How to Roast Beans for Different Brewing Methods? What's the Difference Between Pour-Over and Espresso Bean Roasting?

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Coffee enthusiasts who frequently visit FrontStreet Coffee know that FrontStreet Coffee specializes in pour-over coffee and espresso coffee. Pour-over coffee uses single-origin coffee beans, while espresso coffee uses blended coffee beans. To highlight their unique characteristics and flavors, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters also apply different roast levels to different coffee beans. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss the differences in roast levels between espresso beans and pour-over coffee beans.

What is Pour-Over Coffee?

First, what exactly is pour-over coffee? The pour-over coffee served at FrontStreet Coffee is what's commonly known in the coffee market as specialty coffee, also called single-origin coffee. This refers to coffee beans produced from a single origin, which can be traced back to their source, down to specific estates and their characteristics. Understanding the origin stories of coffee from the very beginning is the charm of single-origin pour-over coffee.

The countries producing specialty coffee are spread across the world and can be divided into three major continents: Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Due to different altitudes and climates in each region, coffee flavors vary significantly, allowing coffee enthusiasts to taste coffees with different flavor profiles.

Among these, Brazilian coffee, as one of FrontStreet Coffee's representatives from Latin America, has a very sweet and mellow flavor. Meanwhile, Ethiopia's most famous producing region, Yirgacheffe, has captivated a group of FrontStreet Coffee's coffee enthusiasts with its bright citrus and lemon acidity. For Asian coffee, Indonesian Mandheling is the most popular, winning over coffee fans with its unique herbal and spice flavors.

For these coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee applies different roast levels to highlight their respective flavor characteristics, bringing their flavors to FrontStreet Coffee's coffee enthusiasts in their best possible state. Generally, the deeper the roast level, the more mellow the coffee bean's flavor becomes.

Therefore, dark roasts are suitable for Indonesian Mandheling or Brazilian coffee. Conversely, lightly roasted coffee beans better highlight acidity, making them more suitable for roasting Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee beans. If Ethiopian Yirgacheffe were processed with a dark roast, it would destroy its bright acidic flavor. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters must consider the appropriate roast level for each coffee bean with different flavor characteristics.

How to Roast Pour-Over Coffee Beans

Pour-over coffee enhances the unique flavor characteristics of coffee, so when FrontStreet Coffee's roasters roast these beans, their goal is to preserve specific regional flavors. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, the longer the coffee bean's development phase during roasting, the higher the body will be, but this also sacrifices some acidity and fruit flavors.

Typically, the longer the development time during roasting, the more caramelized flavors and sweetness will be present. If you want to emphasize fruit flavors, you can shorten the development time. If you're aiming for caramelized flavors like chocolate, you can try extending the development time.

What are Espresso Coffee Beans?

Espresso coffee is what FrontStreet Coffee commonly calls blended coffee. What is blending? It involves mixing various single-origin coffee beans together. Usually, blending two or three coffee beans is more common. Several espresso beans currently produced by FrontStreet Coffee use two- and three-bean blending methods.

The purpose of blending is quite obvious - to bring together the flavors of different coffee beans and present a completely new flavor to achieve a more balanced effect. For example, if one coffee bean is smooth but lacks aroma, you can add another bean with rich aroma, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses. FrontStreet Coffee believes that it is precisely this complementary nature of espresso beans that makes them more widely accepted by the public. For example, the blended beans currently used at FrontStreet Coffee to make espresso are a combination of Honduras Sherry coffee beans and Ethiopian natural red cherry coffee beans, which show prominent characteristics in terms of aroma, fermentation sensation, and body.

How to Roast Espresso Coffee Beans

Espresso blend roasting is generally divided into two schools of thought. One prefers to blend first and then roast - what FrontStreet Coffee commonly calls "green blending." The other is to roast beans from different origins separately and then blend them, which is called "roasted blending." Of course, these two different methods naturally result in different coffee flavors.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's roasters' practical experience, using the method of blending green beans first and then roasting produces more uniform color and more consistent flavor presentation, making this method more convenient.

