How to Differentiate Single-Origin Coffee Beans _ Single-Origin Coffee Bean Naming Rules _ How Many Beans for a Single Cup of Coffee

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Understanding Coffee Bean Names: Origins, Roasts, and Classifications

When you walk into a coffee specialty shop or open a professional coffee bean merchant's website, you might be confused by the dazzling array of coffee names. Why do single-origin coffee beans have such long names? Why is coffee divided into single-origin, dark roast, and espresso? How are these classified? What do these seemingly complex coffee bean names represent? This article will guide you through understanding the meanings behind coffee bean names step by step.

Origin Designation: "Single-Origin" vs "Blend" Coffee

Commercially available coffee beans can generally be divided into two broad categories:

Single-Origin Coffee

Coffee Blends

"Single-origin coffee" generally refers to coffee beans from a single country or producing region, comparable to a coffee solo. If a package of coffee is labeled with a coffee-producing country's name (mainland Europe does not produce coffee beans; if the label shows European city names like Italy or Vienna, it is not single-origin coffee), it generally represents a package of single-origin coffee. Examples include Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Sumatra Lake Tawar, Guatemala Antigua, etc. These are specific coffees produced in particular countries, regions, or estates, known as "single-origin coffee." Because each country or different region has its own climate, soil, and natural environment, the cultivated coffee thus has unique characteristics. Tasting "single-origin coffee" allows you to understand the characteristics and flavors of coffee from a specific country or region.

"Coffee blends" refer to coffee beans mixed and blended from several single-origin coffees, comparable to a coffee concerto. The blending method can be simple (like the traditional "Mamba": Mandheling plus Brazilian) or it can be a complex art. Through proper blending, single-origin coffees with different characteristics can jointly create a more harmonious and wonderful composition. Typically, espresso-based coffee (espresso, latte, cappuccino) uses blended coffee beans.

Roast Level Designation: Dark Roast, Southern Italian, Northern Italian, Vienna, French Roast

In addition to origin-related designations, the most common are roast level indicators. Raw coffee beans need to undergo a roasting process to release their distinctive charming aroma, and coffee roasting is closely related to its flavor. If you see "Italian," "Vienna," "Southern Italian" on coffee labels, don't mistake these for having any relationship with the aforementioned place names—likely there's no connection, because traditionally, "Italian" and "Vienna" are synonyms for a degree of roast (or blending method), not representing coffee produced in Italy or Vienna (as mentioned above, mainland Europe does not cultivate and produce coffee beans). "Northern Italian" represents medium-light degree, light brown beans without surface oil; "Southern Italian" indicates oily, shiny deep brown dark roast; "Italian roast" generally refers to a relatively darker degree roast. "French Roast" generally refers to extremely dark roast with near-black bean color, slight carbonized flavor, and no acidity. "Vienna" usually refers to blended coffee mixed with beans of different roast levels.

The deeper the roast level, the higher the roasting temperature. The medium-light "Northern Italian" roast has more complex, bright flavors with fruit-like acidity and extremely low or no bitterness. The deep, high-temperature "Southern Italian" roast has deeper, rich, and smooth flavors with caramel-like sweet aftertaste. "French Roast" has relatively monotonous flavor but with slight carbonized notes and completely no acidity.

Coffee Bean Grading, Micro-Regions, Estates, and Other Designations

Currently, coffee bean producing regions worldwide do not have consistent grading systems, so you might see terms like "SHB," "AA+," "Supremo," "Extra-Fancy," "Peaberry" etc. on coffee labels. These are coffee bean grading names. Commercial roasted beans sometimes indicate single-origin coffee grades, but usually not.

The best coffees from Central and South America are graded by cultivation altitude, with coffee beans above 4500 feet marked as "SHB (Strictly Hard Bean)"; "AA+" is the highest grade of Kenyan coffee, only batches with particularly excellent flavor and few defects are allowed to be marked "AA+," "AA" are the largest beans, "AB" are smaller, "PB" are peaberries; Colombia also uses coffee bean appearance size and defect rate as grading standards, with "Supremo" indicating the largest beans. It's worth noting that coffee bean appearance size has no connection to flavor, but higher production altitude usually means better flavor.

Following the country name are micro-region designations. Take Ethiopia Yirgacheffe as an example: Ethiopia is the coffee-producing country name, indicating this is a "single-origin coffee"; Yirgacheffe is a high-altitude, narrow, small micro-region within Ethiopia's Sidamo region. Different micro-regions mean different flavor characteristics. For example, Ethiopia Harrar, produced in southern Ethiopia near Somalia, has wine-like aroma, blueberry or grape flavors, and thick mouthfeel, while Yirgacheffe tastes refreshing and bright with citrus or lemon peel-like aroma and thinner mouthfeel.

However, some coffee beans have another string of names following the micro-region name, which might be the name of a specific coffee estate or processing station. For example, the long name Guatemala Antigua SHB- Finca Los Volcanes 02 Crop tells us the following information:

Producing Country: Guatemala - Guatemala is a famous coffee-producing country in Central America.

Region: Antigua Volcano - This is Guatemala's famous volcanic coffee-producing region.

Grade: Strictly Hard Bean (SHB) - Indicates this coffee grows above 4500 feet altitude.

Producing Estate: Finca Los Volcanes Estate - "Finca" is Spanish for "Estate."

Harvest Year: 2018 (02 Crop) - The year is for roaster's reference, so commercial roasted bean labels usually don't indicate the year.

In commercial roasted coffee beans, such complex labeling is generally avoided to reduce consumer selection confusion and identification burden. Different micro-regions and different harvest years of coffee beans can have significant flavor differences. Professional roasters taste each region's current-year raw coffee beans annually and adjust roasting and blending methods to ensure consumers receive products with stable flavors and minimal differences.

Single-Origin Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's freshly roasted single-origin coffee beans—such as Yirgacheffe and Mandheling coffee—offer full guarantees in both brand and quality, suitable for brewing with various equipment. More importantly, they offer extremely high value-for-money. A half-pound (227g) bag costs only around 70-90 yuan. Calculating at 200ml per cup with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, one package can make 15 cups of specialty coffee, with each cup costing only 5-6 yuan. Compared to café prices that often run dozens of yuan per cup, this represents extremely high value-for-money.

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: 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