What Should Blend Coffee and SOE Offer an Espresso Setup?

Espresso beans fall into two broad groups: single-origin espresso, or SOE, which highlights one region's character, and blends, which aim for a balanced cup. Cafes mostly choose blends because mixing origins fills gaps in a single bean's flavor profile and keeps the taste consistent across the year. Blending also splits into pre-blend and post-blend roasting routes, each with trade-offs.

Four blends are offered for different needs, covering shops and home setups: Sunflower Warm Sun, Specialty Blend, Commercial Blend, and Black Cocoa Blend. Blends came into favor partly to create signature coffee and partly to hold quality steady as single origins fluctuate with the season. Expect a thicker body that works well with milk, so each batch tastes the same.

To make an espresso with a balance of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, choosing the beans is the first step. Espresso beans mainly fall into two categories: SOEs that highlight regional flavors, and blends that pursue a balanced taste—cafes mostly choose the latter. The reason is that blending can make up for the shortcoming of a single origin's incomplete flavor profile, and it also keeps the taste consistent year-round. Blends also follow two roasting routes—pre-blend and post-blend—each with its own trade-offs. Front Street Coffee offers four blends for different needs: Sunflower Warm Sun, Specialty Blend, Commercial Blend, and Black Cocoa Blend, suited to different shops and home scenarios. This article will systematically cover these topics to help you find the espresso bean that suits you.

A balanced espresso is the basic requirement in a straight-drinking setting, and also the starting point for making espresso-based coffee. But to achieve a balance of acidity, body, and sweetness, you have to start by choosing the right coffee beans—blending beans from different origins together.

Espresso beans can be broadly divided into two directions: one type is SOE, which highlights regional character, and the other is blends, which pursue a balanced taste. Cafes generally prefer the latter—why is that?

What are espresso blends?

In the early years, roasters mixed different beans together to mask some defective roasts or poor-quality beans—there was somewhat of an implication of passing off inferior goods as fine. But later things changed: blends gradually gained favor among roasters who wanted to create a signature coffee, and they also suited roasters who hoped to supply the same flavor consistently all year round.

Many roasters use single-origin beans to make espresso, but the flavor of certain origins may not be comprehensive enough, easily causing an imbalanced taste. For this reason, roasters who want to present a balanced espresso often mix multiple single-origin beans together.

Many single-origin coffees fluctuate with the seasons, while blends allow roasters to maintain the same quality over a longer period. These beans bring a thick texture, full flavor, and blend well with milk, so customers can drink a consistent, standardized flavor in every batch.

What are the characteristics of espresso blends?

Front Street Coffee's view is that if the recipe is already settled, the easiest approach is of course to blend the different beans first and then roast them together. But if you are still testing different blend components and ratios, it's best to first roast each bean separately, then run various combination tests. Otherwise, every time you adjust a component or ratio, you have to roast another batch.

In the roasting field, blending first and then roasting is usually called "pre-blend," and roasting first and then blending is called "post-blend." There's no saying which of these two methods is better: the advantage of pre-blend is that roasting together in the same batch makes the roast degree of the whole batch more consistent and the flavor stable, but when selecting beans you should try to mix beans of similar screen size, otherwise it's easy to roast unevenly. Post-blend, on the other hand, allows you to find the optimal roasting curve for each bean, and mixing them afterward makes it easier to complement each other's strengths.

Normally all coffee beans can be roasted together. Only when the roasting result is less than ideal do you need to consider roasting them separately. In such cases, roasting independently often works better. Especially for drum roasters, a relatively moderate roast level can generally be found.

Front Street Coffee, according to different needs, offers 4 distinctive blend coffee beans:

[Sunflower Warm Sun Espresso Beans] Honduras: Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry

Flavor characteristics: pronounced fruity acidity, a faint berry aroma lingering around, rich vinous and chocolate flavors, with a pleasant sweet aftertaste.

The Honduran beans contribute to this coffee a rich whisky aroma and a finish like liqueur chocolate, with a full fragrance. The Natural Red Cherry brings ferment notes and berry aroma, going down smoothly. This Warm Sun Blend is a half-pound pack, suitable for cafes pursuing a unique espresso flavor and higher bean quality, or for espresso lovers with low usage.

[Front Street Coffee Specialty Blend] Colombia: Brazil

Flavor characteristics: pleasant bittersweetness, extremely smooth on the palate, with a hint of grassy aroma, a slight bitterness within the fresh fragrance, sweet and smooth, with a soothing aftertaste.

Beans from Colombia's Huila region have a pleasant acidity, mellow aroma, moderate acidity, and a rich, intriguing sweetness; beans from Brazil's Cerrado region are pleasantly bittersweet and extremely smooth on the palate. This Specialty Blend suits all kinds of specialty coffee shops.

[Front Street Coffee Commercial Blend] Colombia: Brazil: Robusta

Flavor characteristics: classic taste, caramel sweetness, nutty, cocoa, and dark chocolate flavors, balanced acidity and sweetness, with a slight bittersweetness, and a lasting finish.

Beans from Colombia's Huila region have a pleasant acidity, mellow aroma, moderate acidity, and a rich, intriguing sweetness; beans from Brazil's Cerrado region are pleasantly bittersweet and extremely smooth on the palate. Robusta, meanwhile, provides rich crema. This Commercial Blend suits coffee shops and beverage shops of all sizes.

[Front Street Coffee The espresso moka pot coffee beans recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend ] Yunnan AA: Brazil

Flavor characteristics: soft fruity acidity, caramel sweetness, nutty and dark chocolate flavors, smooth and viscous, but with a relatively light taste.

Yunnan's natural conditions are very similar to Colombia's—high altitude, large temperature difference between day and night—and its flavor is of the mellow-aroma type, with moderate acidity, rich and full-bodied taste, even bean size, high oil content, and a fruity aroma; its quality and taste are close to Colombian coffee. Beans from Brazil's Cerrado region are pleasantly bittersweet and extremely smooth on the palate. This espresso moka pot coffee bean recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend—suits small coffee shops, bakeries, or beverage shops.

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