What does SOE espresso mean in specialty coffee?

SOE stands for Single Origin Espresso, an espresso pulled from beans of one single origin rather than a blend. The high pressure of an espresso machine concentrates and magnifies that origin's character, so a Yirgacheffe bean can show clear citrus notes and a Kenya bean can show berry notes more intensely than the same coffee brewed as pour-over.

Single origin cuts both ways: distinct flavors become more prominent, but flaws are magnified too, so bean selection, roasting, and grind size all matter more. SOE is not automatically specialty coffee. Many shops, including Front Street Coffee, still pour blended espresso, and soe coffee appears mainly where a shop chooses to feature one origin alone.

In recent years, SOE espresso has become increasingly common in the specialty coffee world, but many people are still confused about its full name, definition, and its relationship to pour-over single-origin beans. SOE is the abbreviation of Single Origin Espresso, referring to single-origin espresso. It is not necessarily equivalent to specialty coffee, but because of the high-pressure extraction of an espresso machine, the flavors of the origin are made more distinct. However, single origin also means that flaws are easily magnified, so bean selection, roasting, and grinding all require extra care. From the perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article sorts out the origin of the SOE concept, its difference from blended espresso, recommendations for coffee beans suitable for SOE, and shares specific extraction parameters and production precautions, taking you through a comprehensive understanding of this trend.

Nowadays, more and more specialty coffee shops are starting to feature SOE espresso. Many customers who come to Front Street Coffee also ask whether there is soe coffee. At present, the espresso produced by Front Street Coffee stores uses espresso beans blended from Front Street Sun-Dried Red Cherry and Front Street Honduras Sherry coffee beans, and soe espresso is not yet available. So, since both are espresso, why distinguish between blended espresso and soe espresso? In this article, Front Street will talk about the matters concerning soe espresso.

What is SOE?

SOE stands for Single Origin Espresso, called single-origin espresso in Chinese. Although it represents single-origin espresso, it is not necessarily equal to specialty coffee. If you choose single-origin coffee beans with easily recognizable flavors as SOE, you can create espresso with a unique and typical flavor.

For example, the citrus flavor of Front Street Yirgacheffe, the berry flavor of Front Street Kenya, and so on, combined with the fact that espresso under the high pressure of an espresso machine magnifies the taste of the coffee, the flavor expression will be more prominent than pour-over. However, although SOE stands out, because it comes from a single origin, its shortcomings are also relatively easy to magnify, so factors such as roasting and grind size will all affect the flavor. This is also why Front Street Coffee stores do not provide soe: Front Street hopes that every customer who comes in can drink an espresso beverage with stable and distinctive flavor.

Talking about the rise of this trend, Chen Chih-Huang, founder of Fika Fika Cafe, who won the Nordic Cup Coffee Roasting Championship in 2013, believes that the development of coffee so far is similar to whisky; everyone began by knowing only brands and tasting blended whisky, until in the past decade single malt whisky from different regions began to become popular, and SOE is exactly the same concept.

Is SOE equal to making espresso with pour-over single-origin beans?

Conceptually speaking, making espresso with pour-over single-origin coffee beans is indeed SOE "single-origin espresso," but in actual operation it is not as simple as imagined.

Compared with blends, espresso made from single-origin coffee beans makes it easier to taste clear flavors or the taste of the origin. Because blended coffee beans mix several different coffee beans, their greatest advantage is balance and stability, but also because there are too many combinations, the flavors of the coffee bean origins are difficult to identify.

Therefore, compared with traditional blended espresso, SOE should be an espresso that highlights flavor more. This characteristic also affects the selection of coffee beans for SOE: one should try to choose coffee beans with high and strong flavor recognition. If coffee beans with slightly weaker flavor intensity are chosen to make SOE, the resulting espresso will be bland and weak. Imagine such an SOE that has neither distinctive features nor the balance and stability of a blend—wouldn't the loss outweigh the gain?

Second, the roast level should not be too dark or too light. A darker roast level will greatly diminish the flavor of the origin, while a lighter roast level will cause the espresso machine to magnify the acidity brought by light roasting under high pressure, easily making the espresso sharply sour and unbearable. A lighter roast level also makes the coffee beans harder in texture, making under-extraction more likely. Diminishing origin flavor and causing imbalance through sharp acidity both violate the original intention of highlighting single-origin flavor, so the roasting curve for producing SOE from the same bean and the curve for producing pour-over coffee should be two different roasting curves.

What coffee beans are suitable for making SOE?

