Espresso Coffee Bean Characteristics, What Coffee Beans to Use for Espresso, Espresso Extraction

The 4Ms of Brewing Perfect Espresso

To brew excellent espresso, Italians have identified four crucial elements, which are generally referred to by coffee enthusiasts as the 4Ms of espresso:

Mano

The barista's craft—the skill of the maker. This is undoubtedly the most critical component. The barista must understand coffee and continuously study and refine their technique to transform coffee brewing into an art form.

Macinazione

The grind size of coffee beans. If the coffee grounds are too fine, water will remain in the filter for too long, resulting in overly bitter coffee. Conversely, if the grounds are too coarse, water will flow too quickly, producing weaker-tasting coffee.

Miscela

The espresso bean blend. Espresso is made using different proportions of coffee beans mixed together. Italians believe this approach creates uniquely flavored coffee. As for the specific blend and proportions, these depend on the barista's skill and preferences.

Macchina

The espresso machine, which can be categorized into commercial and home types with different features. The main differences lie in the steam pressure generation mechanism and brew time control design. There are also semi-automatic and fully automatic varieties.

Espresso coffee beans are typically medium to dark roast blends to ensure they don't taste too "mild" when brewed with an Italian machine.

Single-origin beans roasted medium-dark or darker can also be used for espresso—it depends on personal taste preferences.

Italian-style blends are often created with each shop's proprietary ratios and formulas, similar to how restaurants have their own unique seasoning blends.

Many establishments offer several different varieties of their Italian-style blends.

Tasting different options helps you determine what suits you best. You can ask about your preferred flavor profiles, and the shop staff will help recommend suitable options.

Some specialty shops can even brew samples for you to try on the spot.

"Espresso" is a brewing method, just like "pour-over" or "siphon."

Any type of coffee bean can be brewed using the "espresso" method—it's not limited to Italian-style beans.

Once you move beyond the concept that Espresso = concentrated coffee, you won't feel restricted to buying only Italian-style beans...

For beginners, I still recommend trying espresso at coffee shops first. When you find one you like, buy it to brew at home. This way, you'll at least know what flavor you should aim for, avoiding the situation of buying excellent beans but thinking they're poor quality due to improper brewing.

As you become more familiar, you can choose coffee beans based on your specific needs and preferences.

Light roast beans don't necessarily produce acidic espresso when brewed with an Italian machine (though many books suggest this).

Dark roast beans won't necessarily be very bitter or strong when brewed using pour-over or siphon methods.

Additionally, "roasted to order" isn't always better. Depending on the roasting method, the time when beans exhibit their best flavor varies.

This can range from one to two days to one to two weeks... Sometimes I actually prefer beans roasted a week ago (too impatient to wait...).

Espresso Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee, a coffee roasting brand located at Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, offers freshly roasted espresso beans with excellent guarantees of both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer exceptional value. Take their commercial-grade recommendation—the commercial blend coffee beans—as an example: one 454-gram (one-pound) package costs only about 60 yuan. Calculating at 10 grams per shot of espresso, one package can make 45 cups, with each cup costing less than 1.5 yuan. Even using a double shot with 20 grams per serving, one double espresso costs less than 3 yuan. Compared to certain well-known brands that charge over 100 yuan per package, this represents truly conscientious value.

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473