How to Choose Coffee Beans Suitable for Espresso? Must Espresso Use Dark Roast Beans?

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Many people's first encounter with coffee begins with espresso-based coffee beverages. FrontStreet Coffee's lattes and Americanos made from espresso are deeply loved by fans. Many people curiously ask whether espresso must be made with dark roasted beans, what beans would be more suitable for making espresso at home, and whether espresso can only be made with an espresso machine? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss espresso.

What is Espresso?

Espresso coffee is the abbreviation for Italian espresso. Espresso was invented about 100 years ago, in the early 20th century, when Luigi Bezzera from Milan invented a completely new steam-driven coffee brewing system. Because the coffee brewing time is very short, people decided to name it "Espresso," which means "Express" (fast) in Italian.

How to Judge Coffee Bean Freshness

Before choosing any espresso blend, how do we judge the freshness of coffee beans?

First, choose products with clearly marked roasting dates (not expiration dates or best-before dates), reputable brands, and purchase from professional coffee roasters who emphasize fresh roasting. Additionally, excellent coffee packaging bags usually have a "one-way degassing valve" (a small button-like hole on the coffee bag) design to allow coffee beans to release naturally produced carbon dioxide. Point the one-way degassing valve toward your nose, gently squeeze the coffee bean bag, and smell the gas that comes out. If it's a charming, rich coffee aroma, the freshness is fine. Conversely, if it doesn't smell rich enough, or even has a rancid oil smell, it means this package of coffee has long deteriorated and lost its flavor, and you should avoid buying it. Every package of coffee beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee uses one-way degassing valve packaging, ensuring that every package of coffee beans reaches enthusiasts in the freshest state. The reason FrontStreet Coffee emphasizes fresh roasting so much is that over time, after coffee is roasted for more than 50 days, it basically has no aroma left. Some people might ask, is the fresher the coffee the better? Not necessarily - in the first two days after roasting, its aroma is not yet very stable.

For espresso beans, due to medium-dark roasting, the beans contain a large amount of carbon dioxide after roasting. FrontStreet Coffee recommends keeping them in the original unopened package in a cool, moisture-proof place, allowing the coffee beans to rest (the process of coffee beans releasing carbon dioxide) for 7 days from the roasting date before brewing.

Why Use Blended Beans for Espresso?

FrontStreet Coffee recommends using blended espresso beans to make espresso. Why?

Blended coffee, also called mixed coffee or espresso beans, involves mixing various single-origin coffee beans together to fully bring out the strengths of each single-origin coffee bean. Blended beans are made from coffee beans of different origins to create a more balanced flavor. For example, if one coffee bean is smooth but lacks aroma, you can add another bean with rich aroma, taking the strengths of individual coffee beans and complementing each other's weaknesses, either complementing or strengthening in flavor, thereby creating a new, richer taste experience. Sometimes beans are mixed first and then roasted - this is called raw blending; sometimes coffee beans are mixed after roasting - this is called roasted blending.

Whether pre-mixing raw beans or mixing after individual roasting, both must depend on the characteristics of the coffee in the recipe. Both methods are acceptable. Post-roast blending provides different degrees of roasting for each bean, allowing each component to perform at its best. FrontStreet Coffee would like to remind you that before blending beans, you need to first understand the different flavors of coffee varieties from around the world. Beans have different characteristics depending on their origin, which requires the roaster to have a clear understanding of the characteristics of coffee beans from multiple origins to adjust the roasting curve accordingly. Different coffee beans have different personalities due to different varieties and origins, with subtle differences in acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, body, and other flavors. Single-origin coffee beans often focus more on expressing the unique characteristics of a particular type of coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Espresso Blend Selection

FrontStreet Coffee currently has four espresso blend coffee beans available. Next, let's look at the differences between these four blended coffee beans:

1. Sunflower Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend

Honduras Sherry: Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry, ratio 6:4, roasted blend;

Flavor characteristics: Obvious fruit acidity, with a light berry aroma lingering, rich wine and chocolate flavors, and a comfortable sweet aftertaste.

