What Are the Varieties of Black Coffee? List of Common Coffee Shop Flavors and Types

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Introduction to Coffee Bean Selection

There are countless varieties of coffee beans on the market, coming from different producing regions and origins, which makes many friends feel uncertain about how to choose coffee beans. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss with everyone how to select the most suitable coffee beans for your taste preferences.

The Three Major Coffee Growing Regions

According to the world coffee growing region distribution, they can be primarily divided into three major coffee regions: Africa, America, and Asia. FrontStreet Coffee will introduce you to the general flavor profiles of these three major coffee regions.

African Coffee Region

FrontStreet Coffee will first introduce the African region. African coffee beans are famous for their unique acidity. When discussing African regions, we must mention Ethiopia because Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, and all coffee varieties in the world have spread from here. There are still large numbers of wild coffee tree species in Ethiopia today. Due to the wide variety and the Ethiopian government's protection of these wild coffee trees, they are unwilling to disclose specific information about these varieties, referring to them locally as "Ethiopian native varieties."

Among them, Ethiopia's most famous coffee growing regions are the Yirgacheffe region and the Sidamo region. FrontStreet Coffee has sourced many coffee beans from these two regions, including washed Yirgacheffe coffee beans with primarily lemon and citrus notes, as well as Sidamo region coffee beans with berry acidity. For example, the "Horse" coffee beans that FrontStreet Coffee sourced come from the Sidamo region, and the Horse is deeply loved by everyone for its rich strawberry and cream flavors.

Another African country's coffee beans are also very famous - Kenyan coffee beans. Kenyan coffee beans are also known for their acidity, but Kenyan acidity is slightly different from Ethiopian acidity. FrontStreet Coffee simply explains it this way: Kenyan coffee beans have acidity that tends toward cherry tomatoes, raspberries, and other coffee flavors with fresh acidity. Among them, the Assalia that FrontStreet Coffee stocks is a very classic Kenyan bean, with rich fresh cherry tomato flavor upon entry, and this acidity is very pleasant.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, the African region generally uses the natural processing method for coffee beans. For example, the Natural Red Cherry that FrontStreet Coffee stocks uses the ancient, original natural processing method. This natural processing involves keeping whole coffee cherries with their pulp and skin intact and placing them on raised beds for sun drying, isolating them from ground contact to prevent earthy impurities from direct sun exposure. After more than two weeks of sun drying, the dark brown coffee fruits are stored to await full flavor development. Before shipping, the processing plant removes the coffee beans from the coffee cherries. This natural processing method results in lower acidity, obvious sweetness, body, but less cleanliness than washed processing. The Kenya region generally uses the 72-hour washed processing method for green beans, so Kenyan acidity is relatively clean, tending toward cherry tomato, dark plum, and berry-like mouthfeel. Therefore, everyone can choose their favorite African beans according to their preferred taste.

Latin American Coffee Region

Latin American coffee beans don't have the characteristic acidity of African coffees, but instead feature nutty and chocolate notes. Among American regions, Brazil and Colombia are the two most representative producing countries. Brazil's coffee tree planting terrain mainly consists of two types: Brazilian plateaus above 200 meters altitude and Brazilian plains below 200 meters. They primarily grow Bourbon varieties. Brazilian coffee flavor is characterized by low acidity, nutty flavors, balance, and moderate body. Like FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Red Cherry coffee, it has rich nutty, chocolate, and cream flavors. Additionally, Brazilian coffee varieties are numerous, with processing methods basically dominated by natural processing. The coffee beans produced by Brazil's Queen's Farm are also of very high quality. FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans come from Brazil's Queen's Farm, and Queen's Farm's coffee beans won first place in Brazil's Cup of Excellence competition. Many large and small farms in Brazil feel honored to participate in this competition, but Queen's Farm has won this award for many years, which also shows that Queen's Farm's quality is very high compared to typical Brazilian coffee beans.

This is one of the reasons why FrontStreet Coffee stocks this Brazilian coffee bean. Before stocking this coffee bean, FrontStreet Coffee conducted corresponding cupping and brewing experiments. It has obvious sweetness upon entry, accompanied by a light lemon aroma, contains rich nutty flavors, and displays distinct dark chocolate flavors in the finish. The overall experience is quite rounded, making it a coffee bean that can represent the overall characteristics of Brazilian coffee while also demonstrating its unique liveliness. This is the ultimate reason why FrontStreet Coffee stocks this Brazilian coffee bean.

Because Brazil and Colombia are relatively close in location, people love to compare coffees from these two producing countries. Colombian coffee has balanced flavors and a smooth mouthfeel, much like a gentleman among coffees - conventional and refined. Colombia's Huila region is the most famous coffee producing region in Colombia, belonging to mountainous terrain where coffee is grown on valley slopes with abundant rainfall. Selecting Arabica varieties, the unique natural climate produces coffee with full body, nutty and dark chocolate aromas, and smooth, pleasant fruit acidity. Because Colombian coffee beans are mainly grown on high mountains, their flavors are much better than Brazilian plain coffee beans. Colombian coffee mouthfeel has better body than Brazilian coffee.

Asian Coffee Region

The third world coffee producing country that FrontStreet Coffee will introduce is Asia. There are also many choices of Asian coffee beans. Among them, Mandheling coffee beans from Indonesia are excellent. If you prefer low acidity and rich body, then Indonesian coffee beans are very suitable for you. FrontStreet Coffee stocks many types of Indonesian Mandheling coffees, such as Lintong Mandheling, Natural Mandheling, Aged Mandheling, Tiger Mandheling, and Gold Mandheling, among others. Among them, Gold Mandheling coffee has the best flavor - low acidity, very smooth mouthfeel, and obvious sweetness, with Indonesia's characteristic herbal flavor being relatively light. If you prefer rich aromas, you can choose Tiger Mandheling; if you prefer high body and high sweetness, you can choose Aged Mandheling, while Lintong Mandheling is a very classic Mandheling flavor, famous for its rich herbal plant flavors. The reason Mandheling has such distinctive characteristics is that Indonesian green bean processing generally uses the wet-hulled method. This processing method gives coffee beans a wet-hulled flavor. We generally believe that wet-hulling has earthy, smoky, and chocolate flavors, with acidity described as "low," and body that is quite heavy and muffled.

Among them, Yunnan coffee in China is also very famous, especially Baoshan in Yunnan, where the dry-hot valley climate is very suitable for coffee cultivation. Because Yunnan is located between 15 degrees north latitude and the Tropic of Cancer, mostly in high-altitude areas, with consistently high temperatures throughout the year, large temperature differences between day and night, appropriate rainfall, sufficient sunlight, and red volcanic ash soil rich in minerals, these unique natural conditions create the special characteristics of Yunnan small-bean coffee. Therefore, the coffee produced here is of excellent quality, with mellow and fragrant aroma, rich but not bitter, fragrant but not strong, with a slight fruity flavor. FrontStreet Coffee also has its own planting base in Baoshan, Yunnan, which is still in the continuous exploration phase, but FrontStreet Coffee believes that as long as we persist, there will definitely be results.

Conclusion

The above is FrontStreet Coffee's simple summary of coffee bean varieties. Everyone can start with the three major coffee regions according to their preferred coffee flavors, and through continuous experimentation, they will develop their own coffee flavor preferences.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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