How to Brew Arabica Coffee Beans for Great Taste? Recommended Coffee Beans for Brewing Beginners

As more people in China develop the habit of drinking coffee, many coffee enthusiasts have begun actively learning about coffee brewing techniques, wanting to brew their own cup of coffee by hand. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will focus on pour-over extraction and discuss which coffee beans are suitable for beginners.

What is Pour-Over Coffee?

The coffee beans we typically purchase have undergone high-temperature roasting, triggering a series of chemical reactions that generate various aromatic compounds. When we brew coffee, we use water and equipment to extract these flavor components. Pour-over coffee involves grinding coffee beans into powder first, then pouring hot water over the coffee grounds to "dissolve" the substances from the coffee. Essentially, it uses a filter cup with filter paper or other tools to catch the coffee grounds, preventing them from entering the server below, resulting in a clear-tasting cup of black coffee.

It's important to know that from bean selection to extraction, every step and stage has more or less influence on the flavor of pour-over coffee. Therefore, to brew a cup of pour-over coffee, based on FrontStreet Coffee's brewing experience, besides high-quality coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee believes you need at least these essential tools: a pour-over kettle for pouring water, a filter cup and filter paper to strain coffee grounds, a server, a grinder to grind coffee beans, an electronic scale to measure water volume and time, and a thermometer to measure water temperature.

Delicious coffee naturally depends on good ingredients—high-quality coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee recommends choosing coffee beans within 4-30 days after the roasting date, when they are in their optimal flavor window, as this helps ensure stable extraction and fuller flavor in pour-over coffee. To guarantee freshness, FrontStreet Coffee ships coffee beans freshly roasted within 5 days, typically arriving within 1-3 days, so the coffee beans you receive will be within their optimal flavor period, ready for you to start studying extraction techniques.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Pour-Over Specialty Coffee Beans

If you're new to pour-over coffee and worried about wasting expensive, limited-quantity beans through improper brewing, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with FrontStreet Coffee's cost-effective daily coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee has selected 7 excellent classic coffee origins, covering multiple highly representative regions, varieties, and natural processing methods. So-called daily coffee beans, as the name implies, are varieties that are affordable for everyday drinking, with both price and flavor being approachable. FrontStreet Coffee has selected multiple "representative examples" to help everyone recognize the basic flavor profiles of major coffee regions.

FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopian Washed Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans

The so-called Yirgacheffe flavor features elegant citrus, lemon, berries, and rich floral notes, with a clear tea-like sensation that leaves a lasting impression. To express such refined flavors and textures, the coffee's excellent growing environment, variety, processing method, as well as roasting and brewing are all indispensable.

Ethiopia, located on the African continent, has underdeveloped water resources, so traditionally it has used ancient natural drying methods to process green beans—that is, direct drying under sunlight. Due to the rather crude technique, coffee quality was generally low. It wasn't until 1972 that Ethiopia introduced Central and South American washing processing technology and equipment to improve coffee bean quality. Unlike other regions, Yirgacheffe is a wetland area more suitable for washed processing. The multiple steps in the washing process significantly reduce defect rates, resulting in higher clarity and more distinct, transparent inherent aromas.

This initiative also amplified the citrus and lemon acidity and white floral notes of Yirgacheffe coffee beans several times over, while making the texture more refreshing and bright. FrontStreet Coffee's FrontStreet Coffee washed Yirgacheffe daily beans use medium-light roasting to preserve more fruit acidity, maintaining its classic Yirgacheffe flavor profile, suitable for various brewing methods including pour-over, cold brew, and French press.

FrontStreet Coffee · Guatemalan Washed Huehuetenango Coffee Beans

The Huehuetenango highlands are located in Guatemala's western non-volcanic region, which has the driest climate and highest altitude. Because this area lies on the edge of tectonic plate activity, the ever-changing terroir of high mountain basins creates diverse and rich coffee flavors. Like the Antigua region, it also has rich volcanic soil, with altitudes reaching up to 2000m. However, dry hot winds from Mexico's northwest allow coffee trees to grow on these 2000-meter high plateaus.

As we know, every country has its own coffee grading standards. Guatemalan green beans are mainly graded by altitude—higher altitude means higher bean density, and thus higher grade. Most coffee from the Huehuetenango region belongs to SHB (Strictly Hard Bean), which is the highest grade in Guatemalan green bean classification.

FrontStreet Coffee's Guatemalan Huehuetenango coffee beans use washed processing, presenting the cleaner tone characteristic of Guatemalan coffee. Due to rich, intense fruit aromas, medium-light roasting is used, allowing us to smell the sweet citrus and nutty aromas after grinding.

FrontStreet Coffee · Colombian Washed Huila Coffee Beans

The Huila region gained fame in the 21st century when it frequently appeared on award lists of various green bean competitions, and it received official Designation of Origin certification in 2013. The Huila region is named after Huila Department, located in southwestern Colombia on the side of the Andes Mountains, near the Huila volcano. Volcanic ash from eruptions has added fresh nutrients to the soil, particularly benefiting coffee tree growth. Compared to other regions, Huila has year-round rainfall and suitable temperatures, conditions that allow coffee trees to be cultivated at altitudes exceeding two thousand meters. High-altitude coffee produces bright acidity and chocolate aromas.

