What Coffee Beans Are Best for Espresso? What Factors Affect the Flavor Profile of ESPRESSO?

FrontStreet Coffee's Espresso is a bold coffee beverage made by extracting coffee liquid by forcing hot water at around 92°C through finely ground coffee powder under 9 bars of high pressure. Many customers feel overwhelmed when choosing coffee beans, unsure how to make the right selection. FrontStreet Coffee is here to explore how to choose the right coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Approach to Selecting Espresso Beans

Roast Level: Let's start from this angle. Whether it's single-origin coffee beans or blended coffee beans, we should first pay attention to their roast degree. Espresso is not suitable for lightly roasted coffees. Light roasted coffees retain more acidity and have less oil; if used for espresso, this would result in a sharp, thin coffee. For example, many single-origin coffee beans on the market specifically designed for pour-over coffee are actually not very suitable for espresso.

When purchasing generally, please carefully check the roast degree indicated on the coffee beans or whether they are marked as suitable for espresso machines.

Blended Coffee vs. SOE Coffee

SOE stands for "Single Origin Espresso," which translates to single-origin espresso. This concept exists in contrast to blended espresso. Although SOE represents single-origin espresso, it doesn't necessarily equal specialty coffee. If you select single-origin coffee beans with easily identifiable and strong flavors as SOE, you can create espresso with unique and typical flavors.

At the same time, the characteristic of "single origin" can also become a disadvantage. If you choose coffee beans with insufficient flavor intensity or those with unpleasant flavors, these will be amplified in espresso, making it easier to detect defects and bad tastes. Therefore, more stringent requirements are needed for the barista's sensory skills and SOE bean selection.

Blended Coffee: Blended coffee, also known as mixed coffee, involves combining various single-origin coffee beans to fully leverage the strengths of each individual bean. Blended beans are made from coffee beans of different origins to create a more balanced flavor profile.

Coffee is an agricultural product, so even the same type of coffee bean will have different flavors each year. Therefore, mixing several types of coffee beans together effectively solves this problem. When a particular coffee bean in the blend doesn't meet expected flavor standards in the new harvest season or becomes scarce, it can be adjusted by replacing it with similarly flavored coffee beans.

The advantage of blended coffee lies in utilizing the flavor characteristics between origins to complement each other, forming stable flavors, and it also has significant advantages in price.

FrontStreet Coffee's Espresso Blending Solutions

Depending on the different types of coffee, the resulting espresso beans will have different characteristics in taste and flavor.

1. FrontStreet Coffee's Basic Espresso Blend - Economical and Practical

Formula: Brazil Red Bourbon (70%), Yunnan Small Bean Coffee (30%).

This espresso bean focuses on high cost-performance. FrontStreet Coffee uses a 100% Arabica blend from Brazil and Yunnan, China, ensuring classic nutty cream aroma and black chocolate notes in the extracted espresso while maintaining price advantages. Suitable for personal daily consumption or low-cost coffee bean use, as well as for shop and home users who prioritize cost and have moderate flavor requirements.

2. FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Espresso Blend - Rich Aroma and Generous Crema

Formula: Colombia (30%), Brazil (60%), Robusta (10%).

Considering the diversity of its audience, FrontStreet Coffee selects coffee beans with rich flavors to create a boldly flavored blend. These include Colombian coffee beans with rich nutty chocolate flavors, Brazilian coffee beans with mild bitterness, and Robusta coffee beans known for their rich body and generous crema. This blended coffee has a heavier bitterness and is deeply loved by coffee enthusiasts, meeting daily shop operational needs.

3. FrontStreet Coffee's Premium Specialty Espresso Blend - High-Quality Classic

Formula: Brazil (70%), Colombia (30%).

The traditional classic espresso flavor is characterized by rich nutty chocolate notes. FrontStreet Coffee takes this classic flavor as the taste target for this blend formula. To achieve excellent flavor, high-quality Arabica coffee beans must be selected. FrontStreet Coffee uses Arabica coffee beans from Brazil and Colombia. The balance and nutty notes of Brazilian coffee beans combined with the rich body of Colombian coffee beans give this blend excellent performance. The blend prioritizes both stability and flavor, producing espresso with rich and delicate crema, a full-bodied mouthfeel with nutty主导 tones and subtle fruit acidity. Suitable for specialty coffee use and can also meet daily coffee shop operational needs.

4. FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend - Specialty Coffee Character

Formula: FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry (70%), FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry (30%).

FrontStreet Coffee named this uniquely flavored espresso bean "Sunflower Warm Sunshine." As the name suggests, the aroma of this FrontStreet Coffee espresso blend is as comforting as warm sunshine, with a taste and flavor that will impress you. Primarily featuring FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry coffee beans with rich fermented wine aroma, complemented by the acidity-forward FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans, this creates a rich and aromatic complex coffee.

Espresso Extraction Parameters

Similar to pour-over coffee extraction parameters, espresso places even greater emphasis on extraction parameters. Below, we will analyze coffee dose, brew ratio, extraction time, flow rate, extraction pressure, and extraction temperature.

Coffee Dose

The amount of coffee dose is determined by the capacity of the portafilter basket. Some espresso machine manufacturers provide double basket capacity specifications such as 16g, 18g, 20g, 22g, and so on. These specifications are suggested capacities, with a maximum filling error of ±1g. For example, when using an 18g basket, the reasonable dose range would be 17-19g.

FrontStreet Coffee does not recommend using much less or much more coffee than the basket capacity. The amount of dose affects the density of the coffee puck. Under the same tamping pressure, too little coffee will be relatively loose, leading to faster flow rate and consequently under-extraction. Conversely, the density will be more compact, flow rate will be slower, and it may even be difficult to extract coffee liquid.

Brew Ratio

Espresso uses the ratio of coffee grounds to espresso liquid. Because you cannot calculate how much water was used for extraction, of course, some newer espresso machines install a flow meter at the water inlet to display water volume. The original extraction ratio was the single-shot standard: 7-8g of coffee grounds extracting 25-30ml of espresso liquid. The former is a weight unit, the latter is a volume unit. When density is consistent, the two are equal, but we all know that extracted espresso contains golden crema, and the thickness of this layer depends on the coffee's roast degree and freshness. Therefore, using this measurement method can cause inconsistent results.

That's why the ratio of coffee weight to liquid weight emerged. Generally, it falls between 1:1.5 to 1:2.5, with 1:2 being commonly used, such as 20g of coffee grounds extracting 40g of coffee liquid. The ratio is affected by two factors: one is the dose, the other is the water amount. Too low a ratio will make the coffee taste very rich and heavy, easily bringing bitterness from over-extraction. Conversely, too high a ratio will taste thin and bland, with sharp acidity from under-extraction.

Extraction Time

Time refers to the entire extraction period from locking the portafilter, pressing the extraction button to start extraction, until completion. The factors affecting extraction time are grind size and ratio. The ratio is easier to understand: a higher ratio requires more water for extraction, so the time naturally becomes longer. Grind size affects the coarseness of the coffee grounds, which directly affects the density of the coffee puck. The finer the coffee grounds, the denser the puck after tamping, making it difficult for water to pass through, lengthening the time and easily leading to over-extraction. Generally, the time to extract one shot of espresso is approximately between 20-30 seconds.

Flow Rate

Flow rate is the speed at which the coffee liquid flows down. Our ultimate goal with extraction parameters is actually a flow rate result. For normal espresso, the first drop of coffee liquid should begin around the fifth second after pressing the extraction button, with subsequent flow being relatively uniform. The speed of flow directly reflects whether the grind size and ratio are appropriate. If the first drop doesn't appear until after 10 seconds (excluding pre-infusion), the coffee might be ground too fine or tamped too densely. If the flow rate is too fast or there's spraying, the coffee might be ground too coarse or channeling is occurring.

Extraction Pressure

Generally, semi-automatic espresso machines have extraction pressure around 9 bar, which is determined by the machine's performance. Some newer machines now feature variable pressure extraction. Lower pressure leads to low extraction efficiency, while higher pressure leads to high extraction efficiency.

Extraction Temperature

The water temperature for extracting espresso is generally between 90 to 94 degrees Celsius. If the water temperature is too high, it's easy to over-extract, and the coffee taste tends to be bitter. If the water temperature is too low, it's easy to under-extract, leading to sharp acidity in the coffee.

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Important Notice :

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