Specialty Coffee Brewing Techniques: How to Brew Coffee with Green Tea-like Flavors and Aftertaste

Tea-like sensation - a term anyone who grew up drinking tea understands instinctively - turns up again and again in the world of coffee, and has become one of the standard flavor descriptors for premium coffees.

A tea lover once told FrontStreet Coffee that if she could find a coffee with both floral and fruity aromas and a tea-like character, it would be a wonderful experience. Yet even when she bought beans described as having a "tea-like sensation" and brewed them at home, she could never reproduce what she had tasted in a cafe. Either the extraction turned bitter, or the floral aroma and fruit acidity were there but it simply did not taste like tea. So she came to ask FrontStreet Coffee whether there was a method for brewing that tea-like quality out of coffee.

What is Tea-like Sensation in Coffee?

When we drink tea, tea polyphenols are the key substances behind its charm and its mouthfeel, and they are also among the main compounds that create tea's aroma and color, shaping the experience as they change during brewing. Among this family of polyphenols, tea tannins make up the largest share and create a "rough" sensation in the mouth. When the concentration is high enough, we get what we call "tea-like sensation."

In coffee tasting, we judge a cup by its before-tasting aroma, the mouthfeel as it enters, and the aftertaste aroma once swallowed, then draw on foods we have encountered before to describe the flavor that results.

So for a cup of coffee, when the aroma, the aftertaste, and the level of sweetness in the mouth all call to mind a particular tea - the fresh purity of green tea, the fruit-and-honey aroma of black tea, the floral-fruity and roasted notes of an oolong blend, or the aged aroma of dark tea - we can describe that coffee as having a "tea-like sensation."

Which Coffee Beans Are More Likely to Have Tea-like Sensation?

As we all know, a light roast preserves the fruit acidity in coffee while greatly reducing the release of bitter compounds, and the beans' own rich aromas come through as well. The result is a cup that feels far less like the bitter black coffee we picture and much more like a cup of tea.

Looking at FrontStreet Coffee's bean list, washed high-altitude beans such as Panama Washed Geisha (Green Label), Boquete, Mariposa, Washed Yirgacheffe Guddina, and Kaffa Forest often show the refreshing sweetness of green tea and oolong. Sun-dried or honey-processed, fruit-forward coffees such as Sidamo Guji, Geisha Village Gold and Red Label, and New Oriental Geisha lean toward the rounded character of black tea and floral tea. And beans with a balanced acid-bitter-sweetness, such as Tianzun Niao and FrontStreet Coffee's Typica, carry the charm of Pu'er tea.

How to Brew Coffee with Tea-like Sensation?

To bring out that ideal tea-like character, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with three small details: use a flat-bottom dripper (for a soaking effect), increase the water amount (to draw out the late-stage compounds), and reduce the flow rate (to extend extraction time). Below we demonstrate with Washed Kaffa Forest.

Coffee beans: Ethiopia Washed Kaffa Forest
Dripper: ceramic cake cup
Water temperature: 92°C
Dose: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:16

Grind size: EK43s setting 10 (sieved to 80% through a #20 sieve)

Three-stage extraction: first, pour 15g of coffee grounds into the dripper and level the bed. The first stage is 30g of water for a 30-second bloom; start the timer as you pour. Use a small stream, injecting at the center point and then circling outward, so the entire bed is moistened.

In the second stage, keep using a straight, small stream to inject 120g of water, lifting the whole bed. Try larger circles so that every particle enters a state of degassing and extraction. Finish at around 1 minute 05 seconds, at which point the scale will read 150g.

When the liquid level has dropped about halfway, begin the third stage: a small stream, small circles, 90g. Try not to swing too wide, since that easily disturbs the bed and causes under-extraction. A gentle rinse also helps release the coffee's sweet compounds in the later stages.

Total water should come to 240g. Wait until all the coffee liquid has finished dripping - about 2 minutes 20 seconds - then remove the dripper. Brewed this way, the Kaffa Forest shows white flowers, citrus, and nectarine, with the fresh aroma of grapefruit peel and snow pear tea on entry and a clear, sweet aftertaste. It really does resemble a cup of floral tea.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For the purest expression of tea-like character, look no further than FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Guddina Cooperative. A classic washed Yirgacheffe, it is known for white-floral sweetness and bright citrus acidity, with a jasmine-like perfume and a green tea finish. Brewed as pour-over you get clear floral and fruity notes, lifted lemon acidity, and honeyed sweetness; brewed as cold brew, the cold soak draws out more of the coffee's light, small molecules for an iced coffee as refreshing as tea.

If you want fruit alongside the tea, try FrontStreet Sun-Dried Huakui. Its creamy strawberry character comes from ripe cherries developing rich sweetness during sun-drying. The silky entry brings to mind delicate orange blossom, joined by juicy tropical fruit such as guava and mango for an extra layer of complexity.

And to experience the same quality in a Geisha, choose FrontStreet Boquete Geisha, grown around the town of Boquete in Panama - home to estates as celebrated as Esmeralda and Elida. It carries the classic mandarin-honey sweetness of the region, releasing fragrant white coffee-blossom aromas when brewed, then citrus, melon, and honey on the palate with a caramel thread. It suits pour-over, drip bags, cold brew, the clever dripper, and the French press.