Understanding Coffee Culture to Appreciate Great Coffee

The Great Transformation: Drinking Black Coffee Without Sugar or Milk

Three Waves of Coffee Revolution

The first wave of coffee emerged with instant coffee. In the sweet taste adjusted by coffee creamer and partners, the Chinese coffee journey began.

The second wave of coffee saw the rise of chain coffee markets, followed by the emergence of small cafes with various styles. Most second wave cafes sold concepts and environments while neglecting the quality of coffee itself. Various fancy coffees masked the true flavor of coffee.

The third wave of coffee revolution brought a group of true coffee lovers and specialty coffee advocates who began to offer single-origin coffees (single region/single estate/single variety), using self-roasted coffee beans, with roasting degrees changed to light and medium roasts. They insisted on providing specialty coffee, spreading authentic coffee culture with exclusive cultural meanings, offering coffee directly from origins, along with their exclusive culture and techniques, with the purpose of returning coffee to its true quality.

Specialty Coffee

First proposed by Ms. Erna Knutsen, known as the "godmother of specialty coffee," in the "Tea & Coffee Journal" in 1974, emphasizing that "only in the most favorable microclimates and soil conditions can unique flavored specialty coffee be cultivated," aiming to distinguish it from bulk commercial coffee in the New York futures trading market. In 1972, Ms. Knutsen and Donald N. Schoenholt and five others co-founded the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), and the term "specialty coffee" became a global term.

SCAA's Definition of Specialty Coffee:

Carefully select the most suitable varieties, planted in the altitude, climate and soil environment most conducive to coffee flavor development;

Careful washed and sun-dried processing, selecting flawless highest-grade green beans, transported with zero defects to customers;

Through the excellent craftsmanship of roasters, bring out the richest regional flavor;

Then use recognized extraction methods to brew delicious coffee.

Regional flavor refers to the different coffee flavors created by different soils, varieties, climates and water conditions, which is the soul of coffee from specialty growing regions. In short, specialty coffee should be a high-quality coffee with the trinity of "good green beans, good roasting, good extraction."

Commercial Beans vs. Specialty Beans

Of the coffee beans produced in the world today, 70% are Arabica, divided into Typica, Bourbon, etc., and 30% are Robusta. Arabica quality is generally higher than Robusta, but Arabica has weaker disease resistance, so in the consumer market, the proportion of Arabica is much smaller than Robusta. Moreover, not all Arabica beans can be used to make specialty coffee; they must undergo strict cupping scoring.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America states that through comprehensive cupping (blind testing), beans scoring 80 points or above can be defined as specialty coffee beans. Blind test scores below 80 points can be classified as commercial beans, with longer packaging and transportation processes, where freshness cannot be guaranteed.

But this standard only applies to washed Arabica coffee and is not comprehensive, so now "specialty beans" are generally understood as single-origin beans with higher quality, proper processing methods, traceable variety origins, and unique flavors.

Famous Single-Origin Coffees

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain: Produced in the high mountains of Jamaica, a treasure among coffees, with a fragrant, sweet and gentle taste, no bitterness but with a slight sweetness, extremely limited production, expensive price.

Mocha: Produced in Ethiopia, small beans with strong fragrance, strong acidity, with a slight wine aroma, spicy and stimulating, with special flavor, it's a renowned high-quality coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe: Produced in Ethiopia, with strong jasmine fragrance, lemon or lime acid aroma, as well as peach, almond sweet aroma or tea aroma.

Cuba Crystal Mountain: Adjacent to Jamaica's Blue Mountain range, with gentle fragrance, moderate concentration, almost no acidity.

FrontStreet Coffee Indonesia Mandheling: Produced in Sumatra, with strong fragrance, more bitter taste, with syrup and chocolate flavors, acidity is not prominent.

FrontStreet Coffee Panama Geisha: The brightest, richest and most intensely fragrant coffee variety Geisha, with rich aromas extending from berries and citrus to mango, papaya and peach flavors.

Roasting Must Be Scientific

80% of coffee's flavor depends on roasting. Roasting must have the rigor of a scientist, skillfully bringing out the fragrance, acidity, and bitterness that raw coffee beans possess, ensuring the carbonization of sugars and carbohydrates contained in coffee during the roasting process, thereby producing coffee oils and expressing the coffee's maximum characteristics. Good roasted beans have large expansion, no wrinkles on the surface, and uniform gloss.

Roasting Degree:

Can be divided into light, medium, and dark three categories. Light roast has stronger acidity, dark roast gradually loses acidity, and bitterness increases. Now specialty coffee more often uses light to medium roasting to showcase the coffee beans' own flavor.

After Roasting:

Freshly roasted coffee beans need to degas, releasing carbon dioxide, and can be served after 36 hours. Flavor reaches its peak value around 4 days, 4 weeks is the limit. Light roast coffee beans can be extended by one week, dark roast is best consumed within 10 days, and after three weeks it can be thrown away.

Pour-Over Coffee · Exclusive Hand-Drawn Step Guide

Pour-Over Coffee is a Ritual

Slowly dripping

Extracting the rich and light flavors of coffee

The greatest charm of pour-over

Is also because it's full of various uncertainties

...

Essential Tools

| Dripper: Drippers have single-hole, double-control, three-hole, multi-hole types; the more holes a dripper has, the higher the pouring skill required;

| Filter paper: As coffee bean quality gets higher and higher, cleanliness also gets higher; to highlight flavors, filters or filter paper are the best choice;

| Pour-over kettle: Narrow-spout kettle, convenient for controlling water flow and direction;

| Pour-over kettle: Choose according to preference.

Pour-Over Tips

| Water-to-bean ratio: Generally, for 200ml of coffee, approximately 15-20g of coffee beans are needed;

| Dripper warming: Before brewing coffee, pour hot water into the dripper, wet the filter paper to remove the paper taste, and warm the dripper and coffee cup;

| Bloom: Using the center point of the coffee grounds as the center, use the pour-over kettle to add water in even, gentle circles, submerging the coffee grounds, for about 20-25 seconds, where the water flow should be relatively fine.

| The first brewing water volume accounts for 60% of the total coffee water volume, the second water addition accounts for 30%, and the third water addition accounts for 10%.

Extraction Complete

Enjoy

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473