What are the Flavor Differences Between SOE Coffee and Blend Coffee? Recommended Single-Origin Coffee Beans for SOE

In the coffee world, when mentioning SOE coffee, it refers to Single Origin Espresso. Expanding this English acronym gives us "Single Origin Espresso," which stands in direct contrast to Espresso Blend, referring to blended coffee beans for espresso.

SOE has emerged like bamboo shoots after spring rain. Previously, it was rarely known in China, but suddenly in the past two years, it has become an indispensable option in many specialty coffee shops. When ordering espresso-based products in the past, you would always get rich, mellow, and aromatic flavors. SOE allows espresso enthusiasts to experience the rich flavor characteristics that coffee has to offer.

Is SOE so popular because it tastes good? Why is SOE more expensive than regular espresso? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss what SOE is.

What Exactly is SOE?

After SOE gained widespread popularity, many coffee consumers often compare it with espresso made from blended coffee beans. For example, some believe that because it only uses coffee beans from a single origin, it must taste better than blended coffee beans.

As an agricultural product, coffee's flavor is affected by changes in terroir and climate each year. While single-origin coffee beans can showcase more of their own coffee flavors, the disadvantage is the inability to maintain long-term stability in espresso quality. This is why people came up with blending—combining coffee beans from different origins in various proportions to create coffee beans with long-term stable flavor characteristics.

The main reason why SOE is more expensive than espresso made from blended beans is the higher cost of using single-origin coffee beans, coupled with the need to use more coffee beans for testing when adjusting espresso daily. To balance costs, SOE typically requires an additional charge.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that neither SOE coffee nor regular espresso is definitively better than the other—the most important thing is that the person drinking it enjoys it. If you prefer tasting more lively and rich coffee characteristics, you can choose SOE. If you prefer rich and mellow coffee, you can choose espresso made from blended coffee beans.

About Espresso Blends

Traditional espresso beans are all composed of multiple coffee beans. In Italy, a bag of coffee beans can be made from several, or even dozens of different coffee beans. The biggest advantage of using multiple coffee beans in a blend is ensuring the stability of the coffee flavor. When the quality of a certain coffee bean changes, or production decreases, or prices rise, roasters can choose coffee beans with similar quality to replace them without affecting the overall flavor. Therefore, some famous coffee roasters treat their blend formulas as trade secrets.

Blending methods also vary. Raw blending refers to mixing different green coffee beans according to the proportions in the formula, then roasting them together. Post-roast blending refers to roasting different green coffee beans separately, then mixing them according to different proportions in the formula.

The four espresso blends sold by FrontStreet Coffee all use post-roast blending. When dealing with green beans that have significant differences in quality, separate roasting allows better control over the roasting process. Moreover, post-roast blending allows for more precise formula proportions (as each coffee bean has different weight loss), and it's also more convenient to adjust the proportion weights of the blend. However, the drawbacks are also obvious—for example, if a blend contains 3 types of coffee beans, post-roast blending means at least 3 batches need to be roasted, and achieving similar color values (roast levels) for each coffee bean requires extensive roasting experience.

FrontStreet Coffee uses post-roast blending. When developing blend formulas, they continuously adjust roast levels and blend ratios, ultimately recording roast curves and proportion formulas to achieve a stable state.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Sunny Blend Coffee Beans": Ethiopian natural processed red cherry coffee beans (30%) + Honduras sherry barrel coffee beans (70%), featuring rich wine aroma, vanilla cream, berry sweetness and acidity, with roasted nut flavors.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Specialty Blend Coffee Beans": Colombian washed coffee beans (30%) + Brazilian natural processed coffee beans (70%), featuring nut, dark chocolate, and caramel flavors.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Commercial Blend Coffee Beans": Robusta washed coffee beans (10%) + Colombian washed coffee beans (30%) + Brazilian natural processed coffee (60%), featuring nut, cocoa, and caramel flavors.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Basic Blend Coffee Beans": Yunnan washed small bean coffee beans (30%) + Brazilian natural processed coffee beans (70%), featuring mild fruit acidity, caramel, and nut flavors.

SOE Coffee Bean Recommendations

For making SOE, FrontStreet Coffee selects coffee beans with high flavor recognition. Using single-origin beans for espresso is essentially to allow espresso and milk-based coffee drinkers to taste the inherent flavors of the single-origin beans. If a single-origin bean has low recognition and most people can't detect its unique flavors, it's better to drink a cup of well-balanced, full-bodied blended coffee.

Don't pursue stability when making SOE. Coffee is an agricultural product, and single-origin beans are affected by factors like weather and cultivation, causing flavor variations even among beans from the same origin. This is what distinguishes it from blended coffee beans, which pursue flavor stability. If we order SOE made from the same beans at the same cafe on different occasions but taste slightly different flavors, this is completely normal~

FrontStreet Coffee hasn't introduced dedicated SOE coffee beans, but in the spirit of experimentation, FrontStreet Coffee has tried extracting SOE from all commercial coffee beans, and some single-origin beans have shown excellent performance when used for espresso.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Honduras Sherry Coffee Beans": This medium-roast coffee bean exhibits rich fermented wine aroma, vanilla cream-like smoothness, and caramel aftertaste when extracted as SOE.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Costa Rica Strawberry Candy Coffee Beans": This medium-roast coffee bean exhibits preserved fruit sweetness, red floral notes, and berry-like sweet acidity when extracted as SOE.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Costa Rica Mozart Coffee Beans": This medium-roast coffee bean exhibits raisin sweetness, subtle floral notes, and berry-like sweet acidity when extracted as SOE.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473