Espresso Bean Blending Tutorial: Latte Making Steps & Espresso Flavor Characteristics

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"Your latte at FrontStreet Coffee is delicious! It has a subtle wine aroma and nutty flavor! What espresso blend coffee beans do you use?" "Is there sugar added to your latte? Why does it taste sweet! So fragrant!!" After guests come to FrontStreet Coffee and order a latte, they can't help but exclaim like this. FrontStreet Coffee will now reveal why latte coffee has a subtle wine aroma and why latte coffee can be sweet without adding sugar.

Revealing FrontStreet Coffee's Espresso Blend Formula!

The emergence of espresso blends is actually roasters' attempt to use the characteristics of coffee from different regions to create a unique flavor or balanced taste. Therefore, before blending coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas and roasters will taste coffee beans from around the world, have a deep understanding of coffee flavors, and then construct the flavor of the blended coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee uses its own house-roasted Frontsteet Sunflower Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend, which is made from two specialty coffee beans: Frontsteet Honduras Sherry and Frontsteet Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry, using a 6:4 blending ratio. The purpose of this blend is that FrontStreet Coffee hopes the main flavor of coffee made with this formula will highlight the unique wine aroma and creamy body of Frontsteet Sherry, while the blended Frontsteet Natural Yirgacheffe Red Cherry fills in the fruity sweetness that Frontsteet Sherry lacks, making the beans exhibit rich vanilla cream aroma and wine fragrance, bringing out rich chocolate, brown sugar and other flavors.

How Does FrontStreet Coffee Blend Espresso Beans?

When FrontStreet Coffee blends each formula bean, it follows four steps: clarify the blending purpose, determine the blending flavor, determine the blending type, and determine the blending ratio.

① Purpose of the blend: To create a product that can be supplied long-term with stable flavor. When the quality of a certain coffee bean cannot meet requirements or changes in the new harvest season, similar coffee beans can be found to replace it to achieve stability. On the other hand, it's to complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, with one bean compensating for what another lacks.

② Determining the blend flavor: Only with clear goals can we know where to start. At the same time, this greatly tests the blender's understanding of existing coffee beans and coffee regional flavors.

③ Pre-roast blending or post-roast blending: Pre-roast blending, also known as raw blending, has the advantage of using the same roast degree to make the coffee tend toward stability and uniformity. Second, it can reduce the number of roasting times, achieving the goal in one roast, improving efficiency, and the same roast degree can greatly reduce quality control difficulty. The disadvantage of raw blending is that it has significant limitations, and it's generally recommended for beans with relatively similar densities.

Post-roast blending, also known as cooked blending, has the advantage that each bean can be roasted to its optimal degree, maximizing the characteristics of each bean. FrontStreet Coffee uses the cooked blending method when roasting Frontsteet Warm Sunshine Blend. The disadvantage is that daily quality control and management become more difficult, and when roasting dates are inconsistent, more attention to bean resting time is needed.

④ Determining the blend ratio: After completing the first three steps, constant experimentation with different blending ratios is needed. For example, when FrontStreet Coffee blended Frontsteet Warm Sunshine Comprehensive Blend, the goal was to supply it for espresso coffee use, so tasting was done through espresso extraction methods, making espresso, Americano, and milk coffee respectively to finally confirm the performance of the blend.

Why Is Latte Coffee Sweet?

First, let's see how FrontStreet Coffee makes latte. FrontStreet Coffee uses double espresso for latte, extracting 35-40g of coffee liquid from 19-20g of coffee grounds, with an extraction time of 26-30 seconds. Because the state of blended beans varies daily, espresso needs to be adjusted daily to ensure stable coffee flavor. For milk, FrontStreet Coffee uses pasteurized fresh milk. The purpose of choosing fresh milk is its high milk fat content, and milk protein and lactose can be better preserved. This step of selecting milk is also very important in making latte coffee.

During the milk frothing process, as the milk temperature rises, lactose breaks down more sugar molecules and fuses with the milk. When frothing milk, milk fat makes the foam formed by milk protein more stable, and these foam seal the aromatic substances and sweet substances in the milk. When we drink this foam, the tiny bubbles will burst in the mouth, making us feel that this cup of milk is very sweet and fragrant. This is also why FrontStreet Coffee's latte feels sweet even without adding sugar.

How to Froth Milk for Latte?

Before frothing, first turn on the steam wand switch to release condensed water vapor (close the switch after release). Then pull out the steam wand at a 45-degree angle, using the pitcher spout to stabilize the steam wand position. This time the steam vortex is counterclockwise, with the steam wand positioned on the right side of the liquid surface center cross, in a semi-buried state. Turn on the steam switch, and you'll hear a "squeak—squeak" sound, which is the frothing stage. Depending on the desired foam thickness, the frothing time varies (the longer the frothing time, the thicker the foam).

Generally, 5 parts of milk are frothed to 6 parts volume (latte foam thickness), with frothing time around 3 seconds. The direction of milk rotation forms a unified vortex. At this point, the steam holes need to be fully buried, only heating without further frothing. Don't bury the steam holes at the very bottom; it's recommended to keep them in the foam layer, which helps to refine the foam (making rough foam finer).

What Temperature Should Latte Milk Be Frothed To?

The ideal temperature for milk frothing is between 55-65°C. If below this temperature, the sweetness of the milk cannot be fully stimulated; if above this temperature, too much protein will denature. Overheating will change the taste of milk. Besides producing a sulfur smell, it will also cause milk protein to separate from water, producing milk residue, affecting taste and losing nutrition.

How to Make Latte Coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee suggests a coffee-to-milk ratio of 1:6.5 for making latte, which is 40ml espresso to 260ml hot milk. By pouring milk in a circular motion to fully integrate with the espresso, you'll get a cup of hot latte. Fresh milk heated produces lactose sweet molecules that are better released. When evenly mixed with espresso, the entire latte has the inherent sweetness of milk without overpowering the espresso flavor. On the contrary, against the backdrop of milk, the espresso flavor is better expressed. FrontStreet Coffee's hot latte flavor表现为: whiskey wine aroma, the collision between lactose and coffee acidity creates a milkshake-like sweetness, with a finish of hazelnut and other nutty aftertaste.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473