What are Espresso Coffee Beans_Must Espresso Coffee Beans Be Dark Roasted_Espresso Coffee Bean Recommendations

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Understanding Espresso Coffee Beans

Espresso coffee beans are designed for espresso machine extraction, including both blend and single-origin beans, rather than representing dark roast as a definition.

To truly represent dark roast, it should be what's called "Italian Roast" - Italian style roasting. However, espresso coffee beans don't necessarily have to be roasted that dark. Nowadays, many blends emphasize unique characteristics by using only two types of beans. Even light roasts paired with milk can create different flavors. Therefore, there's no principle that espresso beans must be dark roasted.

The original purpose of espresso blends was to balance various beans by compensating for their strengths and weaknesses. With the evolution of times, different definitions gradually emerged. Especially after the arrival of the specialty coffee era, espresso blends evolved from the concept of balancing strengths and weaknesses to using different bean combinations to further highlight and complement flavors. However, whether in the past or present, there's always been an underlying preference for extraction with espresso machines. This became even more apparent after single-origin coffee emerged, because brewing single-origin and espresso-preferred beans have different requirements. Therefore, whether in light or dark roast processing, there are different concepts and thinking. When you label something as an espresso bean, there's an inherent intention for this bean to be extracted by an espresso machine.

However, since the current mainstream still tends toward medium-dark roasts, espresso blends that require resting are more convenient for shop owners, naturally becoming the mainstream. But this means that while espresso beans are blends, not all blends are created with the concept of "high-pressure" extraction in mind. These two are not equivalent, and this distinction needs to be clarified. So why did we initially say that espresso beans also include "single-origin beans" for espresso machine extraction? Because some people indeed use single-origin beans to produce roasted beans following espresso bean processing methods, whether different roast levels of the same single origin or the same roast level. Therefore, I think these three concepts - espresso beans, single-origin, and blend - should be viewed separately.

Additionally, I personally believe that espresso tends to represent a "finished product" or "beverage" after preparation, rather than a "method." High-pressure extraction is the actual method. Detailed definitions of the method vary slightly among different professional organizations, but basically, they cannot depart from high pressure. As for whether there's high temperature and specific pressure range requirements, different definitions exist. Therefore, I think it's perfectly fine for espresso to represent concentrated coffee in the coffee world.

Espresso Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee, a coffee roasting brand located at Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, offers freshly roasted espresso coffee beans with excellent guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value for money. Take their commercial blend coffee beans, recommended for commercial use, as an example - one 454-gram pound package costs only about 60 yuan. Calculating based on 10 grams of coffee powder per espresso shot, one package can make 45 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 1.5 yuan. Even if using double shots for each espresso, with 20 grams of powder per serving, the cost of one double espresso doesn't exceed 3 yuan. Compared to certain famous brands that sell packages for hundreds of yuan, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

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