Top 10 Premium Coffee Beans Recommendation & Guide to Best Drip-Style Black Coffee Brands and Proper Brewing Methods

Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

With the accelerating pace of modern life, people increasingly pursue simple and efficient things. Although coffee shops are everywhere, many people don't have leisure time to visit a café for a cup of pour-over coffee. The emergence of drip bag coffee undoubtedly satisfies coffee lovers who lack time to visit cafés. Drip bag coffee is extremely convenient to use – as long as you have hot water nearby, you can enjoy a cup of black coffee. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the convenience of drip bag coffee has great market potential, making it perfect for home, office, and travel use.

How to Choose a Drip Bag Coffee That Suits Your Flavor?

Choosing a drip bag coffee you like isn't difficult. If you frequently drink pour-over coffee beans, you can directly select your favorite single-origin coffee beans and have the shop grind and package them individually. Of course, if you don't drink coffee often or don't frequently drink pour-over coffee, that's fine too. FrontStreet Coffee can give you a brief introduction to our best-selling drip bag coffee brands.

1. FrontStreet Coffee · Yunnan Huaguoshan Washed Typica Drip Bag Coffee

Region: Baoshan, Yunnan

Altitude: 1200 meters

Variety: Typica

Processing: Washed

Flavor: Rich fruit aroma on entry, melon, mid-palate nuts, creamy chocolate, lively and bright plum acidity on the finish.

In FrontStreet Coffee's bean list, Yunnan coffee varieties mainly consist of Typica and Catimor. FrontStreet Coffee has cupped multiple coffee beans from the Baoshan region in Yunnan. FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan coffee flavors tend toward nutty and brown sugar notes, with soft fruit acidity.

2. FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesia PWN Golden Mandheling Drip Bag Coffee

Region: Gayo Mountain, Aceh, North Sumatra

Altitude: 1100-1600 meters

Variety: Ateng

Processing: Wet-hulled

Flavor: Herbal, caramel, thick and clean, high balance, long aftertaste.

The most unique feature of this FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling coffee bean from Indonesia is the rich herbal and medicinal flavor brought by Indonesia's local wet-hulled processing method – a flavor that regular washed and natural processing don't provide. Regular Mandheling only goes through simple screening processes, while this FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling coffee bean undergoes three strict manual screenings to ensure uniform bean size. This year's new harvest FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling coffee beans have a very clean and thick mouthfeel with high sweetness, making them perfect for coffee lovers who prefer low acidity and rich body.

3. FrontStreet Coffee · Honduras Sherry Drip Bag Coffee

Region: Marcala region

Altitude: 1500-1700 meters

Variety: Caturra, Catuai, Pacas

Processing: Fine washed whiskey sherry barrel fermentation

Flavor: Herbal, caramel, thick and clean, high balance, long aftertaste.

This FrontStreet Coffee Sherry from Honduras has a very different flavor profile compared to the two coffee beans introduced above. This FrontStreet Coffee Sherry bean has a very high click rate at FrontStreet Coffee shop. You can smell rich fermented wine aroma, similar to whiskey, during brewing. This is because FrontStreet Coffee's Sherry coffee bean uses a special processing method – fine washed whiskey sherry barrel fermentation.

FrontStreet Coffee's Sherry coffee processing uses fine washed sherry barrel fermentation processing. First, hand-picked coffee cherries undergo fine washing, then are placed in sherry whiskey oak barrels for low-temperature fermentation. The fermentation time is about one month, with temperature controlled between 15 to 20 degrees Celsius. After fermentation is complete, they are dried.

As the name suggests, sherry barrels are barrels that previously held wine, so sherry barrel walls retain sherry wine flavor. When coffee is placed in the barrels, during the long fermentation process, the wine flavor slowly seeps into the coffee beans, giving them wine aroma. This is where sherry gets its name.

When tasting this FrontStreet Coffee Sherry drip bag coffee, the front palate has vanilla and cream aromas, with whiskey, berry, and dark chocolate flavors on entry, and a maple sweet aftertaste. Friends who enjoy drip bag coffee with wine aromas shouldn't miss this coffee bean.

4. FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Drip Bag Coffee

Region: Yirgacheffe

Altitude: 1700-2200 meters

Variety: Local heirloom

Processing: Natural

Flavor: Berries, strawberry, lemon, fermented wine aroma

If you've purchased Ethiopian beans before, you'll notice that Ethiopian beans vary in size. As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia has an enormous variety of coffee cultivars, and many wild coffee varieties remain undocumented. Therefore, so many coffee varieties are collectively called local heirloom. Just like large estates where coffee is typically planted with Bourbon varieties, the resulting beans are relatively uniform in size.

Trabocca Company, through long-term procurement of Ethiopian green coffee beans, realized the inconsistent quality of Ethiopian coffee beans made it difficult to increase prices, and coffee farmers had low incomes.

