Are Italian Blend Coffee Beans Good for Pour-Over Coffee? Are Blend Coffee Beans Suitable for Pour-Over?

Today's coffee market is booming, and we can enjoy the same coffee beans through various brewing methods, the most common being espresso, pour-over, cold drip, moka pot, and more. Among these, FrontStreet Coffee has noticed that espresso and pour-over are the two most widely used brewing methods. Therefore, some friends might ask FrontStreet Coffee two questions: Can espresso blend coffee beans be used for pour-over? Are FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over single-origin coffees suitable for making espresso?

Understanding Extraction Principles: Espresso vs Pour-Over Coffee

Pour-Over Coffee Belongs to Drip Extraction

In today's era where various single-origin coffee beans "bloom," most coffee shops keep at least one pour-over single-origin coffee on their menu. Pour-over involves infiltrating hot water through ground coffee to release aromatic soluble substances, which is drip extraction.

Basic pour-over coffee equipment includes: a dripper, grinder, serving carafe, thermometer, gooseneck kettle, filter paper to match the dripper, and finally, a digital scale. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's in-store production as an example, we use 15 grams of coffee beans, ground to a fineness where 70-80% passes through a #20 standard sieve, and brew at a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio. The ground coffee is poured into a filter cup with pre-wetted filter paper, then brewing begins with water at 87-93°C, with steady segmented pouring to dissolve the aromatic substances from the coffee grounds.

Espresso is Pressure-Based Extraction

Common Americanos, lattes, and cappuccinos all belong to espresso-based coffees, with espresso as their base. Espresso refers to concentrated coffee extracted from finely ground and appropriately dosed coffee beans using semi-automatic or fully automatic coffee machines, utilizing high temperature and high pressure for short-time extraction. A freshly extracted espresso has a signature crema, which we also call Crema, a "product" of fresh coffee beans extracted under multiple atmospheres of pressure.

FrontStreet Coffee needs to adjust extraction parameters daily based on the condition of the FrontStreet Coffee espresso blend beans used in stores. For example, using 20 grams of coffee grounds to extract 40 grams of coffee liquid in 29 seconds.

Can FrontStreet Coffee's Espresso Blend Beans Be Used for Pour-Over?

As mentioned at the beginning, the same coffee beans can be extracted using different methods, but FrontStreet Coffee needs to remind you of one point: due to different extraction principles, the roasting curves of coffee beans also vary. In other words, when a roaster adjusts a coffee bean, they decide on the roasting degree based on the desired flavor direction. For example, to highlight the fruity acidity of African coffee beans, light roasting is chosen; to emphasize the rich dark chocolate of Brazilian coffee, dark roasting is selected.

Espresso coffee aims more for a balanced, rich texture, often using medium-dark roasts and blending coffee beans from two or more regions to stabilize flavor direction. When extracted via pour-over's drip method, the coffee can easily present a bland, bitter-sweet taste.

Of course, with people's pursuit of coffee flavors, more and more espresso beans with outstanding flavors have emerged. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's store uses "FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Sun Blend," composed of 30% FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry and 70% FrontStreet Coffee Honduras Sherry, with obvious tropical fruit sweet and sour, accompanied by whiskey aroma, vanilla cream, and a clean sweet aftertaste. When made as pour-over coffee, it has citrus aroma, medium-high body, slight fermented wine aroma, and dark chocolate aftertaste.

Can FrontStreet Coffee's Pour-Over Single-Origin Coffee Be Extracted as Espresso?

In recent years, more and more coffees pursuing personalized flavors have emerged, and single-origin espresso has become a signature product for many coffee shops, with friends also buying coffee beans to make at home. Since espresso amplifies flavors many times over, for example, the bright, moderate acidity in pour-over coffee can easily become sharp and sour in espresso, while the rich texture of pour-over coffee becomes quite bitter in espresso. FrontStreet Coffee suggests choosing single-origin coffee beans with moderate roasting, as they're suitable for more brewing methods and have a lower error rate. Below, FrontStreet Coffee uses several different flavor types of coffee beans from our menu as examples for your reference.

1. FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Coffee Beans

This coffee bean, originally used for pour-over drip brewing, exhibits very high sweetness and strong fruity aroma. When extracted as espresso (requiring grind adjustment), the surface has fine crema, leaning toward light yellow color, with berry sweet aroma. The sweet and sour berries combine with caramel for a clean taste. Adding steamed milk presents honey-like sweetness.

2. FrontStreet Coffee Honduras Whiskey Barrel-Aged Sherry Coffee Beans

Medium roasting gives the coffee roasted aroma while preserving berry acidity. The resulting SOE highlights vanilla biscuit and whiskey aroma. Adding milk presents chocolate cream smoothness with an inviting fragrance, overall very soft texture. FrontStreet Coffee's store "FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Sun Blend" uses FrontStreet Coffee Sherry and FrontStreet Coffee Red Cherry in a 7:3 ratio, perfectly blending wine aroma, fruit sweet and sour, and chocolate milk smoothness in one cup.

3. FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Musician Series Mozart Coffee Beans

Anaerobic honey processing retains the mucilage layer for closed fermentation before drying, maximizing the coffee beans' sweetness. This coffee presents rich rose aroma and high raisin sweetness when pour-over brewed. As SOE, it expresses rich tropical fruit and fermented flavor notes.

4. FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans

If the above varieties aren't your preferred flavor type, consider this FrontStreet Coffee Queen Estate coffee bean from the coffee giant Brazil. Medium-dark roasting gives the coffee rich nutty, creamy, and peanut aromas, with a very sweet chocolate aftertaste. The extracted SOE has beautiful, rich crema and is very aromatic when made into milk-based coffee.

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

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473