SOE: Pour-over or Espresso? How Different Are Single-Origin Beans and SOE Espresso Beans?

Espresso vs. Pour-Over: Understanding Your Coffee Choices

When you walk into a coffee shop, you typically face two types of choices: espresso and pour-over. At FrontStreet Coffee, if you want pour-over, you can choose single-origin beans from different regions; while for espresso, you need to decide between Americano, latte, cappuccino, and other categories, and some shops also offer the option to "switch to SOE."

Nowadays, more and more famous single-origin beans have launched SOE versions, such as Geisha, Yirgacheffe, and Guji. Some friends are curious: these SOE coffee beans that are generally used for espresso extraction, can they also be used for pour-over?

What is the biggest characteristic of SOE?

Traditionally, coffee shops have prioritized using darker roasted and oil-rich espresso blend beans to ensure consistent production and achieve balanced flavor profiles. Since they mix two or even several different batches from various places, the regional flavor characteristics of the coffee beans become difficult to identify.

If we set aside various flavors and speak conceptually, SOE is simply an espresso made from any single-origin coffee bean. "Single-origin beans" refer to coffee that was already separated at the origin, ensuring that quality batches remain independent. The so-called "single" can refer to a province, a town, a village, a processing station, a farm... In short, the emphasis is on the impact of regional terroir on the coffee.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee's commonly used Frontsteet Sunflower Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend is composed of two single-origin beans - Frontsteet Honduras Sherry and Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry - mixed in a 7:3 ratio. Before each use, the barista mixes the two roasted beans in a fixed ratio to create the "blend" and then pours it into the bean hopper. However, if we take only the Frontsteet Natural Red Cherry and extract it using an espresso machine, the resulting concentrate would be what we know as Yirgacheffe SOE.

In other words, SOE products sold on the market are coffee beans from a single origin that are also suitable for espresso machine extraction. Typically, because they use higher quality (grade) coffee beans, the price is also relatively higher.

Is there a big difference between SOE coffee beans and pour-over single-origin beans?

In the past, our impression of espresso flavor was balanced, rich in texture, with aromatic oils and a burnt aroma, and most black coffee had a bitter taste. This wasn't due to the extraction method, but rather the ingredients used. Espresso coffee cannot be priced too high and requires large quantities, so when it comes to bean requirements, cost comes first, followed by stability, and finally flavor. To accommodate the compatibility of beans from various origins, roasters would roast them darker, so the resulting coffee was basically characterized by caramel, nuts, and chocolate.

Unlike the previous goal of striving for stability, with the introduction of specialty coffee concepts, everyone began to emphasize unique regional flavors, advocating for coffee with clean texture, obvious fruit aromas, and a light, elegant profile. Therefore, the entire coffee community gradually popularized various "acidic coffees." For example, the white flower fragrance of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe, the clean sweetness of FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica, the rich berry notes of FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya, the citrus-honey melody of FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha, the fermented wine flavor of FrontStreet Coffee's anaerobic coffee, and so on.

As a concept that became popular under the development trend of specialty coffee, SOE carries a particularly important mission: to emphasize the origin while highlighting the excellent flavor of the coffee beans themselves. Unlike blends, SOE more easily amplifies the characteristics of the beans, especially for lightly roasted coffee. Besides the intense flavor, the espresso also has stimulating acidity, often leaving a lasting impression.

Since deeper roasting promotes more caramelization, to retain more floral and fruit aromas and make flavor attributes more recognizable, the roast level must not be too dark; otherwise, the bitterness becomes too heavy and overwhelms the original terroir flavors. However, too light a roast can cause underdeveloped texture or amplify the acidity of the beans under the high temperature and pressure of the coffee machine, making the espresso sharp and difficult to tolerate, while also potentially causing under-extraction due to the coffee beans being too hard in texture.

Therefore, for the same coffee bean, many merchants will launch two different roasting curves for pour-over and SOE purposes. Typically, floral-fruity acidic pour-over singles are presented with light-medium roast, while SOE beans are roasted slightly darker than pour-over but not completely changing their flavor profile. This allows the espresso to have both fruit acidity and the sweet aroma brought by caramelization, so most are controlled at medium roast.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's Frontsteet Guji coffee beans as an example. The roast degree section is divided into "Pour-over Light-Medium Roast" and "SOE Espresso Roast." The former is suitable for normal pressure extraction methods such as pour-over, cold brew, French press, and drip bags, while the latter is preferred for pressure extraction methods like espresso machines and moka pots.

What should you pay attention to when making pour-over with SOE coffee beans?

Although we say that SOE coffee beans' roasting curve is more suitable for espresso extraction, as long as the extraction is done properly, they can also make delicious pour-over coffee. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, most products labeled as SOE use light-medium, medium, or medium-dark roast levels. The expansion rate and flavor profile of these beans fall between light and dark roasts, so regarding brewing parameter selection, we can first determine the roast level based on the flavor description on the packaging.

For SOE beans with flavor descriptions exclusively of floral, fruit, tea notes, and various acidic qualities, they are likely light-medium roast. Short heating time makes these beans harder in texture and less likely to release soluble substances, so we can use high-temperature water at 92-93°C and a grind size similar to fine sugar (80% pass-through rate with a #20 sieve screen) for brewing;

If the SOE beans you bought commonly feature words like dark chocolate, cocoa, spices, hazelnut, caramel, rich, and cream on the packaging, it indicates the coffee uses a medium-dark roast. Extended heating time makes the bean structure more porous, easily absorbing water and releasing bitter substances. At this time, it's recommended to use water temperature below 88°C with a grind size similar to white sugar/coarse sugar (70% pass-through rate with a #20 sieve screen) for extraction;

The remaining SOE coffee beans are those with both floral-fruity aromas and tea notes, as well as nuts, cookies, milk chocolate, or carrying flavors such as fermented wine aroma, candy, and honey. We can determine these as medium roast. When making pour-over, we might as well use a combination of 89-90°C water temperature + medium grind (75% pass-through rate with a #20 sieve screen) to present them.

Important Notice :

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