It is a consensus that the coffee beans used in Italian coffee are generally roasted darker. Among the roasting levels of coffee, there is a roasting level called "Italian Roast" with an Agtron color value of 25. It is the darkest of the eight roasting levels. Usually, the surface of this type of coffee beans will be coated with a shiny layer of oil.
But today's espresso coffee beans are generally not that dark. For the espresso coffee bean series in the past, the common Agtron color value was 55, which is the "City Roast" among the 8 roasting degrees.
What I’m going to try in Front Street today is how the flavor of espresso extracted from lightly roasted coffee beans will be. What we call light roasted coffee is "Light Roast" and "Cinnamon Roast" among the 8 roasting degrees, which means the Agtron color value is 85-95.
Why didn’t Front Street do this “fun experiment” before? Because Front Street used an old-fashioned coffee machine (the hero who opened the store), it didn’t have many functions, and its performance in extracting light-roasted coffee was not ideal. But now that I have a new coffee machine, there are more manual operations, so I can have fun experimenting!
Three types of beans were tested this time, namely Front Street Oiran (sun-dried), Front Street Guo Dingding (washed), and Front Street Dorothy (enzyme washed). Why are they all Ethiopian beans? Because these beans all show bright acidity when brewing coffee by hand. Only by making Italian style can you find out their commonalities and differences.
The first step is to test the Front Street Oiran coffee beans. If you want to use light roasted coffee beans to extract espresso, please remember to adjust the grinding scale a little finer first. Otherwise you will see the following scenario:
Extraction time 7 seconds: Flow rate is very fast
After adjusting the parameters three times, the extraction parameters of the lightly roasted Oiran were 20g of powder, 8 seconds of pre-soaking, and 35g of coffee liquid extracted at a full pressure of 6bar. The final time was 30 seconds. The espresso exudes a sweet berry aroma and tastes like concentrated juice, with a jam-like sensation accompanied by a stimulating sensation.
Front Street used Oiran to make a hot Americano and a hot latte respectively. The hot Americano exudes an alluring sweet aroma of berries. It tastes like raspberry juice without any bitterness, and the aftertaste is that of passion fruit honey.
The performance of making a hot latte is a bit mediocre. The coffee is basically covered by the milk flavor, highlighting the sweet milk flavor (like baby milk powder).
Then it was Front Street's turn to wash the Yirgacheffe fruit. With Oiran's experience in extraction, Front Street adjusted the parameters once to 20g of powder, pre-soaked for 6 seconds, and extracted 32g of coffee liquid at a pressure of 5bar throughout the process. The final time was 26 seconds. Similarly, Front Street made hot American and hot latte respectively for comparison.
The espresso oil extracted from the washed berries dissipates quickly, leaving only a thin layer of coffee oil before hot water is poured into it. The Hot American also performs well, with rich citrus flavor, smooth and full taste, and a white floral aftertaste. The only drawback is that the aftertaste is slightly shorter.
When made into latte coffee, the performance is not so ideal. The whole cup of coffee tastes very light, and it does not bring out the sweetness of milk like Oiran. It feels like coffee and milk are mutually exclusive.
Finally, we tested Dorothy. Because Dorothy showed the taste of "white peach oolong" when brewed by hand, Front Street also called Dorothy "white peach oolong". Front Street also adjusted the parameters of this coffee. The amount of coffee powder was 20g, pre-soaked for 10 seconds, and the pressure of 6bar was used to extract 35g of coffee liquid. The final time was 29-30 seconds. The resulting espresso exudes a fragrant peach flavor.
Also make hot Americano and hot latte respectively for comparison. Because of the "fruit ding ding" disadvantage, Front Street brewed the coffee directly on hot water this time. Dorothy Hot American Front Street is considered the best tasting of the three beans, with a rich peach flavor, creaminess, and an aftertaste of oolong tea. It's as good as Pour over(V60) coffee.
The performance when made into a hot latte has an unexpected feeling. The whole cup of coffee behaves like drinking light cheese, which is unexpected and interesting.
Judging from the performance of these three lightly roasted coffee beans, they all performed well in making Americano coffee, and they all showed the original flavor of the coffee beans well. However, when latte is blended with milk, the flavor of light-roasted coffee is generally light and easily overshadowed by the power of milk.
For those who want to make espresso coffee with lightly roasted coffee beans, this idea is feasible, but if you want to extract delicious coffee, you need a lot of theoretical knowledge and practice to do it.
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