Fresh and sweet flavor: Front Street Coffee recommends using Front Street Yirgacheffe Sun-Dried Red Cherry. This coffee comes from the Aletaland estate in Yirgacheffe, at an altitude of 1,700-2,200 meters. It uses fully ripe red cherry sun-dried processing and has very rich fruit sweetness and floral aroma.

Grind size: Pegasus 900N #1.7 Dose: 20g Extraction yield: 40ml Extraction time: 27 seconds Flavor description: citrus, berries, fermented aroma, syrupy, medium bitterness, medium-high acidity, bright and lively acidity.

Rich winey flavor: Front Street recommends using Front Street Honduras Sherry Barrel. This coffee comes from the Mocha estate in Honduras, at an altitude of 1,500-1,700 meters. It uses fine washed Sherry barrel fermentation processing and has a very rich wine fermentation aroma and dark chocolate creamy flavor.

Grind size: Pegasus 900N #1.8 Dose: 20g Extraction yield: 40ml Extraction time: 29 seconds Flavor description: whisky aroma, soft and relatively high fruit acidity, smooth mouthfeel, creamy and syrupy, cocoa.

What should be noted when making SOE?

Front Street has found that many people think SOE is simply applying single-origin beans directly to espresso machine extraction, thereby making a single-origin espresso series, until they take all kinds of floral and fruity beans home, try them with a coffee machine, and only then discover something is wrong. First there is the scene of splashing and spraying like this, then they are startled by the extremely sour espresso and dare not take a second sip, and then they begin to wonder whether their equipment is too poor or whether they made a mistake somewhere in operation.

In fact, the reason you cannot make the same SOE at home as in the shop is probably not your equipment or technique, but rather that the roast level of this coffee bean is not very suitable for making espresso. Based on the experience of Front Street Coffee baristas, choosing a coffee bean suitable for SOE extraction not only makes it easy to produce delicious espresso, but also makes Americano or latte made by adding water or milk twice as effective. On Front Street's bean list, two single-origin coffees have SOE versions: one is the strawberry-scented Front Street Huakui, and the other is the classic Yirgacheffe-flavored Front Street Konga. We only need to check espresso roast when placing an order.

The coffee machine at Front Street stores is the commercial single-group "Lelit Bianca," which can adjust extraction by changing pressure, with a maximum pressure of 11 bar. A household coffee machine only needs to reach 9 bar of pressure to satisfy the functions of extraction and milk frothing, paired with an espresso grinder.

Sharing the extraction parameters of SOE coffee

Coffee beans: Front Street Ethiopia Sun-Dried Konga

Coffee powder dose: 20g

Coffee liquid yield: 40g

Powder-to-liquid ratio: 1:2

Extraction time: 26-33 seconds

Grind setting: Galileo 2.0

Front Street uses the capacity of a double basket, with a dose of about 18-20 grams, and Front Street uses 20 grams of coffee powder when producing.

Usually the ratio of coffee powder to coffee liquid is 1:1.5-1:2.5. Front Street's extraction ratio is 1:2, that is, 20 grams of coffee powder extracts 40 grams of coffee liquid. Time is related to the flow rate of the coffee powder. Generally, a single extraction duration is controlled at 20-35 seconds, because within 20 seconds the coffee usually tastes thin, while over 35 seconds it is easy to over-extract and produce a burnt bitter taste. Front Street's espresso is mostly in the range of 28-30 seconds.

Front Street first wipes the basket dry, turns on the grinder, grinds the amount for a double dose of coffee powder, places it on an electronic scale to increase or decrease until it reaches 20 grams. Then use a tool to distribute the powder evenly, tamp the coffee puck firmly, ensuring more stable coffee extraction. Then turn on the extraction switch to release water, wetting the brewing head while washing away the coffee grounds stuck on it, gently lock the portafilter onto the brewing head, and begin pulling the extraction. When the electronic scale shows that 40 grams of coffee liquid has been extracted, with the time at about 28-33 seconds, the extraction switch can be pulled down, and a cup of SOE espresso is complete. We can add an appropriate proportion of ice water or 80°C hot water according to our preference to make a cup of Yirgacheffe SOE Americano.

When making an SOE hot latte, Front Street uses a 1:6 ratio, adding 40 grams of espresso liquid to a preheated coffee cup, then using the espresso machine steam to froth 240g of milk. The milk temperature is best controlled between 50-65°C, so that it forms dense milk foam with moderate thickness, then blend it evenly with the coffee liquid. The Yirgacheffe SOE latte made this way tastes like eating a lemon-flavored cookie at the first sip, with a rich, fragrant, and smooth mouthfeel, and after drinking it the whole body instantly feels warm.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat Front Street Coffee, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.