1. Yirgacheffe (Front Street Fruit Ding Ding)
Yirgacheffe is familiar to many friends who are new to specialty coffee. Speaking of Yirgacheffe, it is the Ethiopian coffee beans that everyone is familiar with. As we all know, Ethiopia is the origin of coffee. Yirgacheffe was originally a by-product area under the Sidamo production area. Due to the outstanding production method and flavor of the coffee beans produced in the town of Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia is proud of it and even names beans from other producing areas under the name Yirgacheffe. Therefore, Yirgacheffe is separated from the Sidamo production area and becomes its own group.
Needless to say, the characteristics of Yirgacheffe include rising fruit acidity, clean taste and delicate and elegant floral aroma. Teacher Han Huaizong's description of Yirgacheffe in "Specialty Coffee Science" is very recognized by FrontStreet Coffee. The coffee enters the mouth and flowers bloom. That’s the case with FrontStreet Coffee’s Yirgacheffe Ding.
Front Street.Yirgacheffe fruit penis
Producing area: Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
Cooperative: Guodingding Cooperative
Altitude: 2000m～2100m
Variety: Local native species
Treatment method: water washing method
Flavor: citrus, black tea, floral, cream, caramel, almond
Front Street Guodingding is a bean that, in addition to bringing out the main flavor of Yirgacheffe, can also taste its tea flavor. Coupled with its citrus sourness, it really feels like drinking lemon tea. Friends who like to drink lemon tea may wish to try it.
2. Kenya (Front Street Tomatoes)
Kenyan coffee is the god in the minds of many coffee gourmets and is a pearl of Africa. Kenyan coffee varieties were initially introduced from Bourbon and Kent from India, and later introduced to Jamaica’s Blue Mountain Typica variety and planted in Mount Elgon. The most famous coffee bean varieties in Kenya today are SL28 and SL34. The two varieties were developed through selective research at Kenya’s National Agricultural Laboratory (formerly the Scott Coffee Research Institute).
The SL28 variety is resistant to drought and insect damage, and is suitable for planting in mid-to-high altitude areas. SL34 is suitable for planting in high altitude areas with sufficient rainfall. In terms of flavor, SL28 is very similar to SL34, but SL34 has richer acidity and a richer taste.
The characteristic flavor of Kenyan coffee and the sour blackberry aroma come from not only the phosphoric acid-rich ingredients in the local Kenyan soil, but also from Kenya’s most famous K72 washing process.
K72 water washing process: harvest coffee cherries, peel them and ferment them. After 24 hours of fermentation, wash them with water. Soak in water and ferment for 24 hours, then wash with water, repeat this 3 times. Thus achieving 72 hours of strong fermentation.
FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan Azalea coffee beans use the K72 washing process, which has a brighter, cleaner flavor. Its flavor is fuller.
Front Street Kenyan Cherry Tomatoes
Origin: Thika, Kenya
Treatment Plant: Asali Treatment Plant
Altitude: 1550m～1750m
Variety: SL28, SL34
Treatment method: K72 water washing treatment method
Flavor: Sydney, plum, brown sugar, cherry tomato, brin
3. Brazil (Queen’s Estate, Front Street)
Brazil is the country with the largest coffee production in the world. The cultivation of coffee in Brazil began more than 300 years ago. In the 1820s, a Portuguese captain in Brazil used a beauty trick to win the heart of the wife of the governor of Cayenne, French Guinea, and successfully brought coffee seeds into Brazil.
Due to the low planting altitude in Brazil, between 400 meters and 1,600 meters, and the fact that coffee cultivation in Brazil mostly uses exposure cultivation, the coffee cherries absorb enough heat to mature as early as possible, resulting in Brazilian coffee beans with low density, soft bean quality, and a soft bean flavor. In sharp contrast to the flavor of African coffee beans, the flavor of Brazilian coffee beans: low acidity, strong nutty flavor, sweet chocolate and good mellowness, but with a slight woody and earthy flavor, and the floral and orange aromas are not obvious. The baristas at FrontStreet Coffee often recommend Brazil to friends who don’t like sourness, because Brazilian coffee is lighter and it’s not easy to drink the wild and overbearing sour and orange aroma of African beans.
Brazilian Queen Manor on Front Street
Producing area: Brazil’s Morgiana producing area
Manor: Queen's Manor
Altitude: 1400m～1950m
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Treatment method: Sun treatment
Flavor: Nuts, Buttered Peanuts, Cane Sugar, Fermented Fruit
4. Indonesia (Front Street Golden Mandheling)
Indonesian coffee is familiar to many coffee novices. Among them, Indonesian cat poop coffee is famous for its rare quantity and high price. The most accessible Indonesian coffee to the public is Mandheling.
