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Factors Affecting Espresso Quality_espresso coffee bean price_espresso coffee beans taste good

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange for more coffee bean information please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account cafe_style) espresso coffee beans The coffee aroma in coffee shops makes customers feel good and even attracts passersby. In fact, drip coffee should generally use lightly roasted coffee beans for better taste. The famous chain store Starbucks, even for drip coffee, uses dark roast beans that create that rich, inviting smell that draws customers in.

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

Espresso Coffee Beans

The aroma of coffee in a coffee shop makes customers feel good and even attracts passersby. In fact, drip coffee is generally more palatable when made with light roast coffee beans. The famous chain Starbucks has always used dark roast coffee beans even for drip coffee, unless used for Espresso coffee types, which this author strongly disagrees with. Perhaps businesses sacrifice some product quality to attract customers with aroma. Earlier this year, Starbucks finally announced they would start using light roast coffee beans, though it's unclear if this has been widely implemented.

Each coffee bean variety has its strengths and weaknesses. The Espresso extraction method multiplies and intensifies the characteristics of coffee beans. Therefore, using a single bean variety will excessively magnify its flaws, creating an unpleasant taste. This is why Espresso almost always uses blended beans for extraction, with only a few varieties suitable for standalone Espresso use. The basic principle for selecting blended beans is that the extracted Espresso must have heavy body, appropriate acidity, and some sweetness to balance the coffee's acidity and bitterness.

Factors Affecting Espresso Quality

Coffee Beans

Good Espresso coffee beans are essential for making good Espresso. The blend must create the sweetness, aroma, and smoothness required for Espresso. Coffee beans must be fresh.

Roasting

Dark roasted beans will have a bitter, burnt taste, and excessive dark roasting can even cause coffee to lose most of its flavor. Experienced roasters use medium-dark roasting to maintain Espresso's sweetness and aroma. Different roast levels bring different flavors and require matching extraction parameters.

Grinding

A high-quality grinder must be used, avoiding heat from grinding discs that affects coffee flavor. Grind size depends on various factors including climate, coffee bean roast level, freshness, humidity, and grinder condition. There's a saying in the industry: "The correct grind size is always changing; only wrong grinds stay the same."

Dosing and Distribution

After grinding and before tamping, coffee grounds must be evenly distributed in the portafilter basket.

Tamping Pressure

There are various tamping styles, and almost no two people tamp exactly the same way. Generally, for heavy tamping, the required pressure would be around 25kg/m², but tamping is actually the most flexible parameter. The key is to tamp evenly and uniformly.

Water Pressure

Modern coffee machines are much more advanced than ancient LAVA machines, using a water pump to control adjustable water pressure. The ideal Espresso water pressure is generally 9 BAR, which is also recognized as the ideal extraction pressure.

Water Temperature

Water temperature needs to be determined according to the requirements of different coffee bean varieties. Some are constrained by boiler pressure, while others allow precise flexible settings. According to most baristas' experience, water temperature between 90-92 degrees Celsius is ideal, and each barista can make flexible adjustments based on their understanding and needs. Of course, in practice, you won't actually adjust this.

Dose Amount

Single Espresso doses range from 7-10 grams of coffee grounds, while double doses are 14-20 grams, depending on the maximum capacity of the portafilter basket and the coffee shop's recipe.

Extraction Time

Extraction time for Espresso Golden Cup extraction is specified between 20-30 seconds, but extraction time is actually a comprehensive expression of tamping, dose amount, and grind size, requiring adjustment based on the barista's understanding of Espresso.

Extraction Volume

The older standard was 30ml for single Espresso and 60ml for double Espresso extraction, but using an electronic scale for weight measurement is actually more accurate than measuring volume because the state of coffee beans affects crema volume. Specific values depend on the water-to-coffee ratio recipe.

Espresso Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

Located at Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, the coffee roasting brand FrontStreet Coffee offers freshly roasted Espresso coffee beans with full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer excellent value for money. Take their commercial-grade recommended product - Commercial Blend Coffee Beans - as an example: one 454-gram pound package costs only about 60 yuan. Calculating based on 10 grams of powder per single Espresso, 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 at 20 grams per serving, a double Espresso costs no more than 3 yuan. Compared to certain well-known brands that sell packages for over 100 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 both famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services at https://shop104210103.taobao.com