Coffee culture

What Does Single-Origin Coffee Mean? A Guide to Espresso Beans Beyond Just Latte Art

Published: 2026-01-28 Author: FrontStreet Coffee
Last Updated: 2026/01/28, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to the difference between single-origin and blended coffee. Single-origin is a broad term that's easily misunderstood. Traditionally, there are two understandings of single-origin: the most widespread is coffee from a single variety or single producing region, which is a concept beneficial to growers as it allows differentiation from the source.

Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to the Difference Between Single Origin and Blended Coffee

Single origin is a broad term that is easily misunderstood. Traditionally, there are two understandings of single origin. The most widespread refers to coffee from a single variety or single region, which is a concept beneficial to growers as it allows for distinguishing regional flavors from the source. In reality, it's difficult to achieve single variety, especially in Africa where the same estate often grows various varieties mixed together, making them difficult to distinguish. It's not impossible—many top estates can offer single varieties, such as the Geisha variety from Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda. But what's the significance of pursuing single varieties? It's actually about promoting unique flavors, emphasizing that this particular tree variety in the estate produces distinctive coffee flavors, which is a method to enhance product value.

In fact, in most cases, our green beans are inevitably mixed varieties, so single origin more often refers to a single region. For example, Yirgacheffe is typical for its inherent citrus flavor, while Kenya is known for its inherent fruit flavors. Even if RUIRU11 variety beans are added, Kenyan coffee is still called single origin.

Espresso made by a steam pressure coffee machine is called Italian espresso. The steam pressure extraction machine was invented by Italians. Based on Italian espresso, combined with milk, milk foam, chocolate, ice cream, and various other combinations, these fancy or creative coffees are all called Italian coffee. The key terms are Italian coffee machine and Italian espresso. All coffee in this system is called Italian coffee. Therefore, Italian coffee is a system—a system based on espresso quickly extracted by a steam pressure coffee machine.

Italian coffee beans are mainly blended with Arabica and Robusta, which can improve the lack of richness, body, and texture in Italian coffee, while also effectively reducing costs. The main characteristic of Italian coffee is that it can be used for latte art, but good latte art cannot cover up poor coffee taste, so it still needs to be both delicious and beautiful.

This system was originally only spread in Italy and Europe. Later, Starbucks received Wall Street investment and expanded globally, which pushed Italian coffee to the world stage, becoming the leader of the second coffee revolution.

At FrontStreet Coffee, we not only have more than 30 different single origins to choose from, but also Italian coffee beans blended from pure Arabica beans, offering more distinct and pleasant flavors.

Knowledge point: Concentrate made from single origin is also called SOE (Single Origin Espresso).

About FrontStreet Coffee

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research center that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation just to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Additionally, we hold low-discount coffee activities three times every month because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends enjoy the best coffee at the lowest price—this has been our mission for the past 6 years!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473

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