What does SOE single origin coffee mean? What are the differences in characteristics, flavor, and quality between SOE and blended coffee beans?

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For a long time, many people have chosen to drink Americano or latte for their daily coffee due to convenience and not needing to select coffee beans. However, in the past two years, the trend of SOE has suddenly emerged. Many people have expressed: "Now when I go to a coffee shop and order an Americano, I have to choose coffee beans, which is really troublesome!" So they asked FrontStreet Coffee: What's the difference between SOE and regular espresso, and why does it usually cost a few extra dollars.

What is SOE?

S.O.E (Single Origin Espresso) refers to using coffee beans from a single origin (Single Origin) to make espresso (Espresso), which differs somewhat from our previous understanding of Italian coffee.

Traditional Italian coffee typically uses dark roast and coffee beans blended from different origins, with the goal of ensuring that every cup of espresso has a stable flavor profile, but it often tends to be rather intense. In contrast, SOE espresso determines the roast level based on the characteristics of the beans and uses coffee beans from a single origin, so drinking espresso is no longer the balanced bitterness and rich texture we once imagined.

Does SOE taste better than regular espresso?

Not necessarily! Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. The third wave of coffee has several characteristics: emphasis on coffee bean freshness, lighter roasting levels, use of single-origin coffee beans (transparent origin information), and greater focus on coffee bean flavor descriptions. Using specialty coffee beans roasted lighter than blends to make Italian coffee can indeed showcase more abundant flavors, unlike blended coffee, which typically has monotonous nutty and cocoa notes.

However, not all lightly roasted specialty coffee beans are suitable for making SOE. As agricultural products, the flavor expression of coffee beans varies with changes in climate and soil conditions each year. Additionally, different origins have distinct flavor profiles. A coffee that might express lemon-like acidity and honey-green tea aftertaste when brewed using pour-over methods can become sharply acidic and thin in texture with limited body when extracted under pressure.

The approach of blending coffee beans from different origins emerged because when using coffee beans from a single origin under fine grinding and pressurized extraction, both the good and bad flavors in the coffee are amplified. This led to the idea of combining coffee beans from different origins, each with their unique flavors, in a complementary way to create a more balanced and uniform final extraction.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that the advantage of SOE is that it allows milk coffee drinkers to experience the rich flavors in coffee, while the disadvantage is that coffee beans vary daily, making it difficult to maintain consistent espresso quality over time, and costs are also higher.

On the other hand, the advantage of blended coffee beans is that even when the flavor profile changes with new harvest seasons, the espresso can maintain a stable taste through ratio adjustments. The disadvantage is that stability can only be achieved through dark roasting, sacrificing abundant flavors, but costs are relatively lower.

How to extract SOE?

Making SOE greatly tests the barista's extraction skills. It requires considering the roast level of the coffee beans and gradually adjusting different extraction parameters to achieve the best extraction result. Therefore, there is no specific data that can be used as a reference. FrontStreet Coffee has noticed in past extraction experiments that the extraction time and speed for single-origin coffee beans are often faster than for blended coffee beans.

So when adjusting SOE extraction parameters, it's essential to taste every batch of espresso. If it seems too thin, the grind might be too coarse/the dose too little/the yield too large. If it's too intense/bitter, the grind might be too fine/the dose too much/the yield too little.

SOE Coffee Bean Recommendations

Although FrontStreet Coffee stores don't offer SOE options, we regularly experiment with making various single-origin SOEs. After countless experiments, FrontStreet Coffee recommends the following three single-origin coffee beans for making SOE:

"FrontStreet Coffee - Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Sun-Dried Red Cherry Coffee Bean" - This light roast coffee bean produces espresso with fine, delicate crema that leans toward pale yellow. It has a berry-sweet aroma and doesn't overwhelm the palate, offering sweet and sour berry notes with caramel undertones.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Costa Rica Mozart Coffee Bean" - Medium roast, producing espresso with fine, delicate crema in a pale yellow color. It has a raisin aroma and delivers rich sweet and sour notes with fruit fermentation flavors.

"FrontStreet Coffee - Honduras Sherry Coffee Bean" - Medium roast, producing espresso with cream-like crema in a golden color. It has a whiskey aroma and delivers vanilla cream and nutty caramel flavors.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473