Which Single Origin Coffee Beans are Suitable for SOE? Characteristics and Price of SOE Coffee Beans

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Driven by the third wave of specialty coffee, an increasing number of coffee enthusiasts enjoy drinking single-origin coffee. Some love the lemon and citrus notes of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, while others prefer the intense floral aromas and fruit juice flavors of Panama Geisha. For a richer taste, the full-bodied Sumatran Mandheling also offers excellent thickness. Today, some people also enjoy espresso or Single Origin Espresso (SOE).

However, while FrontStreet Coffee offers pour-over coffee for many types of coffee beans, we do not offer SOE single-origin espresso. This is because transforming pour-over coffee into espresso, also known as Single Origin Espresso, involves many uncertain factors. Although FrontStreet Coffee doesn't offer SOE single-origin espresso, we have four blend coffees. For our espresso-based drinks, we use the Warm Sun Blend. FrontStreet Coffee's espresso uses a 7:3 ratio of Warm Sun Blend beans, featuring Honduras Sherry coffee as the main flavor complemented by sun-dried Yirgacheffe Red Cherry, resulting in a relatively rich and smooth espresso.

If you observe carefully, you'll notice that many coffee shops use pour-over coffee to showcase the regional flavor characteristics of a particular coffee. Generally, when choosing beans for SOE coffee, coffee shops tend to select single-origin coffees with distinctive characteristics, such as Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee beans or Ethiopian Sidamo Guji coffee beans. Both are African coffees with very prominent acidity. Some shops also use Indonesian Mandheling for SOE single-origin coffee because Indonesia uses a unique wet-hulling method to process green coffee beans, which highlights Mandheling's bitterness in the resulting SOE single-origin coffee—a flavor profile that many people find difficult to accept.

Selecting Coffee Beans for SOE

Actually, making SOE single-origin coffee requires more effort in selecting coffee beans. Unlike blended beans, which come in two forms: one is mixing green coffee beans in certain proportions or desired flavor combinations before roasting, commonly known as green blending. The other is directly mixing roasted coffee beans, known as roasted blending. The four espresso blends offered by FrontStreet Coffee fall into the roasted blending category. Each bean has its own strengths and weaknesses. If one bean extracted through an espresso machine doesn't produce enough crema, you can add a coffee bean rich in crema to complement it. If the extracted espresso from a particular bean is too acidic, too bitter, or too sweet, you can find complementary beans to blend together and achieve the desired coffee flavor—wouldn't that be perfect?

However, SOE single-origin coffee uses single-origin coffee beans, so there's no concept of complementarity—it's purely about highlighting the origin's flavors. If your espresso machine's parameters and timing are well-controlled, and you've selected suitable coffee beans, you can perfectly express the coffee's flavor characteristics. Conversely, if these aspects aren't properly managed, the resulting SOE single-origin coffee will undoubtedly be a failure that no one will enjoy drinking.

Therefore, don't underestimate a single-origin coffee. Making a cup of SOE coffee is not that simple. Although FrontStreet Coffee doesn't offer SOE coffee, we have explored this path countless times. First, we determine the blend composition and the flavor profile we want to achieve with our SOE coffee—whether it's the lemon-citrus acidity of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe or the sweetness of Costa Rica honey-processed Baha. This requires FrontStreet Coffee's baristas to slowly explore step by step, then evaluate whether the achieved flavor meets their expectations. Before finalizing the formula, FrontStreet Coffee needs to conduct multiple tests and adjustments. Therefore, the journey behind every cup of SOE coffee is not simple, which is why its price might be significantly higher than pour-over coffee—this is completely reasonable.

FrontStreet Coffee has found that many coffee shops like to use Yirgacheffe for SOE coffee, as the extracted floral aromas are very prominent and the flavor tends to be more acidic, making it very suitable for enthusiasts who enjoy acidity. For example, FrontStreet Coffee has also tried using Ethiopian Red Cherry to make SOE coffee, using 20 grams of coffee powder to extract 40 milliliters of coffee liquid in approximately 27 seconds. The resulting SOE coffee had a very good flavor profile—very thick texture, medium acidity resembling citrus and berries, with a faint fermented wine aroma.

SOE Extraction Techniques

Compared to traditional espresso beans, SOE coffee flavors are more difficult to extract. For each SOE single-origin, extraction parameters, extraction time, coffee powder grind size, and dosage all need to be readjusted. FrontStreet Coffee frequently extracts blend coffees as well. For example, this Honduras Sherry combined with sun-dried Yirgacheffe Red Cherry uses a 7:3 ratio. The coffee powder dosage is less than SOE coffee, using only 14 grams of coffee powder, with an extraction time of 28 seconds to produce 27 grams of liquid. When we taste this coffee, it's very smooth with distinct fruit acidity accompanied by subtle berry aromas. The aftertaste is remarkably sweet.

SOE single-origin coffee amplifies the characteristics of the beans, especially light-roasted beans, which have intense aromas and stimulating sweet and sour flavors. Therefore, when selecting beans for SOE coffee, it's best to choose highly distinctive coffee beans. Otherwise, the extracted espresso flavor will be very weak, lacking the unique balance and stability that SOE coffee should have.

The Importance of Roast Level

SOE coffee requires careful consideration of the coffee bean's roast level. If the roast is too dark, the regional flavor characteristics of the coffee will significantly disappear. If the roast is too light, the high-temperature, high-pressure extraction environment will amplify the coffee's acidity, making the espresso undrinkable. Additionally, if extraction is uneven, the SOE coffee will basically be unserviceable. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee is not saying that SOE equals specialty coffee or necessarily requires light-roasted beans. In FrontStreet Coffee's view, these statements are too absolute. In fact, both Arabica and Robusta beans can be used for making espresso.

Therefore, a good cup of SOE single-origin coffee truly tests a barista's patience and understanding of coffee. Many specialty coffee shops now offer SOE coffee, but FrontStreet Coffee has not included SOE coffee on our menu. Because SOE coffee is espresso extracted from single-origin coffee beans, and coffee beans are affected by weather, cultivation, and roasting factors, which can cause flavor variations between different batches, making it difficult to guarantee flavor consistency. This is why FrontStreet Coffee doesn't offer SOE coffee.

Exploring SOE Coffee

So, if you've tried pour-over coffee and espresso, why not try SOE coffee as well? A good cup of SOE coffee will deepen your understanding and appreciation of the flavor characteristics of that coffee-growing region.

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Important Notice :

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