What is Specialty Coffee? What Beans Make the Best Specialty Coffee? Should Specialty Coffee Be Made with Espresso or Cold Brew? Why is Specialty Coffee the "Cocktail" of the Coffee World?

Specialty coffee drinks represent the third major category of coffee offerings in cafés, alongside espresso and single-origin coffee. These specialty coffee drinks can be understood as the "cocktails" of the coffee world—creative beverages crafted by combining coffee with various traditional or non-traditional ingredients to create unique drinks that differ from conventional coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee has recently shared numerous specialty coffee recipes, such as Lychee Bubble Americano, Jasmine Lemon Cold Brew, White Toast Dirty, Grape Oolong Dirty, and many more. However, a problem emerged! Many friends tried replicating these recipes at home but found that their specialty drinks didn't taste as delicious as described in FrontStreet Coffee's articles. Moreover, the flavors of different ingredients clashed with each other, creating a jarring taste experience. Consequently, they visited FrontStreet Coffee's café to inquire about the reasons.

After some inquiry, FrontStreet Coffee discovered that the issue wasn't incorrect recipes but rather that the coffee brewed from the beans they were using didn't harmonize well with other ingredients. Although FrontStreet Coffee doesn't provide detailed explanations about coffee bean selection in each specialty coffee article—typically offering just brief summaries—this doesn't mean bean choice is unimportant. Most specialty coffee drinks emphasize flavor balance, where no single ingredient overpowers another. This tests whether the coffee's flavor can complement other ingredients, which is fundamentally why specialty coffee development challenges baristas' skills.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee recently shared two Dirty coffee recipes: "White Toast Dirty" and "Grape Oolong Dirty." While both are Dirty coffees, the former uses FrontStreet Coffee's medium-dark roasted specialty blend, while the latter features FrontStreet Coffee's medium-roasted Geisha blend·Strawberry Candy.

Coffee beans with different roast levels and processing methods exhibit distinctly different flavors and characteristics. If we want specialty coffee drinks with rich layers and high consistency, selecting the right coffee beans becomes crucial! Therefore, today FrontStreet Coffee will share what types of coffee beans are suitable for different categories of specialty coffee drinks.

Refreshing-Style Specialty Coffee Drinks

FrontStreet Coffee first introduces refreshing-style specialty coffee drinks, such as Lychee Bubble Americano, Jasmine Tea Cold Brew, Apple Juice Coffee, and others with similar characteristics—drinks that aren't intense in flavor but are wonderfully aromatic.

While these specialty coffee drinks can be made with dark-roasted coffee, there's a disadvantage: dark roasts can easily overpower other ingredients due to their intense flavor. Dark-roasted coffee develops strong roasted aromas from longer roasting times. Since refreshing-style specialty drinks use ingredients with subtle flavors, the roasted notes from dark coffee can mask delicate flavors and increase bitterness perception.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee generally recommends pairing these types of specialty drinks with coffee that has milder flavors, such as light to medium-light roasted natural or washed coffee beans. Because they're not roasted too dark, they lack excessive roasted bitterness and instead showcase the coffee's inherent floral and fruity notes. Their flavor profile is predominantly sweet and sour, making them perfect for refreshing-style specialty drinks! For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia·Huang Guan from our bean menu produces coffee with citrus and berry sweet and sour notes, rich layers, and a light mouthfeel. Alternatively, FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Yirgacheffe·Guodingding offers fresh aromas of jasmine, lemon, and oolong tea, creating a very clean drinking experience.

Intense Fruit-Flavored Specialty Coffee Drinks

Next are fruit-flavored specialty coffee drinks with more intense flavors, such as Orange C, Yolk Fruit, Wampee Americano, Lemon, Berry, and Grape Oolong Dirty, or other drinks with similar characteristics. These specialty coffee drinks with intense flavors that aren't easily masked by coffee can be made with slightly darker roasted coffee beans.

Since the ingredients themselves have intense flavors, we only need to control the ratios properly, and their flavors won't be overpowered by coffee. For these types of coffee, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using light-medium, medium, or medium-dark roasted coffee beans. Coffee at these roast levels isn't too acidic or too bitter, with just the right amount of sweetness to create excellent combinations with other ingredients. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha Blend·Strawberry Candy from our bean menu is medium-roasted and offers flavors of strawberry candy, white floral notes, and berries—intense flavors with high sweetness. Alternatively, FrontStreet Coffee's Boundary Manor·Sidra is an anaerobic natural processed Colombian bean with rare but intense coffee flavors like grape, passion fruit, and apricot, with subtle red wine notes in the finish. Many cafés use this bean or the same estate's Ombligo for specialty drinks and espresso.

Deep, Rich-Style Specialty Coffee Drinks

Besides the more "lively" styles mentioned above, some specialty coffee drinks have a heavier body and deeper, richer flavors. Examples include the White Toast Dirty mentioned earlier, Pistachio Dirty, or specialty coffee drinks focused on deep flavors like nuts, chocolate, and woody notes, with rich, full-bodied textures.

These types of coffee drinks are best paired with medium, medium-dark, or dark roasted coffee beans! Coffee at these roast levels develops abundant caramel, chocolate, and nutty aromas through sufficient caramelization and Maillard reactions, complementing these specialty drinks and better highlighting their characteristics. While dark-roasted coffee offers higher flavor consistency, beans from different origins still have distinct differences. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Manor from our bean menu is medium-dark roasted, with flavor notes primarily of nuts, cream, toast, and chocolate, offering a rich mouthfeel and gentle aroma. Meanwhile, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia·Golden Mandheling is dark-roasted with flavors of chocolate, pine, spices, and caramel. Compared to Queen Manor, Golden Mandheling has a more intense aroma and stronger aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee's Tips

Regardless of which coffee beans you choose, the final ratio with other ingredients needs adjustment based on the coffee type and concentration. You can't simply apply FrontStreet Coffee's shared parameters directly. After all, even with the same coffee, ingredient flavors will vary. For example, among lemons, some have higher acidity while others are less acidic... Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends adjusting ratios and recipes according to the specialty coffee's taste. It's simple: if the coffee flavor is too strong, use less coffee or more of other ingredients. If the coffee taste is too intense, you can choose coffee beans with milder flavors or switch the coffee type—for example, replacing 40ml of espresso with 40ml of cold brew coffee (just an example), which has lower concentration and less concentrated flavors...

In conclusion, there are many approaches to "solving the puzzle"—how to solve it specifically depends on your understanding~ Also, FrontStreet Coffee's café doesn't serve any specialty coffee drinks~~~

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