Traditionally, in order to highlight the mellow and rich taste of coffee, roasters generally use dark roasting. The deepening of roasting promotes the caramelization of more substances. Therefore, dark roasted coffee usually has rich flavors of chocolate, spices, caramel, cocoa, maple syrup, etc.
In terms of aroma, dark roasted coffee has a bit of chocolate bitterness, low acidity, strong caramel aroma, and spicy, woody, and charcoal flavors. There are many dark roasted coffee beans, such as Indonesia's Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans, Brazil's Front Street Queen's Manor, Jamaica's Front Street Blue Mountain, Colombia's Front Street Whelan... They are all popular dark roasted single-origin coffees that are very popular among people.
How to make delicious dark roast coffee?
In order to explain the brewing method in more detail, this time I chose the very cost-effective Ration Coffee Front Street Queen’s Manor. Because it uses medium-dark roasting, it retains the sweetness like sugar cane without losing the flavor of roasted nuts, cocoa, and cream. The hand-brew parameters are as follows:
1. Pink to water ratio
When Front Street brews dark roasted coffee, the ratio will be adjusted between 1:14 and 1:15. Once the amount of water exceeds 15, the concentration will be diluted and the taste will be thin. Therefore, it is most appropriate to control the ratio of the product to 1:15.
Because everyone has different perceptions of texture, taste, and concentration, if you feel that the ratio is still too light and the taste is thin, you can still reduce the water ratio to 1:13-1:14. Or, there may be a problem with time control.
2. Brewing time
Front Street brews dark roasted coffee using white granulated sugar, which corresponds to a Chinese No. 20 sieve screening rate of 75%. The final brewing time for a pot of coffee should be about 2 minutes.
But if you change the ratio several times and the dark roast coffee you brew is still thin, then it is most likely under-extraction. At this time, you can observe the brewing time. If more than 15g of beans are used and the brewing time is about 1 minute and 30 seconds, it is likely that the beans are ground too coarsely, causing the water to flow too fast.
So! We can finer the grind and control the brewing time to 2:00-2:30, so that the coffee can be more fully extracted and the taste will naturally be fuller~
3. Filter cup selection
Front Street uses a kono filter cup instead of the common V60 filter cup when brewing dark roasted beans. This is because the guide rib design of the V60 filter cup allows the water to drain faster, making it more suitable for medium-light roasted coffee. Because they need to be ground finer to allow the extracted flavor to show more layers, if the extraction speed of the filter cup is slow, it is very easy to over-extract. Therefore, the V60 filter cup with fast water discharge speed is more suitable for brewing medium-light roasted coffee beans.
Dark roasted coffee beans have a looser texture and higher extraction efficiency (it is easier to extract aromatic substances), so they need to be ground coarser than medium and light roasts to reduce their extraction efficiency (to prevent over-extraction). At this moment, if you use the V60 filter cup with a relatively fast water discharge speed, it will easily lead to insufficient extraction.
The diversion ribs of the kono filter cup are only distributed in the lower part. The effect of this design is to reduce the water discharge speed and extend the soaking and extraction time of the coffee powder. That is why Front Street uses the kono filter cup as an extraction device when brewing dark roasted coffee beans, so as to make the extraction more complete and the taste thicker.
4. Water injection method
The water filling method here does not mean the three-stage or one-shot brewing method, but it means that when filling the water, try to avoid the water scouring the cup wall. What will happen if the water column hits the cup wall during brewing?
That's right! The water will flow directly down along the wall of the cup. What falls into the lower pot is not the extracted coffee liquid but ordinary hot water. While reducing the extraction, it also dilutes the other coffee liquid in the lower pot, making the taste thinner. Therefore, when filling the water in a circle, try to avoid rinsing the cup wall multiple times to ensure a satisfactory taste~
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
