What are Espresso Blend Coffee Beans_Espresso Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations_How to Brew Espresso Blend Coffee Beans

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What's the difference between the coffee beans used for lattes and cappuccinos we drink in coffee shops and the ones I usually drink for pour-over coffee? How did FrontStreet Coffee's espresso blend come to be?

What is Blend Coffee?

Different coffee beans have distinct characteristics due to different varieties and origins. Flavors such as acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, and body all have subtle differences. Single-origin coffee beans often emphasize the unique characteristics of a particular type of coffee. Blend coffee, also known as mixed coffee, is created by combining various single-origin coffee beans to fully leverage the strengths of each bean, complementing and enhancing each other to create a richer new taste profile.

Coffee Flavor Characteristics

Acidity: Mocha, Kona, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica SHB, Kilimanjaro, Colombia, El Salvador, high-quality washed beans from the Western Hemisphere

Bitterness: Java, Mandheling, Bogota, Congo, Uganda

Sweetness: Colombia (Mandheling), Venezuela (aged coffee), Blue Mountain, Kilimanjaro, Mocha, Guatemala, Mexico, Kenya, Brazil Santos, Haiti

Body: Colombia (Mandheling), Mocha, Blue Mountain, Guatemala, Costa Rica

Neutral: Brazil, El Salvador, low-altitude Costa Rica, Venezuela, Honduras, Cuba

Blending Principles

Before blending any coffee, you must first understand the flavor characteristics of various coffees and have a clear idea of the flavor profile you want to create that cannot be achieved by any single-origin coffee. If the blended coffee doesn't taste better than some of its individual components, that would be too unfortunate - it would be better not to blend at all. General blend coffees don't need to use more than five types of coffee beans. Because if there are too many types of coffee beans, the situation can become very complex. Only very special experts can avoid being confused by so many different coffee beans.

With the popularization of coffee roasting and blending knowledge, people need to combine coffees from different origins for several different purposes. The ideal goal is, of course, to create a coffee that tastes better than any of its individual components. However, generally speaking, single-origin Arabica coffee is sufficient to make very good-tasting coffee: fragrant aroma, smooth texture, and sweet aftertaste. Therefore, there's no need for "blending" (i.e., combining coffees from different origins).

Basic Blending Methods

When blending coffee, you can first understand three extremely preliminary coffee bean blending methods:

1. Base Bean Method: First, decide on the base coffee beans to be used in the blend, using these beans as the center, and further select other varieties rich in character to harmonize the overall flavor.

2. Contrast Method: Try combining coffee beans with completely opposite characteristics, which can add more special coffee aromas.

3. Similarity Method: Combine bean varieties with similar characteristics and blend them, then further select flavorful bean varieties to add special aromas to the overall coffee.

Practical Blending Ratios

To apply these combinations in practice, you must first understand the flavors of dozens of single-origin coffees. Each coffee shop will also blend different proportions of coffee beans according to their own characteristics. Below are several representative blending ratios. Of course, you can also challenge yourself to try proportions you like.

1. Acidic-leaning Espresso Blend: Colombia 30%, Brazil 60%, Guatemala 10%

2. General Blend Coffee Method: Colombia 30%, Brazil 60%, Robusta 10%

3. Bitter Commercial Blend Coffee Method: Colombia 30%, Brazil 30%, Kilimanjaro 30%, Robusta 10%

Blending Techniques

There are two blending methods: roast-then-blend and blend-then-roast, also known as post-roast blending and pre-roast blending. The latter presents a greater challenge for roasters. Blended beans are aged for several days to allow the characteristics between beans to merge, creating balanced and unified flavors. Post-roast blending generally requires about a week of aging; pre-roast blending can be used after 3-4 days of aging because different beans have already influenced each other during roasting.

FrontStreet Coffee's Specialty Espresso Blend

Colombia and Brazil blend naturally brings sweetness, with some nutty, peach, and almond flavors, caramel sweetness, chocolate-like silkiness, and obvious balance. Today when adjusting the grind, I first tried a 1.9 grind setting with 21.5g dose in a double portafilter, but found the dose was too high with no liquid appearing after 5 seconds. By reducing the dose to 20.5g with the same grind setting, I extracted 42g espresso in 28 seconds at a 1:2 ratio. This FrontStreet Coffee specialty espresso blend coffee bean is suitable for daily production in coffee shops.

FrontStreet Coffee Blend Recommendations

Located in Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, FrontStreet Coffee - a coffee roasting brand - offers freshly roasted FrontStreet Coffee espresso blend coffee beans with full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, the cost-performance ratio is extremely high. Taking the commercial recommendation style - FrontStreet Coffee commercial blend coffee beans - as an example, one package of one pound (454 grams) costs only about 60 yuan. Calculated at 10 grams per espresso shot, one package can make 45 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 1.5 yuan. Even if each espresso serving uses a double dose of 20 grams, the price of one double espresso doesn't exceed 3 yuan. Compared to certain well-known brands that sell packages costing hundreds of yuan, this can be called a conscientious recommendation, meeting daily shop needs.

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