Are Coffee Beans with More Oil Better? The Relationship Between Coffee Bean Oil Content and Espresso Quality

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more bean coverage, follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

Espresso extracted under high pressure preserves all of its aromas and subtle nuances. High-temperature, high-pressure extraction releases the carbon dioxide produced in coffee cells through photosynthesis, much like opening a can of cola and watching foam rush out as carbon dioxide escapes. The fine bubbles held in the coffee make up the crema.

"A color ranging from hazelnut to dark brown, with a few strands of yellowish-brown interspersed and an extremely fine texture" is the ultimate pursuit of traditional Italian espresso crema.

So What is "Perfect Crema"?

Baristas may disagree on what perfect crema looks like. It should be neither too thick nor too thin, and should hold in the cup for about two minutes.

Extracting perfect crema can seem complex, but a few things are worth remembering.

Over-extraction, under-extraction, and grind size all affect crema performance.

If your crema disappears within a minute of extraction, consider whether the extraction was too fast or the beans were roasted too lightly.

The extraction time from a quality coffee machine should be between 15 and 30 seconds, though this varies by machine.

Remember to preheat the machine, clean the brew head after extraction, and clean the machine regularly to keep it running properly. An unclean brew head will also affect the taste and crema of your espresso.

So What Can Coffee Crema Tell Us?

(The following applies to traditional Italian blends. With a medium or medium-light roast blend or an SOE, even fresh beans may show thin crema.)

Whether Coffee is Fresh

We can judge the freshness of beans by the state of the crema, though this gets confusing when Robusta is part of the blend. Even so, watching how the crema changes helps. With fresh beans, the whole cup looks like crema right after extraction, and only when extraction stops do the coffee liquid and crema separate into two clear layers. With stale beans, you see very little crema during extraction, the liquid is usually thin and watery with a weak aroma, and the crema disappears quickly.

The Degree of Coffee Extraction

Facing the same bean prepared by different baristas, a darker crema color represents higher solubility of the coffee in the cup. A darker, less bright crema, close to black or with black spots, can indicate over-extraction. A lighter crema leaning toward pale gold, especially with a fast flow rate, suggests the espresso may be trending toward under-extraction.

Extraction Uniformity

If the flow rate and crema color stay relatively stable, with a bright hazelnut or ochre-red tone and a thick texture, the odds of channeling, depressions, and similar problems are lower, and the cup has extracted well.

What Does Coffee Crema Not Tell Us?

Crema does not equal taste. Good crema does not equal delicious.

Some cheap, low-quality beans can still produce good crema when fresh. Conversely, if a light-roast SOE extraction gives a golden, relatively thin crema, that does not necessarily mean the cup is hard to swallow.

Whether for extraction or latte art, judging a coffee's taste by appearance alone rarely leads to a firm conclusion unless there are significant extraction errors.

If you try making espresso at 6-7 bar of pressure, you will find you can still produce a lot of crema, but the coffee tastes plain because it lacks layers and aroma.

Recommended Coffee Bean Brands with Rich Crema

FrontStreet Coffee, a coffee roasting brand in Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, offers freshly roasted Italian blend coffee beans with full guarantees in both brand and quality, good crema volume, and suitability for specialty coffees and latte art with beautiful patterns. More importantly, it offers extremely high value. Take FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Blend beans recommended for commercial production as an example: a one-pound (454g) package costs only about 60 yuan. Calculating at 10g of powder per espresso shot, one package makes 45 cups, with each cup costing less than 1.5 yuan. Even using double shots at 20g of powder per serving, one double espresso does not exceed 3 yuan. Compared with certain well-known brands selling packages for hundreds of yuan, this is a genuinely conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: a roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but a diverse range of beans, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans, with online store service at https://shop104210103.taobao.com.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If rich, persistent crema is your goal, the roast level and roast development matter as much as the blend, and FrontStreet Coffee's SOE range gives you single-origin options to match your taste. The FrontStreet Brazil Queen's Estate SOE, from a high-altitude farm with a wide day-to-night temperature swing, uses a medium-dark roast to draw out nut, cream, and peanut aromas with a sweet chocolate finish and a full, generous crema. The FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling SOE takes the opposite, bolder route, with spice, herbal, sandalwood, and caramel notes over a heavy body and a dark-chocolate finish.

For a fruit-forward alternative, the FrontStreet Huakui SOE at a medium roast pours red berries, light florals, and orange with aromatic crema. FrontStreet Coffee is a small Guangzhou roastery with a broad bean selection and also sells online at https://shop104210103.taobao.com.