For more knowledge about specialty coffee, please pay attention to: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee）
Espresso coffee has a thicker texture and richer oil than drip coffee. Making high-quality espresso coffee is inseparable from good espresso beans. Generally speaking, espresso coffee beans are blended with coffee from several origins to achieve a balanced flavor. FrontStreet Coffee will introduce you to several Italian blended coffees.
What is a coffee blend?
Blend coffee, also known as blended coffee and espresso beans, is to mix various single-origin coffee beans together to fully bring out the advantages of various single-origin coffee beans. The blended beans are mixed from coffee beans from different origins to create a more balanced taste. For example, if a kind of coffee bean is smooth but lacks aroma, you can add another bean with rich aroma. The advantages of individual coffee beans can be used to complement each other and complement or enhance the taste, thereby creating a new and richer taste of coffee. Sometimes the beans are mixed first and then roasted, which is called raw blending; sometimes the coffee beans are roasted and then mixed, which is called cooked blending.
Whether it is pre-mixed green beans, or individually roasted and then blended. Both methods are acceptable depending on the characteristics of the coffee in the recipe. Post-roast blending provides a different degree of roasting for each bean so that each ingredient brings out the best in it.
Before mixing beans, you must first know the flavors of different varieties of coffee around the world. Beans have different characteristics depending on where they are produced. Different coffee beans have different personalities due to different varieties and origins. There are subtle differences in sour, bitter, sweet, aroma, mellow and other flavors. Single-origin coffee beans often focus on showing the unique characteristics of a certain type of coffee. Blended beans are mostly used in Italian coffee such as Espresso, Americano, Latte or Cappuccino. The taste of coffee is more balanced, smoother and more stable. It can be said that the taste is more popular.
So which Italian blend of coffee beans should be chosen for making espresso? Front Street Coffee has listed four different styles of espresso coffee beans for everyone. You can choose according to your own preferences:
1、Front Street Premium Italian Blend Coffee Beans
Colombia: Brazil
Colombia Cymbidium Producing Area
Located in the southwest of Colombia, it is one of the main coffee cultivation areas. Colombia generally has an altitude of 1,500-1,800 meters. Most of the beans are Bourbon and Caturra varieties. They are washed and processed with high density, uniform bean mesh, and full bean shape (bean core to bean surface is thicker). Because the Cymbidium area is dotted with famous coffee cultivation areas, the names of each small area became brand names and circulated. Although the cultivation conditions in the area are also very good, the cultivation infrastructure for coffee cultivation farms and surrounding conditions is not very developed. It is very regrettable that the green bean drying equipment or water-washing processing facilities are not yet complete. The coffee from the Huilan region has a strong taste and a heavier texture. In particular, the coffee from the Cymbidium region can be called high-end specialty coffee with its nutty, chocolate, caramel and other aromas and appropriate acidity.
Brazilian Cerrado region
Brazilian coffee generally grows at an altitude of 1,000-1,300 meters, so its density is relatively low. Most of them are Bourbon varieties, which are processed by semi-sun drying. The water content is moderate, the bean quality is soft, and the thickness from the bean surface to the bean core is thin, so it is not suitable for roasting at too high a temperature. The temperature of the inner wall of the boiler will burn the bean surface, which will cause a burnt and bitter taste. We hope to show the characteristics of nuts, milk chocolate, and good body, and use it as the base for blending, so FrontStreet Coffee adopts a method of adding beans over medium heat, maintaining the fire until the dehydration stage, and fine-tuning as the temperature rises after the first crack begins to promote a more complete caramelization reaction. When the temperature rises to the time when the second crack is approaching, the beans can be discharged.
Front Street Boutique Italian Coffee Blend Flavor: sweet taste. Using medium-dark roasting, when concentrated, the taste will be soft, slightly sour, sweet, and nutty with a sweet aftertaste. The overall feeling is not too exciting, mild, and the oil is medium, meeting the daily needs of coffee shops and family espresso coffee.
2. Front Street Commercial Italian blended coffee beans
Colombia: Brazil: Robusta
Robusta beans have strong resistance to pests and diseases and have high yields. Usually without the acidity of Arabica beans, they often have a woody aroma. The caffeine content of 2.2% is higher than the 1.2% of Arabica beans. The content of chlorogenic acid is also higher and quite bitter. It is usually used in commercial beans and the cost is cheaper than Arabica beans.
In terms of the flavor of individual beans, the taste of coffee obtained from commercial beans is much inferior to that of specialty coffee beans. Generally, commercial beans are selected for blending. After blending, coffee with good taste can also be made, which can be used to make latte, cappuccino and other Italian coffees. FrontStreet Coffee's Front Street commercial blend makes Espresso. Because it contains Robusta beans, the oil will be richer. The taste is classic, with the sweetness of caramel, the flavor of nuts, cocoa, and dark chocolate. It has a balance of sweet and sour, a little bit of sweetness and bitterness, and a long-lasting aftertaste. It is suitable for making daily drinks in coffee shops.
3. Front Street Classic Italian Blend Coffee Beans
Brazil: Mandheling: Vietnam
This is a formula composed of three origins: Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Brazilian red bourbon provides the coffee with nutty and creamy aroma, Indonesian Mandheling presents a mellow taste of spices, caramel, and herbs, and Vietnamese coffee gives the espresso a beautiful golden oil. In order to present the above points, Front Street uses dark roasting, which can maximize the mellow aroma of the coffee and allow everyone to easily extract rich and dense coffee oil.
Flavor blend: Pine, chocolate, caramelIt has a sweet taste, nutty and dark chocolate flavors, is smooth and viscous, but has a light taste. It is suitable for shop owners and home users who prioritize cost and have average taste requirements.
4. Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso Italian blended coffee beans
Different from the previous dark roasted blended coffee beans, this strawberry candy uses medium roasting and is selected from three well-known production areas of Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Colombia. The reason why it is called strawberry candy is because it is composed of two major production areas: Costa Rica Tara beads, which are famous for their honey processing, and Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. On the basis of the sweet and sour fruit flavor, it is paired with Colombian coffee beans with cocoa aroma. In this way, the espresso prepared can not only balance the mellow aroma, but also have good oil and dense texture when extracted by the coffee machine, and at the same time have a sweet and sour taste like strawberry gummy candy.
FrontStreet Coffee chooses Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso coffee beans to make iced latte.
Espresso extraction parameters:
Coffee serving size: 20g
Coffee liquid volume: 40g
Extraction time: 28s
Because iced latte coffee is mixed with a lot of milk, the milk flavor is more obvious.
The espresso made from the Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso used in FrontStreet Coffee stores will have a more obvious berry chocolate flavor. The iced latte made with milk and ice will have a smoother taste, a long-lasting chocolate flavor, mixed with the pleasant aroma of strawberries and raisins, a long-lasting aftertaste, and obvious sweetness, which is very suitable for cooling off in summer.
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