Sherry coffee beans bring rich whiskey aroma and liquor chocolate aftertaste to this coffee, with rich aroma. Natural red cherry brings fermentation sensation and berry aroma to this coffee, with a smooth mouthfeel. Because this warm sunshine blend is packaged in half-pound packages, it's suitable for coffee shops that require special espresso flavors and higher bean quality, or espresso enthusiasts with smaller consumption needs.

2. FrontStreet Coffee Premium Blend

Colombia: Brazil, ratio 3:7, roasted blend;

Flavor characteristics: Comfortable bitter-sweet taste, extremely smooth entry, with a light grassy fragrance, fresh aroma with a slight bitterness, sweet and smooth, with a pleasant aftertaste.

Coffee beans from Colombia's Huila region have pleasant acidity, mellow aroma, moderate acidity, and rich sweetness that is intriguing. Coffee beans from Brazil's Cerrado region have a comfortable bitter-sweet taste with extremely smooth entry. This premium blend coffee is suitable for various specialty coffee shops.

3. FrontStreet Coffee Commercial Blend

Colombia: Brazil: Robusta, ratio 3:6:1, raw blend;

Flavor characteristics: Classic taste, with caramel sweetness, nut and cocoa flavors, dark chocolate flavor, balanced sweet and sour, with a slight bitter-sweetness, and a persistent aftertaste.

Coffee beans from Colombia's Huila region have pleasant acidity, mellow aroma, moderate acidity, and rich sweetness that is intriguing. Coffee beans from Brazil's Cerrado region have a comfortable bitter-sweet taste with extremely smooth entry. Robusta provides rich oils. This commercial blend coffee is suitable for coffee shops and beverage shops of various sizes.

4. FrontStreet Coffee Basic Blend

Yunnan AA: Brazil, ratio 3:7, roasted blend;

Flavor characteristics: With soft fruit acidity, caramel sweetness, nut and dark chocolate flavors, smooth and thick, but with a relatively light taste.

Yunnan's natural conditions are very similar to Colombia's - high altitude, large day-night temperature differences, with a mellow and fragrant flavor type, moderate acidity, rich and mellow taste, uniform particles, high oil content, and with fruity aroma. Its quality and taste are similar to Colombian coffee. Coffee beans from Brazil's Cerrado region have a comfortable bitter-sweet taste with extremely smooth entry. This basic blend coffee bean is suitable for small coffee shops, bakeries, or beverage shops.

Purposes of Coffee Bean Blending

Mixing different coffee beans mainly serves the following purposes:

1. Stable Flavor

Because coffee beans are an agricultural product, even the same type of coffee bean will have different flavors each year. Therefore, mixing several types of coffee beans together solves this problem well, allowing the taste to remain basically consistent each year.

2. Balanced Taste

Espresso machines have a characteristic of amplifying the most prominent flavor characteristic of coffee beans. We almost never use single-variety coffee to make Espresso. Otherwise, if that coffee bean is more bitter, the resulting Espresso will be exceptionally bitter; if it's more acidic, it will be very acidic. Therefore, we need to balance various flavors through blending.

How to Make Espresso?

1. Espresso Must Be Made with an Espresso Machine

When selecting an espresso machine, the main points to observe are: whether there is enough space between the portafilter handle and the drip tray to place your favorite mug. To produce consistent quality espresso, your machine must also be able to provide consistent pressure - standard espresso machines need to generate 9 atmospheres (bar) of pressure. Ideally, the machine should allow you to set different temperatures for different coffees, or at least maintain a stable and consistent temperature. If you want to make milk foam, you must be able to control the amount of steam produced by the machine. For this reason, avoid machines with only single on/off button functions and choose models with traditional control knobs or buttons. These are key factors you cannot ignore when buying the right espresso machine.

2. Grinder Selection

The biggest characteristic of espresso-style grinders is extremely fine grinding, fast speed, large burrs, and uniformity is a hard indicator for judging whether a coffee grinder is good. Espresso-style grinders usually achieve an extremely fine grinding degree that other grinders cannot reach.