When using the method of roasting first and then blending, you need to have prior understanding of the different characteristics of beans from different origins, including their hardness and moisture content. The roasting process will be adjusted according to these conditions. Roasting first and then blending is equivalent to a one-to-one model, presenting the flavors possessed by each coffee bean one by one. The flavor layers are richer than the former method, but it also challenges the roaster's understanding of the beans.

Why Are Coffee Beans Roasted Differently for Pour-Over and Espresso?

Coffee enthusiasts who have visited FrontStreet Coffee know that espresso and pour-over coffee are essentially completely different brewing methods. When making espresso, an espresso machine uses hot water and pressure to extract the coffee puck, with a very short extraction time, so fine grinding is used to allow extraction of substances in a short time.

Pour-over coffee extraction takes longer and typically uses a coarser grind than espresso. Pour-over coffee uses more water, allowing hot water to absorb coffee substances over a longer time rather than through pressure extraction. Even when brewing the same coffee bean, the acidity and body of pour-over coffee will be lower than that of espresso.

Dark-roasted coffee beans have more pores than light-roasted ones, which means darker roasted beans extract substances more easily - that is, substances are extracted at a faster rate, and they can be used with a wider range of brewing methods than light-roasted coffee. Therefore, roast levels must be adjusted to ensure that coffee bean flavors are perfectly presented.

The above is the knowledge about pour-over coffee beans and espresso coffee bean roasting compiled by FrontStreet Coffee. We hope this article can help coffee enthusiasts who want to understand coffee roasting. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will recommend some coffee beans suitable for making espresso and pour-over single-origin coffee to all coffee enthusiasts.

FrontStreet Coffee Espresso Blend Recommendations

1. FrontStreet Coffee Premium Blend

Selected Colombia and Brazil in a 3:7 ratio.

Flavor characteristics: Comfortable sweet and bitter taste, extremely smooth entry, with a light grassy fragrance, fresh fragrance with a slight bitterness, sweet, smooth and pleasant, with a refreshing aftertaste.

2. FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Sunshine

Selected Honduras Sherry and Yirgacheffe Red Cherry in a 6:4 ratio.

Flavor characteristics: Distinct fruit acidity, with a lingering light berry aroma, rich wine and chocolate flavors, with a comfortable sweet aftertaste.

3. FrontStreet Coffee Commercial Blend

Selected Colombia, Brazil, and Robusta in a 3:6:1 ratio.

Flavor characteristics: Richer crema, classic taste, with caramel sweetness, nutty and cocoa flavors, dark chocolate notes, balanced sweet and sour, with a slight bitterness and long aftertaste.

4. FrontStreet Coffee Basic Blend

Selected Yunnan coffee beans and Brazilian coffee beans in a 3:7 ratio.

Flavor characteristics: Features gentle fruit acidity, caramel sweetness, nutty and dark chocolate flavors, smooth and viscous, but with a relatively lighter taste.

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-Over Coffee Bean Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Gedeb Gotiti Cooperative Coffee Beans

Region: Yirgacheffe, Gedeo Zone

Altitude: 1900-2300m

Variety: Heirloom

Processing: Natural

Grade: G1

Brewing flavors: Overall solid mouthfeel, with prominent fermentation aroma and tropical fruits. As temperature changes, berry and cream flavors emerge, with a lasting citrus sweet and sour sensation lingering between teeth and lips.

FrontStreet Coffee La Esmeralda Washed Green Label Coffee Beans

Region: Boquete, Panama

Estate: La Esmeralda

Altitude: 1600-1800m

Variety: Geisha

Processing: Washed

Brewing flavors: Rich jasmine fragrance, high sweetness, citrus, berries, juicy sensation, cream, green tea, orange peel, cantaloupe, with rich overall flavor layers and lasting floral and citrus aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Costa Rica Canet Musician Series · BAHÁ Coffee Beans

Country: Costa Rica

Region: Tarrazú

Altitude: 1950m

Processing: Raisin Honey

Grade: Strictly Hard Bean (SHB)

Variety: Caturra

Brewing flavors: Aroma reminiscent of rice wine fermentation, with sweet and sour notes of ripe tropical fruits and berries, nutty and creamy flavors, caramel aftertaste, and a light floral finish.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473