The Principles of Coffee Blending: Introduction to Espresso Blend Recipes and Specialty Coffee Blending Methods

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Italy is a romantic and artistically rich country. When traveling to Italy, you must order a local latte or cappuccino to enjoy the rich texture that milk coffee brings. Among the customers who come to FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) for casual chats, many are coffee enthusiasts who often share and exchange coffee culture together. Among these discussions, Italian coffee is a frequent topic.

Understanding Italian Coffee Culture

Just like the most popular Italian espresso-based drink at FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) is the latte, which is translated from the Italian "Caffe' Latte," meaning "milk coffee" in Italian. Italian coffee uses espresso machines to extract Espresso through high temperature and high pressure in a short time. Espresso is a coffee extraction method that originated in Italy.

The Art of Coffee Blending

While FrontStreet Coffee typically uses pour-over methods to showcase the unique regional flavors of single-origin coffee, the Italian coffee that everyone commonly drinks generally doesn't use pour-over methods. This is because Italian coffee creates blends based on desired flavor profiles. Generally, Italian coffee beans are roasted to a darker degree, using multiple coffee beans to complement each other's flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Signature Blends

Just like the Frontsteet Italian blend formula currently used by FrontStreet Coffee uses a 7:3 ratio of Frontsteet Warm Sun Blend beans, featuring Frontsteet Honduras Sherry coffee as the main tone, supplemented with Frontsteet Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry. Therefore, Frontsteet Italian coffee has a relatively mellow texture. Since it's an Italian coffee blend, it generally refers to blending two or more coffee beans, but usually not exceeding six types, because if too many coffee beans are used for Italian blending, the unique characteristics of the coffee cannot be expressed. Additionally, Italian coffee blends generally don't use a 1:1 blending ratio, as this might mutually suppress each other's unique flavors. Therefore, blending must have primary and secondary elements to create a more wonderful taste than single-origin coffee.

The Craft of Coffee Blending

When FrontStreet Coffee conducts Italian blending, they first determine the theme of the blend—that is, what flavor profile they hope to achieve when extracting Espresso through an Italian coffee machine. This requires the barista's deep understanding of coffee beans from each producing region, because the prerequisite for blending is first being thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of each single-origin coffee and understanding the subtle relationship between roasting degree and coffee bean flavor to produce a delicious Italian coffee.

Frontsteet's Italian Coffee Blends

Through multiple blending experiments and exploration, FrontStreet Coffee currently offers 4 Frontsteet Italian coffee bean blends. The Frontsteet Premium Blend uses Colombian coffee beans paired with Brazilian coffee beans in a 3:7 ratio. The characteristic nutty and chocolate flavors of Colombian coffee are blended with the rich peanut and creamy coffee flavors of Brazil. This Frontsteet Italian coffee blend has a very balanced overall profile, rich crema, extremely smooth entry, with a light fragrance yet a slight bitterness characteristic of American coffees.

FrontStreet Coffee also has an Italian Basic Blend that uses Yunnan and Brazilian coffees in a 3:7 ratio. This Frontsteet Italian coffee blend carries soft fruit acidity and caramel sweetness. Therefore, Italian coffee blending is like an artist's palette—creating different colors to compose a beautiful painting. Isn't it the same for coffee blenders? By controlling the characteristics of each bean to complement each other, they harmonize a delicious Italian coffee, sharing the same artistic principle.

SOE: Single Origin Espresso

Not every Espresso is made from blended beans. There's something called SOE coffee, which also uses the high temperature and high pressure of an Italian coffee machine to extract a small cup of Espresso. This SOE coffee uses single-origin coffee beans, different from Italian coffee bean blends. SOE coffee amplifies the characteristics of a particular bean. For example, if you use Frontsteet Ethiopia Yirgacheffe to extract SOE coffee, you will clearly taste the inherent lemon-citrus notes of the Yirgacheffe region. If SOE coffee lacks special flavors, depth, strength, or has flavors that are too intense, then that cup of SOE coffee is considered a failure.

The Benefits of Coffee Blending

Therefore, one of the benefits of Italian coffee blending is the ability to use the complementary nature of coffee beans to harmonize with each other. Compared to pour-over coffee, the flavors in Italian espresso concentrate are amplified. Perhaps everyone still doesn't quite understand the mutual harmonization of Italian coffee beans. Let FrontStreet Coffee give a simple example: if you drink a glass of apple juice, it only has the simple sweet and sour taste of apples. If I want the apple juice to have a creamy flavor, I can add an avocado. At this point, the juice will have a milkshake-like richness combined with the sour and sweet taste of apples without being greasy—this is the same principle as Italian coffee blending.

The Art of Espresso Extraction

Once the Italian coffee bean formula is prepared, how to extract a delicious Espresso is also very important. For example, at FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), the normal extraction time for Italian espresso concentrate is around 25 seconds to extract 40ml of coffee liquid. If the flow rate is too fast, it's likely that the grind is too coarse or the tamping pressure is too light. It also shouldn't drip out drop by drop, as that would indicate the grind is too fine or the tamping pressure is too great. Additionally, for Espresso made by the same person with the same grind coarseness and same extraction amount, the extraction time difference should not exceed 1 second. Otherwise, it means the tamping pressure is unstable or uneven, and the coffee's flavor difference will be very obvious, requiring more practice.

Evaluating Espresso Quality

How do you know if the extracted Italian espresso is good? After completing an extraction, you can add water to make an Americano. If this Americano has no off-flavors, no astringency, doesn't taste watery, and the bitterness disappears quickly after entering the mouth, it means the extraction requirements for the Italian espresso are basically met. This then indicates that this Italian coffee blend formula is correct. Only through continuous modification of formulas discovered through multiple explorations can a fragrant and rich Italian coffee be produced.

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