Huila coffee is mainly produced by small farmers, with local farms typically under 1.5 hectares. Managers plant shade trees to provide better growing conditions and quality assurance for the coffee. When coffee cherries mature, Colombians select the most ripe, full coffee fruits for harvesting and process them at the freshest stage, ensuring freshness at every step. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Colombian Huila daily beans feature both soft acidity and appropriate body with sweet aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee aims to present the classic Colombian nutty profile while preserving some acidity, choosing medium-dark roasting.

FrontStreet Coffee · Brazilian Pulped Natural Cerrado

Brazilian coffee plantations, unlike those in Africa or other South American coffee-producing regions, don't have high altitudes—most are only a few hundred meters above sea level. Brazilian growers pursuing mass production mainly adopt large-scale cultivation with full sun exposure. Therefore, Brazilian coffee fruits mature quickly, lacking the rich fruit acidity found in high-altitude coffees, with a flavor profile leaning toward smooth, balanced sweetness. It is precisely because of this moderate characteristic of Brazilian coffee that it's used in espresso blends—both highlighting the roasted aroma and making extraction flavor profiles more stable.

The Cerrado region, located in northwestern Minas Gerais state, has a long coffee history and mature cultivation experience, with many companies establishing medium to large coffee plantations here. With altitudes between 800-1300 meters and distinct seasons (humid summers and dry winters), the mineral-rich soil produces coffee with nutty, creamy smoothness and balanced flavor, presenting very classic Brazilian characteristics. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee also added FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian pulped natural Red Bourbon from the Cerrado region to FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean selection.

FrontStreet Coffee · Costa Rican Washed Tarrazú

Costa Rica is located in Central America, connected to Panama where Geisha became famous, and influenced by Pacific and Atlantic currents and monsoons, creating excellent microclimates. Combined with various topographical features, it has become the perfect region for coffee to thrive. While Costa Rica doesn't rank high in coffee production, its numerous volcanoes bring very fertile mineral soil and excellent drainage, allowing crops grown here to receive abundant rainfall and nutrients, naturally producing higher-quality fruits.

Tarrazú is located south of the country's capital, San José, and is one of the most valued coffee-growing areas locally. Tarrazú has high-altitude growing conditions of 1200-1700 meters, cool climate, and nutrient-rich volcanic ash soil, giving coffee diverse acidity and rounded body. With the development of specialty coffee, continuous innovation and progress in processing techniques have given Tarrazú coffee an excellent reputation within the coffee community.

FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rican daily beans blend two common varieties: Caturra and Catuai, using natural washed processing. Caturra's flavor mainly presents fruit characteristics with berry-like acidity. Catuai's flavor is simpler than Caturra, primarily nutty, lacking Caturra's rich layered complexity. The blend of these two varieties makes Tarrazú coffee more balanced and smooth.

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesian Wet-Hulled Lintong Mandheling

Indonesia's local high-temperature, high-humidity environment forced locals to innovate a "new" processing method suitable for the region—wet hulling. The initial steps of wet hulling are the same as washed processing: Indonesians first remove the pulp from coffee fruits, then ferment in water for 3 hours, wash away the mucilage, and briefly dry the parchment coffee for 2-3 days. When the moisture content reaches 20-24% and the beans are in a semi-soft, semi-hard state, the parchment is hulled off, then drying continues until the coffee's moisture content reaches 13%, at which point it can be packaged.

Because the hulling machine uses greater friction to tear away the tightly attached parchment layer, at this stage, white or green mucus typically flows out. Due to prolonged mucus soaking and humid conditions, the green beans eventually become soft, pale, and swollen, forming a gray-green color. The friction stirring also makes the beans more easily crushed or bruised, especially at the ends, forming small gaps that create "hoof beans." The "naked beans" without parchment dry very quickly while being directly exposed to humid environments, allowing various fungi to grow. This gives Indonesian coffee its unique woody, spicy, and herbal plant notes—what we call "Mandheling flavor."

FrontStreet Coffee · Chinese Yunnan Baoshan Washed Arabica

In recent years, thanks to many people's efforts, Yunnan coffee quality has continuously improved, gaining considerable recognition, with many fans of Yunnan coffee within China. For those who haven't tried Yunnan coffee, you're surely curious about its taste. FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan daily beans come from the Baoshan region, which has a relatively long coffee cultivation history.

Baoshan's year-round frost-free warm climate is very suitable for Arabica coffee growth, especially in the Lujiang Dam area's unique dry-hot valley climate where annual temperature differences are small but day-night temperature differences are large, creating the unique sweet aftertaste of FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Baoshan Arabica. Combined with reasonably low rainfall, this provides extremely advantageous conditions for coffee fruit production. Baoshan's biggest climate characteristic is relatively low precipitation and higher altitude, resulting in coffee beans with less pulp but higher sweetness. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee acquired this FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Baoshan Arabica as the representative of Yunnan coffee, allowing everyone to taste the flavor of domestic Chinese coffee.

Some merchants use novel flavor-enhancing processing methods to cover up the inherent defects of Yunnan beans, adding large amounts of aromatics and raising prices. FrontStreet Coffee believes this neither truthfully preserves the authentic taste of Yunnan coffee nor misleads consumers. In fact, due to limited conditions, most Yunnan coffee can only use natural processing methods—that is, washed and natural processing. Here, FrontStreet Coffee ultimately chose washed processing, using medium roasting to highlight the chocolate and nutty roasted aromas of Yunnan Arabica while preserving some acidity, presenting nutty, herbal, brown sugar aromas, melon-like sweetness, and plum acidity, with balanced texture.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473