How to Drink Black Coffee Beans, Which Brand is Best, and What Coffee Beans Are Suitable for Black Coffee

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Black coffee, also known as pure coffee, is typically made from freshly roasted coffee beans that are ground and brewed without adding sugar or milk. This way of drinking allows you to taste the original flavor of the coffee beans.

Black coffee combines multiple flavors including aroma, bitterness, acidity, and sweetness. The original aroma is the lifeblood of black coffee quality and best reflects the production process and roasting techniques. Factors such as the climate of the production area, variety, harvest, processing methods, storage, and whether the consuming country's roasting techniques are appropriate all determine the aroma of coffee beans. The bitterness of black coffee is its fundamental flavor, with partial caramelization and carbonization of starch, sugars, and fibrous materials creating coffee's most symbolic bitter taste. Black coffee also has acidity - appropriate heat treatment creates moderate acidity that can enhance the coffee's flavor and give it more depth. The sweetness of black coffee complements its bitterness perfectly.

Coffee beans are agricultural products, and depending on different varieties and origins, their coffee flavors will vary. FrontStreet Coffee recommends several specialty coffees from different origins.

1. Ethiopia

Yirgacheffe from Ethiopia is a famous specialty coffee producing region, with coffee featuring elegant floral and fruity aromas and bright, lively acidity. As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia's thousand-year history of cultivation and processing traditions has produced high-quality washed Arabica beans. Light roasting offers unique lemon, floral, and honey-like sweet aromas, with soft fruit acids and citrus flavors for a fresh, bright taste. Sun-dried Yirgacheffe has rich tropical fruit flavors, a sweet and full-bodied taste, rounded and gentle acidity, and lasting sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gotiti

Region: Yirgacheffe Gotiti Cooperative

Altitude: 2000-2100m

Variety: Local native varieties

Processing: Washed processing

Flavor: Berries, citrus, tea-like notes, floral aromas

The Gotiti Cooperative is located in the Woreda production area at the southeastern end of Yirgacheffe. It was originally part of the Woreda Cooperative under the Yirgacheffe Union YCFCU.

However, as people pursued traceability of green coffee beans, individual "single origins" were gradually discovered by coffee hunters worldwide. Therefore, in 2012, Gotiti, with about 300 member farmers, became independently established as the "Gotiti Cooperative."

Gotiti village was one of the first village areas to be separated, and many small farmers were originally members of the Woreda Cooperative, so their coffee production techniques are unquestionable.

The Gotiti Cooperative is known as the last pure land of Yirgacheffe, so it adopts very traditional processing methods (washed and natural processing methods).

2. Kenya

Kenyan coffee is globally recognized as high-quality coffee, with full national support and strict grading systems that have earned it the reputation of "coffee connoisseur's choice." AA is the highest quality grade of Kenyan coffee, and coffee at this level is the cream of the crop, which is why FrontStreet Coffee deeply loves the AATOP from the Thika region. TOP is marked by Kenyan coffee merchants after cupping. This bean uses the K72 double-washed fermentation processing method, with very bright and lively acidity, delicate and enticing like berries and red wine. When brewing, the rich berry aroma instantly emerges, with distinct flavors of cherry tomatoes and black plums upon entry. Acidity and aroma coexist in the mouth for a long time, with a cream-like sweetness in the aftertaste and lasting sweet afterglow.

FrontStreet Coffee Kenya Asalia

Region: Kenya Thika Region

Processing Station: Asali Processing Station

Altitude: 1550-1750m

Variety: SL28, SL34

Processing: Washed processing

Flavor: Pineapple, black plum, brown sugar, cherry tomatoes, plum

Thika is a small town located near Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. There are many coffee fields around Nairobi, and Thika is an industrial town surrounded by agriculture and waterfalls.

Asali Processing Station - "Asali" means "honey" in Swahili (Kenya's official languages are English and Swahili). The Honey Processing Station is located in the Thika region of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya's Aberdare Mountains, bordering Ethiopia to the east. The green bean processing method at the Honey Processing Station is primarily washed, graded by bean size, with final value determined by cupping.

Kenyan-style washed processing uses a cyclic重复处理法 that involves fermentation followed by washing. The highest quality coffee cherries are selected on the harvest day for depulping and fermentation, with a fermentation time of 24 hours. After 24 hours, they are washed with clean river water. Then, they undergo another 24-hour fermentation in clean river water, followed by washing, repeating this cycle 3 times to reach 72 hours, hence the name Kenyan 72-hour fermentation washed processing method, abbreviated as K72. This processing method allows coffee beans to ferment for a long time at low temperatures, giving the beans brighter, cleaner yet fuller flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Asalia AA has mature tomato and floral aromas, with cherry tomato and black plum flavors upon entry, bright acidity, clean and solid yet rich texture, prominent mid-palate sweetness with juice-like qualities, and a berry aroma and brown sugar sweetness in the aftertaste, along with green tea fragrance.

