What's the Best Coffee Beans for Espresso in Automatic Coffee Machines? Will Single-Origin Beans Taste Strange for Espresso?

Recommendations for Choosing Espresso Beans for Fully Automatic Coffee Machines

Having drunk coffee for so many years, even if a shop's quality is excellent and consistent, I would never buy beans from just one store, because every roaster has their own style. Just as a chef's cooking may be superb, you would still tire of one chef's dishes over the long term.

When selecting beans, the cupping score must be above 80 points for specialty coffee, and the beans must be traceable. What is traceability? It means knowing where the bean comes from, what processing method was used, whether it is from Africa, Central America or Asia, whether it is washed, natural or honey processed, and which estate or mill it came from. You need to know the variety — for example Bourbon, Typica or New World — and you need to know the altitude, since higher-altitude beans generally represent better quality. Most importantly, you need to know the roast level. Medium-light roast beans are generally better quality than dark roast beans. With espresso beans, for instance, medium-light and medium roast espresso beans are now generally more expensive across the industry than dark roast ones. Medium-light roast espresso beans are mostly used for Americano and can carry good floral aromas and fruity acidity with regional character, while dark roasted coffee, being made from lower-grade beans, tastes richer and more bitter, suiting it better to milk drinks such as lattes and cappuccinos.

I really wonder whether the people who recommend light roast or single-origin beans for SOE are simply obsessed with drinking aged vinegar.

Add a cheese-foam flavour? Did they drink spoiled milk once as a child and now want to relive their childhood?

If you want to drink these distinctive flavours, it is better to find a reliable cafe. Otherwise, with your clumsy skills or an unstable home machine, all you can make is a cup of sour water.

For home machines I still recommend dark roast beans, which keep better than light roasts. I also suggest buying small packages, because the freshness of the beans determines the intensity of the flavour. When buying online, ask the seller about the flavour window and the resting period. Note that it is not always better the closer to the roast date, but it can't be stored too long either — it's roughly this middle grey area.

For fully automatic machines, just choose big brands such as illy or Lavazza, whose quality stability is high and whose channels are reliable. Once you are more experienced, you can try some espresso blends from Fisher, Seesaw, Minority, FrontStreet Coffee and others. Light roasts and SOE can be skipped — the things even people in the industry haven't figured out are really not suitable for us onlookers.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For a fully automatic machine, the safest path is a dark-roast blend with crema and body to spare. FrontStreet Classic Espresso Blend was made for exactly this: even a beginner on a non-professional home machine can pull a dense, silky shot, which is what every latte, cappuccino and Dirty depends on. Built on the traditional Mamba recipe, it is mellow and rounded, easy for regulars and beginners alike.

If you want a fruit-forward cappuccino, FrontStreet Strawberry Candy espresso blend is the first pick, delivering berry, rose, raisin and fruit-candy aromas. And for those who prefer a fresh, low-bitterness cup, FrontStreet Genlana Geisha SOE uses a natural process and a medium roast, giving the coffee berry, orange and persimmon notes that turn to milk candy when combined with milk.

For the classic cappuccino build, the FrontStreet method is simple: pull the espresso at 20 g of coffee, a 1:2 coffee-to-liquid ratio and a 30-second extraction — a ratio that gives both enough concentration and a relatively complete extraction. Then steam the milk into a thick, dense foam, since cappuccino — unlike a flat white or latte with its pointy latte art — is defined by its thick, airy foam cap and its rich, full-bodied coffee taste.