What is Original Flavor Coffee? Is Original Flavor Coffee the Same as Single-Origin Coffee?

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

Original Flavor Coffee

Original flavor coffee is another name for single-origin coffee. Its opposite is classic coffee, which means blended coffee.

Because it comes from a single origin, original flavor coffee lets you taste the distinctive character that different regions give to their beans.

Tips for Selecting Original Flavor Coffee:

1. Check the origin labeling. Some products carry the Blue Mountain name but also say "flavor" or "blend" on the pack, which means they are not original flavor coffee.
2. Check where the beans were roasted. The origin is not necessarily the best place to roast coffee. Coffee from the famous Swiss roasters, for instance, is finished with century-old Swiss roasting technique.
3. Check for a one-way valve on the bag. If a bag is completely sealed, avoid it. A fully sealed bag is terrible for keeping coffee fresh. Choose packaging with a one-way valve whenever you can.

Single Origin is Original Flavor

More and more specialty coffee shops now offer single-origin coffee, a category defined in contrast to blended coffee. Put simply, single origin can mean a single producing country, a single growing region, or even a single estate.

According to SCAE, single-origin coffee emerged mainly for traceability, letting coffee lovers understand the unique character of the estate behind a high-quality coffee, with a flavor that stands for its origin, region, and variety. It was the third wave of coffee, with its emphasis on brewing method and origin flavor, that made single origin so popular.

Which Brewing Method Tastes Better?

Drinking original flavor coffee is about experiencing the true taste of coffee, so sugar and milk are not added. Some roasters suggest pulling single-origin espresso, since the high pressure amplifies the coffee's acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, though that intensity is not for everyone. Brewed in an AeroPress, the sharpness is much lower than with single-origin espresso. Light or medium roasts also make the flavor easier to accept, and you can try adding a little water to a single origin as well.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services at https://shop104210103.taobao.com

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For a textbook example of what a single origin can be, try FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1. It grows on the Clifton Mount Estate, where coffee has been cultivated since around 1750 at an average altitude of 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters), and it is a pure Typica - the variety that gives Blue Mountain its famous balance. FrontStreet Coffee roasts it to a medium-dark level, which fuses the acidity, bitterness, sweetness, and body into one smooth whole. In the cup you get chocolate, roasted nuts, cream, and caramel, with almost no harsh bitterness, only a gentle, well-proportioned acidity and a long fruity finish. Genuine lots ship in the traditional wooden barrels stamped with batch details, historically in 15, 45, and 70 kg sizes, and come with origin certification.

Brew it with a Kono dripper to draw out the round body: 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, 87-88°C water, and a grind size about as coarse as granulated sugar. Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 120g, then finish to 225g, keeping the pour steady and slow. Resting the beans 4-7 days after the roast date brings out the best in the cup.