Mandheling coffee is mainly produced in the Sumatra region of Indonesia. Indonesian Mandheling coffee has a mellow and strong taste and distinctive personality. This unique flavor is related to the processing method of local coffee beans. Because Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia, there is abundant rainfall all year round, and the sunshine time is shorter than that in Ethiopia and Brazil. The sun-drying method is easy to produce fermented beans or moldy beans. In addition, the local economic conditions are limited, and the washing process requires a lot of waste of water. Therefore, Indonesian Mandheling mostly uses the semi-water washing method with local characteristics, that is, the wet planing method.
The wet Hulling method is also called Wet Hulling. The process of wet Hulling is as follows: the coffee cherries are peeled and pulped, soaked in water for 1-2 hours, then rubbed together to remove part of the pectin and dried for the first time. At this time, the moisture content of the coffee beans drops to between 20% and 35%. The coffee beans whose pectin layer has not solidified are collected and sent to the processing plant for a second drying. This step will reduce the moisture content of the coffee beans to about 18%. After the second drying is completed, the sheepskin is removed and dried for the final time until the moisture content is 11%.
Teacher Han Huaizong once described the flavor characteristics of wet-planed coffee beans in a book: "This is also a rare processing method in the world. It creates the special low-acid, thick and stuffy flavor of Mandheling by accident." Front Street has cupped different wet-planed Indonesian coffee beans for many years. The coffee has relatively low acidity, thick taste, and unique flavors such as herbs and spices. However, the disadvantage is that the quality is relatively unstable. Of course, the unstable quality cannot be completely said to be caused by the wet planing method. In most cases, it may be caused by the relatively poor quality of some green coffee beans.
Front Street. Indonesian Golden Mandheling
Production area: Gayo Mountain, Aceh, North Sumatra, Indonesia
Altitude: 1100m～1600m
Variety: Ateng
Processing method: wet planing
Flavor: spice, nut, pine, caramel, herbal, chocolate
5. Panama (Front Street Emerald Red Label Gesha)
Today, Geisha coffee is notoriously expensive. The reason why Gesha is famous is also because of the Emerald Manor in Panama. The Emerald Manor is both the discoverer and promoter of Gesha. Geisha entered Panama in the 1960s, but after more than 40 years of keeping a low profile, it finally won the first place in BOP in 2004 and became famous around the world. It has become a supreme treasure in the eyes of many specialty coffee lovers.
The refined and elegant flavor of the Gesha variety comes from the specific growing environment. Geisha varieties are very picky about the growing environment: high planting altitude, shade cultivation, and fertile soil. It is precisely because of these factors that the Geisha coffee from Jade Estate in Panama on the bean list of FrontStreet Coffee has a distinct floral aroma and delicate and elegant fruit acidity. Such an elegant flavor is one of the reasons why it is popular all over the world.
Front Street. Jade Manor Red Label Geisha
Origin: Poquet, Panama
Manor: Emerald Manor
Altitude: 1700+m
Variety: Geisha
Treatment method: Sun exposure
Flavor: Citrus, jasmine, honey, berry
6. Yunnan, China (Front Street 2013 Yunnan Tiepica)
In China, the history of tea is more than a thousand years longer than that of coffee, and the history of coffee's circulation in China can be traced back to 1870. The history of coffee planting in Yunnan, China is controversial. One says it was 1902; another says it was 1892; and another says it was 1904.
The coffee planting variety in Yunnan was Typica at first, but with the opening-up policy, international brands such as Starbucks and Nestlé moved into Yunnan to promote the cultivation of the Katim variety with strong disease resistance and high yield, but poor flavor. Over time, Yunnan arabica coffee evolved from the former Typica variety to the current Katim variety.
Yunnan coffee planting and production areas are mainly distributed in the southwest of Yunnan Province: Lincang, Baoshan, Pu'er, and Dehong. Lincang borders Pu'er to the east, Dali to the north, Baoshan to the west, and Myanmar to the southwest. The annual average temperature in Lincang City ranges from 16.8 to 17.2℃. There are distinct dry and wet seasons and ample sunshine. FrontStreet Coffee has purchased its own manor in Lincang. In 2021, FrontStreet Coffee produced its first self-produced coffee beans.
Front Street Yunnan Sun-dried Iron Pickup
Production area: Lincang, Yunnan, China
Manor: Yunnan Front Street Coffee Manor
Altitude: 1300m
Variety: Typica
Treatment method: Sun treatment
Flavor: berry, brown sugar, nuts, tea flavor
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
