Understanding Single-Origin Coffee Beans: Surprising Insights About the Differences Between Single-Origin and Blended Coffee

In some coffee shops, there's a particular choice known as SOE. SOE stands for Single Origin Espresso. Many specialty coffee shops create the misconception that single-origin coffee beans are superior to espresso blend beans. Some customers visiting FrontStreet Coffee's physical stores want to experience the flavors of single-origin espresso, only to learn that FrontStreet Coffee doesn't offer SOE.

As we all know, each variety of single-origin pour-over coffee beans possesses its own unique flavor characteristics. For instance, African coffee beans are renowned for their prominent citrus and berry acidic aromas. These African pour-over coffee beans, when carefully roasted and brewed with appropriate parameters, will reveal their proper flavors.

Understanding Espresso Making Principles

Before understanding SOE, FrontStreet Coffee needs to explain to everyone the principles of making espresso. When watching coffee shops' baristas prepare milk-based coffee, you can often witness this scene: quickly loading coffee grounds into the portafilter, distributing them evenly, tamping, brewing, and then an espresso base is ready.

This process involves multiple factors: utilizing extremely fine grinding to transform coffee beans into coffee powder, then leveling the portafilter, attaching it to the brew head, and turning on the brewing switch. The espresso machine will use high pressure of 9 bars to force near-boiling hot water through the compact coffee puck, and then rich, viscous coffee liquid drips out.

As long as the extraction parameters are within the appropriate range, the resulting coffee liquid will naturally extract all the ideal water-soluble substances from the coffee beans into the espresso. However, due to the concentrated flavors, most people choose to dilute it with milk or water for consumption.

Single-Origin vs. Blended Coffee

Single-origin coffee beans refer to coffee beans from a single region and variety. With the third wave of specialty coffee, more and more coffee shops are offering single-origin coffee. The emergence of single-origin coffee is most importantly about the traceability of coffee beans, allowing coffee enthusiasts to know that this high-quality coffee comes from a specific unique region or estate, and even the coffee variety. These single-origin coffee beans carry distinctive flavors from their origin, region, and variety that are highly recognizable. It is precisely the third wave of coffee, which emphasizes pursuing coffee knowledge such as brewing methods and origin flavors, that has made single-origin coffee more popular. Single-origin beans are generally suitable for pour-over, cold drip, and cold brew.

As mentioned earlier, the characteristic of single-origin coffee beans is their ability to present unique regional flavors. For example, the berry acidity of FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya beans, if used to make SOE, would maximize both its good and bad flavors. The espresso made from FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya single-origin beans might also produce unpleasant sharp acidic flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's single-origin beans are roasted specifically for making pour-over coffee, to better allow customers to experience the beauty of the origins. When customers want to taste espresso at FrontStreet Coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's stores do not offer SOE, nor do they recommend using FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over beans as SOE beans. Instead, they use FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warmth Espresso Blend.

Understanding Coffee Blends

Blended beans, also known as comprehensive beans, are created by mixing various single-origin coffee beans to fully utilize the strengths of each variety while also masking some flawed flavors. Comprehensive blended beans are made from coffee beans mixed from different origins to create a more balanced flavor profile. For example, if one coffee bean has a mild mouthfeel but lacks body, another bean with rich body can be added to complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, creating a richer new taste through complementary or enhanced flavors. Sometimes the beans are mixed before roasting, which is called raw blending; sometimes the beans are mixed after roasting, which is called post-roast blending.

Whether it's raw blending or post-roast blending, before creating a blend, one must first understand the different flavors of coffee varieties from around the world, as beans have different characteristics based on their origins. Different coffee beans have different personalities due to different varieties and origins, with subtle differences in acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, and body. To create better blended products, roasters must not only be thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of coffee beans but also master high-level roasting techniques. Therefore, creating a good blended bean is quite challenging.

General espresso beans are mostly used for espresso-based drinks such as Espresso, Americano, Latte, or Cappuccino. The coffee's flavor is more balanced, smoother, and more consistent, making it more appealing to the general public.

FrontStreet Coffee's Special Blends

At FrontStreet Coffee's stores, you can experience a unique blend with whiskey aroma that is unparalleled in the market—FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warmth Blend. This special FrontStreet Coffee Warmth espresso blend is composed of two single-origin beans, suitable for both espresso and pour-over. When made as espresso, it tastes like chocolate; when consumed as single-origin, it has bright fruit acidity, long-lasting wine notes, and a persistent, pleasant aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee: FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warmth Blend Coffee Beans

Origins: Honduras & Ethiopia

Varieties: Caturra, Catuai, Pacas, Local Native Varieties

Processing Methods: Washed & Natural

This FrontStreet Coffee espresso blend contains rich wine aroma because it includes 70% FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry coffee beans. After coffee cherries are picked, they immediately undergo washed processing, then are placed in sherry whiskey barrels for low-temperature fermentation for 30 to 40 days. Those who have tried various single-malt whiskies should know that there are many types of whiskey aging barrels: wine barrels, port barrels, bourbon barrels, and sherry barrels. Whiskey aged in different barrels will carry the flavor characteristics of those barrels, making them quite unique. Among them, sherry whiskey is the sweetest of all whiskey varieties. When coffee beans ferment in sherry whiskey barrels, the sherry whiskey aroma substances from the barrels gradually penetrate into the raw coffee beans over time, allowing the enticing wine aroma to appear in the final coffee liquid.

Additionally, this FrontStreet Coffee espresso blend contains 30% FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry, which provides berry acidity to this coffee. When paired with milk, the berry acidity better highlights the sweetness of the milk. Even when consumed directly as espresso, besides the rich wine aroma, you can also taste berry and chocolate flavors, with a thick and smooth mouthfeel.

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473