What is SOE? What are Single Origin and Blended Coffee Beans? What Does Specialty Coffee Represent? Why Does Espresso Have Acidity?

What is SOE and Why Are Most SOEs Acidic?

SOE, meaning "espresso extracted from single-origin coffee beans," has become one of the hottest products in coffee shops in recent years. Although not all coffee shops' SOEs are primarily acidic, at least the vast majority are. This leads to a situation where whenever we visit a new shop and want to drink an acidity-dominated espresso, we habitually scan the menu to see if there are SOE options.

The Origins of SOEs and Blends

So, the question arises: why are most SOEs acidic? To answer this question, we need to understand the causal relationship between SOEs and blends!

Although SOE is a concept that has only become popular in recent years, in fact, as early as when espresso machines were first invented, the espresso people extracted was SOE! At that time, there were no concepts like single-origin, blend, or SOE. People only knew that the coffee beans they used came from Mocha, Brazil, or Colombia, and this was taken for granted.

It wasn't until later, when the consumer market reached a certain scale, coupled with wars creating gaps in material scarcity, that the supply of some coffee beans became problematic. People were forced to start looking for other coffee beans as substitutes. And Robusta was the popular "substitute" at that time. Under deep roasting, Robusta's bitterness is quite stimulating. Obviously, not everyone could accept such a taste. So people came up with a good idea: blending coffee beans!

By adding some Arabica, not only could the taste of Robusta be diluted, but also the proportion and importance of Arabica usage could be reduced. Because this approach was very practical, it quickly spread. Over time, blended coffee beans began to gain popularity.

Even in an era of abundant materials, the practice of blending coffee beans did not stop! Because people discovered that there were simply too many benefits to blending coffee beans! Besides being able to save costs and dilute the importance of each bean, it could also use the strengths of each bean to compensate for the weaknesses of another. Most importantly, it offered extremely high stability. So to this day, blended beans remain the mainstay of espresso in major coffee shops.

The Rise of Specialty Coffee

It wasn't until Ms. Erna Knutsen proposed the concept of specialty coffee that a crack began to appear in the era when blended beans reigned supreme. In the article "Why Are Most Coffees Acidic Today?" FrontStreet Coffee elaborated in detail that for a long time, coffee beans were deep-roasted, not only due to issues with roasting equipment of the time, but also due to the impact of uneven quality of coffee beans.

When Ms. Erna Knutsen proposed this concept, various industry leaders began improving coffee bean quality through various methods, including: establishing standards, spreading scientific cultivation techniques, and purchasing high-quality coffee at premium prices (such as the "Red Cherry Project"). These methods could help and incentivize coffee farmers to cultivate and harvest coffee more carefully in order to obtain high returns. Gradually, the quality of coffee beans began to improve!

When the quality of the beans improved, people no longer needed to use extremely deep roasting to cover the negative flavors of low-quality coffee. Through experimentation, they discovered that without the burnt bitterness brought by deep roasting, beans could emit more charming floral and fruity aromas. From this point on, coffee bean roasting became increasingly lighter. But this was limited to single-origin coffee; in the espresso field, people were still constrained by "tradition."

The SOE Revolution

This situation was not broken until 2007! Because Mr. James Hoffman brought the concept of SOE "Single Origin Espresso" to the world coffee competition stage. At that time, most baristas were researching how to blend multiple beans to create a delicious deep-roasted coffee, while Mr. Hoffman took an unconventional approach, using a single-origin, light-roasted coffee bean to make espresso.

Unsurprisingly, due to the outstanding floral and fruity aromas of SOE, he won the championship at the competition. From that point on, baristas realized that espresso should not be limited to certain conventions. Therefore, the concept of SOE was able to spread!

Conclusion: Why Most SOEs Are Acidic

In summary, we can understand that most SOEs are acidic because they use lighter roasting, which allows for more regional flavors to be experienced. But as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned at the beginning, not all SOE coffee beans use medium-light roasting, for example, Mandheling and Brazil. Through years of subtle influence, people's impression of them is that they must be deep-roasted. Ultimately, it's because the impression left by their deep-roasted versions is too strong that the saying emerged: "Only deep-roasted Mandheling can truly be Mandheling!" Therefore, even though light roasting might offer better performance, people are still willing to use deep roasting to prepare these beans.

So, why are most SOEs in coffee shops acidic? This brings us to another reason: to provide customers with more choices! Classic deep-roasted blends are an essential presence in every coffee shop. When a shop already has a deep-roasted coffee bean, choosing another bean as SOE naturally leads people to select medium-light roasted coffee beans in order to provide more options. If they were to choose another deep-roasted coffee bean, the homogeneity would be too severe~

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