FrontStreet Coffee Shares 3 Espresso Blend Recipes Perfect for Caramel-Sweet Lattes and Black Coffee

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Understanding Coffee Blends

Coffee blends, also known as mixed coffee, combine various single-origin beans to make the most of each bean's unique characteristics. Blends are created by mixing beans from different origins to achieve a more balanced flavor profile. For example, if one coffee is smooth but lacks aroma, a bean with rich aroma can be added to complement it, creating a richer new taste. Sometimes beans are mixed before roasting, called "raw blending"; other times they are blended after roasting, called "roasted blending."

Whether you mix raw beans in advance or blend after roasting, the approach must depend on the characteristics of the coffee in the recipe. Both methods are acceptable. Post-roasting blending allows different degrees of roast for each bean, letting each component perform at its best.

Before blending, it's essential to understand the flavor profiles of different coffee varieties from around the world. Beans show distinct characteristics based on origin. Different beans have unique personalities from different varieties and origins, with subtle differences in acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, and body. Single-origin beans often emphasize the unique character of one coffee, while blends are commonly used for espresso-based drinks such as Espresso, Americano, Latte, or Cappuccino, creating more balanced, smoother, and more stable flavors that appeal to a broader audience.

Purposes of Coffee Blending

The main purposes of mixing different coffee beans include:

1. Stable Flavor Profile

Because coffee beans are an agricultural product, even the same variety will have a different flavor each year. Mixing several types of beans together effectively solves this problem, allowing the taste to remain basically consistent year after year.

2. Balanced Flavor

Espresso machines have a way of amplifying a coffee's most prominent flavor characteristics, so we almost never use a single variety to make Espresso. Otherwise, if the bean is quite bitter, the resulting Espresso will be exceptionally bitter; if it leans acidic, it will be very acidic. So we need to balance the various flavors through blending.

Coffee blending is never a simple addition. Through the blender's unique understanding of coffee flavors, different beans complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, creating a perfectly flavored blend.

3. Consistent Flavor:

Since coffee beans are an agricultural product, even beans of the same variety and origin will have different flavors each year. Mixing several types of beans together effectively solves this problem, allowing the flavor to remain basically consistent year after year.

The Rise of Single Origin Espresso (SOE)

SOE (Single Origin Espresso) has become popular recently. While not necessarily equivalent to specialty coffee, if we select single-origin beans with easily identifiable flavors for SOE, we can create espresso with a uniquely typical flavor. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe with its typical citrus flavors, or FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya with its fruit flavors. Since espresso amplifies coffee flavors, specific characteristics become more prominent than in pour-over. However, although SOE performs exceptionally well, because it comes from a single origin its weaknesses are also relatively easy to amplify, so factors like roasting and grind size will affect the flavor, making it not necessarily better tasting than a blend.

How Do We Blend?

(1) FrontStreet Coffee's Premium Espresso Blend:

Colombia : Brazil, ratio 3:7

Colombia - Huila Region

Located in southwestern Colombia, Huila is one of the main coffee cultivation areas. Colombian coffee generally grows at altitudes of 1500-1800 meters, mostly Bourbon and Caturra varieties, processed using the washed method. The beans have high density, uniform size, and a full shape (thick from bean core to surface). Because famous coffee cultivation areas are scattered throughout the Huila region, the names of various small areas have become brand names and circulate widely. Although cultivation conditions here are excellent, the cultivation infrastructure of coffee farms and surrounding conditions are not yet well developed, and raw bean drying equipment and washed processing facilities remain incomplete, which is quite regrettable. Huila coffee has a strong flavor and heavy texture.

In particular, the nutty, chocolate, and caramel aromas of Huila coffee, combined with suitable acidity, can be called a high-grade specialty coffee.

Flavor characteristics: Rich and solid taste with pleasant acidity, fragrant aroma, moderate acidity, and a rich, intriguing sweetness. Due to its low price and small bean size, it is suitable for blending. The coffee has a strong flavor and heavy texture. Its nutty, chocolate, and caramel aromas with suitable acidity make it a high-grade specialty coffee, suitable as a single origin or as an espresso blend base.

Brazil - Cerrado Region

Brazilian coffee generally grows at altitudes of 1000-1300 meters, so its density is relatively low. Mostly Bourbon variety, using natural processing. With moderate moisture content, a softer bean texture, and thin thickness from surface to core, it is not suitable for high-temperature roasting, because the inner wall temperature of the roasting drum will scorch the bean surface, creating bitter burnt flavors.

At the same time, to express the characteristics of nuts, milk chocolate, and good body and to serve as a blend base, we choose to use medium heat for bean entry, maintain heat through the dehydration stage, make fine adjustments as the temperature rises after first crack begins, promote more complete caramelization reactions, and discharge the beans when approaching second crack.

Flavor characteristics: A comfortable bittersweet taste and an extremely smooth entry; with a light grassy aroma, a fresh fragrance with slight bitterness; sweet, smooth, and pleasant, with a comforting aftertaste.

Blended flavor: A sweet and fragrant taste. Using a medium-dark roast, when made into espresso the taste has a soft, slight acidity, clear sweetness, and a nutty aftertaste, with an overall feeling that is not too stimulating, balanced, with medium crema. This FrontStreet Coffee espresso blend is suitable for daily production in coffee shops.

