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

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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 coffee beans from just one store, because every roaster has their own style. Just like how a chef's cooking skills might be superb, you'd still get tired of eating one chef's stir-fried dishes long-term.

When selecting coffee beans, the cupping score must be above 80 points for specialty coffee beans, and the beans must have traceability. What is traceability? It means knowing where this bean comes from, what processing method was used, whether it's from Africa, Central America, or Asia, whether it's washed, natural, or honey processed, which estate or processing plant it came from. You need to know what variety this coffee bean is - for example, Bourbon, Typica, or New World variety. You also need to know the altitude of this coffee bean (generally, higher altitude beans represent better quality), and most importantly, the roast level. Medium-light roast beans are generally better quality than dark roast beans. For example, with espresso beans, medium-light and medium roast espresso beans are now generally more expensive in the industry than dark roast espresso beans. Medium-light roast espresso beans are mostly used for making Americano coffee and can have good floral aromas and fruity acidity with regional flavor characteristics, while dark roasted coffee, due to bean quality, tastes richer and more bitter, making it more suitable for pairing with milk to make lattes or cappuccinos.

I really wonder if those people who recommend light roast or single-origin beans for SOE are just obsessed with drinking aged vinegar?

Adding cheese foam flavor? Did they drink spoiled milk once as a child and now want to relive their childhood?

If you want to drink these distinctive flavors, it's better to find a reliable coffee shop. Otherwise, with your clumsy skills or unstable home machine, you can only make a cup of sour water.

For home machines, I still recommend buying dark roast beans, as they store better than light roasts. I also suggest buying small packages of coffee beans. The freshness of the beans determines the intensity of the flavor. When buying on Taobao, you can ask the seller about the flavor period and bean resting period. PS: It's not always better the closer to roast time, but it can't be stored too long either. It's probably in this middle gray area.

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473