3. Panama - Geisha

Geisha is now a representative variety of specialty coffee, and the best Geisha is generally considered to be produced in Panama. However, this variety was actually discovered as early as 1931 in the Geisha forest of Ethiopia, then sent to Kenya's Coffee Research Institute, and introduced to Uganda and Tanzania around 1936, and to Costa Rica in 1953. Panama only started planting Geisha coffee in the 1970s. It wasn't until Panama La Esmeralda's owner Daniel Peterson participated in the 2004 Panama Coffee Bean Cupping Competition and became an overnight success that Geisha swept the globe. Geisha has full sweetness, extremely clean taste, and rich aromas that spread from berries and citrus to mango, papaya, and peach flavors. A very distinct bergamot-like aftertaste is also its typical cupping attribute, making it a recognized champion among coffee varieties. Geisha coffee beans are rated as moderate in body during cupping evaluation, with sweet, multi-layered tropical fruit flavors and rose-type aromatic aftertaste.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee's La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha has rich jasmine floral aroma and high sweetness upon entry, with citrus, berries, juice-like qualities, cream, green tea, orange peel, and cantaloupe. Overall flavor layers are rich, with lasting floral and citrus aromas in the aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Panama La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha

Region: Panama Boquete

Estate: La Esmeralda

Altitude: 1600-1800m

Variety: Geisha

Processing: Washed processing

Flavor: Jasmine, citrus, honeydew melon, berries, orange peel

Private Collection is the Green Label Geisha, not an independent competition batch. These are Geisha varieties grown from altitudes of 1600-1800 meters, selected from micro-batches from different plots such as Jaramillo, Cañas Verdes, etc.

Due to the mixed bean model without detailed plot specifications, sometimes the flavor similarity between Green Label and Red Label can be very high, but the next batch might have differences.

Although the Green Label is not as high-grade as the Red Label, it still carries Geisha's classic flavors: floral, fruity, citrus acidity, and thick, juicy texture. Green Label Geisha comes in both washed and natural processing.

4. Jamaica - Blue Mountain

The Blue Mountains are located in the eastern part of Jamaica. Because the mountain is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, on clear days when the sun shines directly on the azure sea surface, the peaks reflect the brilliant blue light of the seawater, hence the name. The highest peak of Blue Mountain reaches 2256 meters, making it the highest peak in the Caribbean region and a famous tourist destination. This area is located in the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, humid climate, and year-round fog and rain (average precipitation of 1980 mm, temperature around 27°C). Such climate has created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, as well as the world's highest-priced coffee. This coffee has all the characteristics of good coffee - not only rich and mellow in taste, but because the coffee's sweet, sour, and bitter flavors are perfectly balanced, it has no bitterness at all, only moderate and perfect acidity. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain is Blue Mountain coffee designated by the National Coffee Board's export company, packed in wooden barrels for green beans, and is Rainforest Alliance certified.

FrontStreet Coffee's Clifton Farm Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee has a clean taste, not as rich as the previous cup, with prominent chocolate and nutty flavors, and balanced sweet, sour, and bitter notes.

FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1

Region: Jamaica Blue Mountain

Estate: Clifton

Altitude: 1310m

Variety: Typica

Processing: Washed processing

Flavor: Dark chocolate, nuts, cream, balanced sweet-sour-bitter

5. Indonesia - Mandheling

Indonesia is one of Asia's famous coffee-producing countries, with the most famous being Mandheling coffee, which has low acidity and high concentration with grass-like aromas. It tastes rich and full-bodied, with a sweet aftertaste that leaves a deep impression. It's recommended for friends who don't like acidity. Since FrontStreet Coffee opened, we have always been loyal fans of Mandheling coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling from PWN company has also been deeply loved by FrontStreet Coffee fans. Golden Mandheling is the best of the best, selected from specialty grade. Mandheling that has undergone multiple manual screenings must have full and consistent appearance, with a cleaner taste and richer flavor than regular Mandheling.

FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee has multiple layers, mellow and clean, with high balance, rich nut and caramel aromas, chocolate notes, and lasting aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Indonesia Golden Mandheling

Region: North Sumatra, Aceh, Mount Gayo

Company: Pawani Company (PWN)

Altitude: 1100-1600m

Variety: Ateng

Processing: Wet-hulled method

Flavor: Toasted bread, nuts, pine, caramel, herbal

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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Tel:020 38364473