Conical burr grinders are most suitable for making espresso. They place conical burrs at the bottom and work with outer ring burrs for grinding. After coffee beans fall from above, they rotate with the conical burrs to pull the coffee beans downward, creating grinding action. Because of this top-down relationship, particles don't need to be pushed out by squeezing. Compared to flat burr grinders, the number of collisions between particles is greatly reduced, so the proportion of fine powder produced by conical burrs is much less than flat burrs, and coffee grinding uniformity is greatly improved. Conical ground particles will be closer to granular, causing the water absorption path of coffee particles to become longer, and the interior takes longer to contact water. Therefore, conical particles will release less soluble substances in the early stages, resulting in concentration that won't be too high in a short time. At the same time, because of the granular shape, even with longer extraction times, the woody parts in the coffee powder are less soluble in water, making it less likely to produce off-flavors and astringency.

3. Distribution and Tamping

Distribution tools can achieve effects of mixing coffee powder, breaking up clumps, and evenly distributing particles, but they also have drawbacks: wasting coffee powder, complex tools requiring certain skills for operation, accompanied by more downward pressure during distribution which may cause internal cracks, only smoothing the surface without guaranteeing consistent distribution and thickness.

Tamping is using a tamper to compact loose coffee powder so that the coffee puck can provide some resistance when facing 9 bar water pressure. If the puck isn't tamped tightly enough, water flows too fast and too freely, and the final espresso will have an unpleasant watery taste; if the puck is tamped too tightly, the puck's resistance is too strong, and the time required for water to penetrate the puck becomes longer, ultimately extracting coffee that is thick and burnt bitter. Generally, just concentrate the force on your arm (15-25kg) and press down once. Gently hold the tamper with your hand, adjust the tamper's handle until it feels like an extension of your arm. Keep your wrist straight and comfortably place the bottom of the tamper handle in your palm. This posture minimizes pressure on your wrist.

4. Coffee-to-Water Ratio

The golden ratio for espresso is 1:2, meaning 20 grams of coffee powder to brew 40 grams of espresso, but the espresso coffee-to-water ratio can vary greatly depending on personal preference and regional characteristics, such as from 1:1 to 1:4. To highlight the whiskey aroma and chocolate aftertaste of FrontStreet Coffee's Warm Sunshine blend espresso beans, single espresso uses a 1:1.4 ratio to extract 20g of coffee liquid, equivalent to the extraction parameters for a ristretto. Double espresso uses a 1:2 ratio to extract 40g of coffee liquid.

5. Extraction Temperature

Making espresso relies on water temperature, pressure, and time to dissolve soluble solid substances from coffee powder. However, if the water temperature is too high or the time is too long, it will cause over-extraction and make the coffee bitter! If the water temperature is too low or the time is too short, it may cause under-extraction and make the coffee thin and sour! Generally, water temperature of about 90-96 degrees Celsius is used for extraction.

6. Extraction Time

Brewing time also affects espresso taste, depending on factors such as different espresso equipment pressure/flow design, portafilter diameter/depth/hole design, dose/grind size, etc. The golden extraction time is between 25-28 seconds, but extraction time is actually a comprehensive expression of tamping, dose, and grind size, requiring adjustment by the barista's understanding of the coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee is currently using a blend of sherry barrel-processed coffee beans and natural-processed Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans to make espresso. Sixty percent Honduras sherry barrel coffee beans provide flavor and body for this blend, while forty percent natural Yirgacheffe provides more aroma and acidity.

FrontStreet Coffee Espresso Extraction Parameters:

Grinder: Fiorenzato 900N
Grind size: 1.6
Pressure: 9 bar±2
Temperature: 90.5~96°C
Time: 20~30 sec
Dose: 20g (double espresso)
Yield: 40ml

Extracted espresso flavor: Smooth texture, medium body, with obvious fruit acidity accompanied by light berry aroma, whiskey aroma, rich chocolate flavor, and a distinct sweet aftertaste.

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