To change this situation, the company launched the Red Cherry Project together with local coffee farmers to solve the problem from the source. By increasing purchase prices for high-quality green coffee beans, they encourage coffee farmers to be more meticulous in every process of coffee bean picking and processing. During the picking stage, they use fully manual picking, selecting coffee cherries with high ripeness. As early as 2007, Dutch green coffee trader Trabocca proposed this idea – when green coffee buyers are willing to pay higher prices for these beans, farmers want higher incomes, and Red Cherry emerged accordingly.

The natural-processed FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans have a thicker mouthfeel than regular washed beans, with acidity leaning toward berry flavors.

5. FrontStreet Coffee · Brazil Queen Estate Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon Drip Bag Coffee

Region: Mogiana

Altitude: 1400-1950 meters

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing: Pulped natural

Flavor: Berries, strawberry, lemon, fermented wine aroma

Brazil's coffee terrain is mainly divided into two parts. Brazilian coffee tree planting terrain mainly consists of two types: the Brazilian plateau above 500 meters altitude, and the Brazilian plain below 200 meters. Combined with lower altitude and abundant sunlight, planted Caturra variety coffee trees are typically directly exposed to the air. FrontStreet Coffee believes this exposure method plays a significant role in forming Brazil's unique flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee bean variety is Yellow Bourbon. After brewing, the coffee tastes distinctly sweet with light lemon aroma, rich nutty flavors, and distinct dark chocolate in the finish. The overall experience is quite rounded – a coffee bean that can represent Brazil's overall coffee characteristics while demonstrating its unique liveliness. This is FrontStreet Coffee's ultimate reason for stocking this FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon coffee bean.

Benefits of Drip Bag Coffee

Compared to instant coffee on the market, drip bag coffee contains no chemical additives. Drip bag coffee places ground coffee powder in sealed non-woven fabric bags. To drink, you hang it on the cup rim and brew with hot water. The coffee grounds can be discarded directly – you need to add sugar and milk yourself. This coffee is completely natural with no additives. Pour-over coffee requires preparing some pour-over equipment, which is more cumbersome compared to drip bag coffee. This also reflects the convenience of drip bag coffee.

Although drip bag coffee is widely popular for its convenience, its optimal flavor period is not as long as pour-over single-origin coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee generally recommends not purchasing too much drip bag coffee at once. The optimal drinking time for drip bag coffee is two weeks maximum. Beyond this time point, the coffee's optimal flavor will diminish.

To keep drip bag coffee powder or packaged coffee powder at optimal freshness, proper storage methods are quite important. Below, FrontStreet Coffee will recommend several storage tips!

Drip Bag Coffee Storage Methods

If long-term storage is needed, recommend placing in a sealed container and putting it in the freezer. Coffee powder is affected by factors such as temperature, humidity, light, or oxygen. When coffee powder is opened and exposed to air, it will gradually oxidize and deteriorate. Therefore, when stored at room temperature in a dark place, try to consume within two weeks. Coffee powder has larger surface area exposed to air, increasing the chance of deterioration. Therefore, whether it's coffee powder or beans, it's recommended to measure required consumption before purchasing.

However, if you can't finish it within a short time, you can place the coffee powder in a sealed container and put it in the freezer to avoid deterioration and extend freshness. However, note that fine coffee powder may also deteriorate due to light exposure from repeatedly opening and closing the refrigerator.

You can portion into different small packages according to each consumption amount. If you don't have sealed containers or containers take up too much refrigerator space, you can also use ziplock bags. But during portioning, seal completely to achieve storage purposes. As long as you portion according to each consumption amount, unused coffee powder won't be repeatedly exposed to air, significantly reducing the chance of deterioration.

Correct Drip Bag Coffee Brewing Method

FrontStreet Coffee's drip bag coffee small package weighs 10g. Tear open the outer packaging bag, take out the drip bag inside, tear open the drip bag opening, pull both small ears and hang them on the cup. When choosing a cup, try to select one with not too wide an opening, otherwise the drip bag's two ears might not hang properly. FrontStreet Coffee uses cups with approximately 8-9cm diameter openings.

Drip bag coffee brewing technique is actually similar to pour-over coffee, just not as rigorous as pour-over coffee. But basically, water temperature, blooming, and circular pouring are still necessary. FrontStreet Coffee's drip bag coffee brewing parameters can reference: water temperature 90°C, bloom for about 10 seconds, bloom water volume consistent with coffee powder amount.

After blooming ends, directly pour water until finished. For more precision, you can also pour in two stages. Pouring volume depends on the selected cup. FrontStreet Coffee chose a 300ml glass cup, pouring in small circular streams, stopping when the cup is 7/10 full.

Many friends feel it's wasteful after brewing drip bag coffee and think drip bag coffee grounds can be reused for multiple brews. FrontStreet Coffee recommends trying not to brew drip bag coffee multiple times after one use, because multiple brews result in very weak coffee flavor and mouthfeel with poor tasting results. Therefore, for good coffee tasting experience, try not to reuse drip bag coffee for multiple brews.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473