(2) FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Espresso Blend:

Colombia : Brazil : Robusta; ratio 3:6:1, raw blend;

All roasted together using a medium-dark roast

[Robusta] beans have strong disease and pest resistance and high yield. They are usually less acidic than Arabica beans, often with a slight woody aroma. Caffeine content is 2.2%, higher than Arabica's 1.2%, and chlorogenic acid content is also higher, making it quite bitter. It is usually used in commercial beans, costing less than Arabica.

In terms of individual bean flavor, commercial beans produce a coffee taste much inferior to specialty beans. Generally, commercial beans are chosen for blending. Through blending, they can also produce coffee with an excellent taste, suitable for making lattes, cappuccinos, and other espresso drinks. When we use our commercial blend for Espresso, because of the Robusta beans the crema is richer, with a classic taste of caramel sweetness, nuts and cocoa, and dark chocolate flavors, balanced sweet and sour, with slight bittersweet notes and a persistent aftertaste. This FrontStreet Coffee commercial espresso blend meets the daily needs of coffee shops.

(3) FrontStreet Coffee's Basic Espresso Blend:

Yunnan AA : Brazil; ratio 3:7, roasted blend;

Our Yunnan AA is [Typica], the oldest native variety from Ethiopia, grown in southeastern Ethiopia and Sudan. All Arabica varieties are derived from Typica. The top leaves are bronze-colored, which is why it is called red-topped coffee; it has an elegant flavor but a weak constitution, poor disease resistance, susceptibility to leaf rust, and low fruit yield. Typica has four slender branches spreading at 50-70 degree angles. Opposite leaves are long and elliptical with a smooth surface, and long terminal branches carry few branches, while the flowers are white, blooming at the base where leaf stems connect to branches. Mature coffee cherries look like cherries and are bright red.

It requires more shade when planted, with harvest only about every two years. Yunnan's excellent geography and climate provide good conditions for coffee growth, with growing areas including Lincang, Baoshan, Simao, Xishuangbanna, and Dehong. Yunnan's natural conditions are very similar to Colombia, with high altitude and large day-night temperature differences. The flavor is mellow and aromatic, with moderate acidity, a rich and mellow taste, uniform beans, high oil content, and a fruity aroma. Its quality and taste are similar to Colombian coffee.

Blended flavor: With soft fruit acidity, caramel sweetness, and nutty and dark chocolate flavors, a smooth and thick but somewhat light taste. This cost-effective FrontStreet Coffee basic espresso blend is suitable for coffee shops and home users who prioritize cost and have moderate flavor requirements.

When blending, there should be primary and secondary distinctions to create more wonderful flavors than single-origin coffee. Before formulating a blending plan, first envision suitable combination methods, then blend through appropriate roasting, and determine the best plan through cupping and later adjustments. Hope this helps everyone.

Quick Guide: Espresso, Macchiato, Latte, Cappuccino, Flat White Differences

Specialty Coffee - Latte

In Italian, "Latte" means "milk," so if you order a latte in Italy you'll only get a glass of milk, not coffee. In some domestic cafes there are also flavored lattes, such as matcha latte or purple sweet potato latte. Remember, these contain no coffee.

Latte Coffee (200ml): Single shot espresso 30ml + Milk

Cappuccino (180ml): Single shot espresso 30ml + Thicker milk foam

Specialty Coffee - Affogato

In Italian, "Affogato" means "drowned," pouring espresso over ice cream balls to drown them. Not only is it visually appealing, it's also a very delicious coffee, deeply loved by women in summer.

Specialty Coffee - Flat White

Whether it was invented in Australia or New Zealand is still debated today. Initially translated domestically as "Little White," "Flat White," or "Australian White," it was translated as "Flat White" after being introduced to China by Starbucks. Compared to a regular latte, its foam layer is thinner, the foam is finer and smoother, and the coffee flavor is stronger.

When drinking cappuccino you'll feel a layer of foam over 1cm thick, with a relatively soft texture. While Flat White also has some foam, it's finer, with foam under 5mm, and milk and espresso blend well together, with a silky smooth texture.

Flat White (200ml): Base is double espresso 60g; some places extract the espresso longer on this basis, using double Ristretto (Ristretto: 1:1 Espresso)

Toffee Iced Latte Recipe:

1. Fill a glass with ice to 5/10 full, then add 10g of toffee syrup.
2. Pour fresh milk and ice into the glass to 7/10 full, then stir well to dissolve the syrup in the fresh milk to increase the milk's specific gravity.
3. Slowly pour the espresso liquid along the back of a spoon into the glass. The pouring speed should not be too fast, to avoid destroying the layered effect.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For a classic, cafe-standard cappuccino, the espresso matters most: FrontStreet suggests extracting 20g of coffee at a 1:2 ratio over about 30 seconds, giving a concentrate that is both strong and well extracted. The easiest base is FrontStreet's Classic Blend, an "oil bomb" that produces dense, fine crema even from a basic home machine, while FrontStreet's Dark Cocoa Basic Blend is the value pick with ample crema and a full body. If you want a floral, fruity cappuccino, FrontStreet's Strawberry Candy Espresso brings berry, rose, raisin, and fruit-candy aromas, and FrontStreet's Grana Geisha SOE is naturally processed and medium roasted for berry, orange, and persimmon notes, with a toffee-like character when paired with milk.