Traditional Roasting Method of Fushan Coffee Beans_How to Drink Fushan Coffee_Where to Buy Fushan Coffee

How are roasted coffee beans transformed, step by step, into a fragrant cup of Fushan coffee? Here is the traditional process, so you can make a cup of Fushan coffee yourself.

Traditional Roasting Method of Fushan Coffee Beans

The most traditional Fushan roasting method involves setting up a large pot, lighting a wood fire, taking a big iron spatula, and constantly stirring the beans poured into the pot. It might seem simple, but the size of the fire and the roasting time all depend on experience, and these factors directly affect the coffee's flavor. Fushan's roasting character is also reflected in the final step: after roasting, an appropriate amount of white sugar is added and the beans keep roasting. The sugar isn't there to sweeten the coffee - it forms a coating layer of dissolved sugar around the beans, sealing in the aroma. After this process, the beans go from brownish-black to black when removed from the pot. At this point, the roasting is complete. Nowadays many manufacturers use machine roasting, but Fushan people believe that only wood-fire roasted coffee carries human warmth.

Coffee Making Steps

1. Grinding Coffee

Fushan coffee was originally ground with stone mills of various sizes. Those mills are now almost unused, scattered in corners of the countryside. Modern machines have scales that adjust the grind coarseness to need. Finer coffee brews more bitter and clogs filter holes, so it's inconvenient for drip methods. Fushan coffee is generally medium-ground, with the machine scale set to position 4.

2. Brewing Coffee

Coffee doesn't have to be boiled - it can also be brewed in a French press. But Fushan people believe boiled coffee has enough body. Brewing this way is simple: you only need an aluminum kettle. After the water boils, pour in the coffee powder. Strength is a matter of taste, but the general ratio is coffee:water = 1:10. After adding the powder, stir in one direction for about 30 seconds, then lift the kettle off the heat. Brew too long, and the coffee will have nothing left but bitterness.

3. Filtering Coffee

Fushan coffee filtering requires two filter screens. Lift the kettle and pour directly through them, and the grounds will be filtered out.

4. Pouring into Cup

Now the coffee is ready - a pure cup of Fushan coffee. Drinking coffee has its etiquette too: smell first, then taste, taking a gentle small sip. When the coffee enters your mouth, don't swallow immediately - let it cover the entire surface of your tongue so every taste bud receives the coffee's message, then swallow. If you find it too bitter, you can add something.

5. Adding Evaporated Milk

Since Fushan coffee is medium-grade Robusta, with slightly less aroma than Arabica, it is traditionally served not with sugar or fresh milk but with fragrant condensed milk. Of course, what you add depends on personal preference.

6. Fushan Coffee is Ready, Can be Enjoyed

In Hainan dialect, drinking coffee is called "eating coffee."

Coffee without condensed milk is called "ge bi ou" in Hainan dialect - translated, it means "coffee black," that is, black coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Roasting determines whether a coffee leans bitter, sweet, or sour: the darker the roast, the more bitter and full-bodied; the lighter, the more acidic and delicate. For balanced flavor, medium roast is the sweet spot - which is why FrontStreet Coffee builds its everyday lineup around well-executed medium roasts.

If you don't like sourness but also dislike harsh bitterness, FrontStreet's Brazil Fazenda Rainha is a reliable choice: Yellow Bourbon from the world's largest coffee producer, medium roasted to show creamed peanut, chocolate, toasted bread, and sugarcane sweetness, equally good in a pour-over, moka pot, or espresso machine. For a sweeter medium roast, the Strawberry Candy blend - Costa Rican honey-process coffee married with Panamanian washed Geisha - offers orange-blossom honey notes and rounded sweetness across cold brew, pour-over, and espresso.

Two more medium-roast standouts: FrontStreet's 2013 Yunnan Natural Typica, with authentic Yunnan small-bean character - nuts, brown sugar, black tea, and dried apricot - great for pour-over, cold brew, or drip machines at excellent value; and Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1, a Typica lot medium roasted so its acidity, bitterness, sweetness, and body fuse into an elegant cup of chocolate, roasted nut, cream, and caramel that few coffees can match.