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Verona Coffee Themed Classroom: Coffee Bean Stories and How to Choose Italian Coffee Flavors

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange for more coffee bean information please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account cafe_style). Starbucks Coffee Classroom arranges wonderful coffee tasting courses every month to share with everyone. Major Starbucks stores will irregularly provide coffee tasting courses for customers. Starbucks has carefully prepared for Starbucks fans

Coffee beverages produced by FrontStreet Coffee can be divided into two main categories: espresso coffee and single-origin pour-over coffee. The most essential component for making espresso coffee is the base, which is espresso. The preparation method involves using hot water at approximately 94°C, passing through finely ground coffee powder under 9 bar of high pressure to extract the coffee liquid. A properly extracted espresso has a distinctive characteristic—the presence of crema, a reddish-brown foam floating on the surface of the espresso, composed of vegetable oils, proteins, and sugars. When FrontStreet Coffee meets friends who are new to drinking coffee, they often ask about the difference between espresso and drip coffee. In fact, the difference can be clearly perceived in terms of mouthfeel. Espresso has a much thicker texture than drip-filter coffee because espresso contains more dissolved substances per unit volume.

Starbucks Caffè Verona is a coffee bean specifically crafted for espresso extraction, an espresso blend made from coffee beans sourced from Latin America and Indonesia. The name "Verona" originates from a small town in northern Italy, precisely where Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" story takes place, highlighting the romantic love theme of this coffee bean. Returning to espresso blend coffee beans, this is a question many people ask when they first start drinking coffee: what are espresso blend coffee beans? FrontStreet Coffee will explain this using the blend coffee beans offered in their store.

How to Choose Espresso Beans: Blend or Single Origin?

The choice of espresso beans will also affect the overall flavor of the coffee. In today's third wave of specialty coffee, more and more cafes offer SOE (Single Origin Espresso) as one of the espresso options. But how should one choose between single origin and blend? What are the respective advantages and disadvantages?

Single Origin

SOE stands for "Single Origin Espresso," translated as single-origin espresso. This concept exists in contrast to blended espresso, which FrontStreet Coffee will introduce below.

Although SOE represents single-origin espresso, FrontStreet Coffee must clarify one point: SOE does not necessarily equal specialty coffee. If single-origin coffee beans with easily identifiable and intense flavors are selected for SOE, it's possible to create uniquely flavored and typical espresso.

The characteristic of "single origin" can also become a disadvantage. If coffee beans with insufficient flavor intensity or unpleasant flavors are chosen, these flaws will be amplified in the espresso, making it easier to detect defects and undesirable tastes. Therefore, stricter requirements are placed on the barista's sensory evaluation and SOE bean selection.

Additionally, FrontStreet Coffee reminds readers that SOE differs from the single-origin coffee we typically drink as pour-over. The roasting difficulty for SOE single-origin espresso beans is also greater. On one hand, to highlight single-origin flavors, the roast level should not be too dark to avoid eliminating too much of the coffee's inherent flavor. On the other hand, to provide the body and better stability required for espresso, a very light roast is also not recommended. Therefore, finding the right balance is the key challenge in roasting SOE coffee beans well.

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, single-origin espresso can better express regional flavors than blends and can create uniquely flavored espresso. Therefore, focusing on this characteristic, FrontStreet Coffee suggests reconsidering the extraction approach and developing an extraction method suitable for that specific espresso bean. When making coffee with SOE as the base, it's necessary to reconsider the ratio of coffee to water/milk to highlight the flavor expression of that espresso.

Blend

Blended coffee, also known as mixed coffee, involves combining various single-origin coffee beans to fully utilize the strengths of each type. Blend beans are made from coffee beans of different origins to create a more balanced flavor profile. FrontStreet Coffee currently has four different flavored blend coffees.

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

FrontStreet Coffee chooses blend coffee precisely because one of its advantages is high stability, allowing for better consistency.

How Does FrontStreet Coffee Choose?

FrontStreet Coffee has chosen blends for their store's espresso offerings. Currently using a Sunflower Warm Sunshine blend, made from coffee beans processed in sherry wine barrels blended with natural-processed Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans. The ratio is 7:3, with 60% Honduras sherry barrel coffee beans providing flavor and body for this blend, while 40% natural Yirgacheffe contributes more aroma and acidity.

Iced Latte Preparation

Using FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Sunshine coffee beans to make iced latte, first let's understand what a latte is.

The "latte" in latte coffee is phonetically translated from the Italian "latte," meaning "milk." Directly translated, latte coffee can be understood as "milk coffee." Every coffee shop has slight differences in the ratio of milk to coffee, bean selection, and extraction parameters. However, generally speaking, latte coffee is a coffee beverage made with a large amount of milk mixed with espresso.

FrontStreet Coffee shares their espresso extraction parameters for iced latte: 18g coffee dose, 36g espresso yield, 28-second extraction time.

Using the above extraction parameters to extract espresso, then pour ice cubes and cold milk into the cup, finally pour the extracted espresso to complete the preparation.

Espresso made with FrontStreet Coffee's Warm Sunshine blend will have prominent liqueur chocolate flavor. When paired with milk and ice cubes to make iced latte coffee, it results in a very smooth texture, lasting chocolate taste with pleasant liquor notes, persistent aftertaste, and noticeable sweetness—perfect for summer cooling.