“How do you make espresso mixed with pour-over taste good?”Yes, you read that right! Yesterday before 5 p.m., Front Street was also taken aback when we heard this "staple with staple" question at the shop, because such a question is truly unheard of. After some further investigation by Front Street, it turned out that this customer friend actually wanted to drink a tasty cup of "Red Eye Coffee."But as everyone can see, pour-over mixed with espresso—Red Eye Coffee—is made in an unusual way, so making it taste good is not a simple matter. Front Street also does not recommend everyone try it casually, because Red Eye Coffee was not created to taste good like a latte, but to take in more of a stimulating effect.Front Street has shared before that the most widely circulated "origin story" of Red Eye Coffee is this: Red Eye Coffee originated in the United States, and its birth came from the flight sharing its name—the red-eye flight. This flight's travel time is very unusual: it departs late at night and arrives at its destination the next morning.But because the flight time is usually less than 8 hours, after arriving at the destination, passengers on the plane often "receive" a pair of eyes full of red blood vessels from being forcibly awakened. Naturally, the culprit that "created" those eyes was jokingly called a "red-eye flight."Besides passengers, a flight naturally also has crew members protecting the journey. But for work reasons, they need to stay awake during times when they should be sleeping, so in order to stay awake the whole way, consuming coffee is a very good choice.As coffee consumption increased more and more, the caffeine provided by a single serving of coffee could no longer resist the onset of drowsiness. So a clever person thought of combining espresso and drip coffee to take in more caffeine. And thus, the practice of mixing espresso with drip coffee was born.(Then why not drink multiple shots of espresso...)。Because this cup of coffee was born due to red-eye flights, it was named Red Eye Coffee. Besides Red Eye Coffee, there are also Black Eye Coffee, Dead Eye Coffee... Because they add more coffee, they have a higher coffee concentration than Red Eye Coffee, but whether they taste good is another matter~How do you make Red Eye Coffee?In the past, the method for Red Eye Coffee was one 30ml single shot of espresso paired with 120ml of drip coffee, for a 150ml cup. But because today's extraction methods have changed, the espresso extracted now is twice as concentrated as before, so if you make it according to the old proportions, this cup of coffee will become high-concentration Black Eye Coffee.(Black Eye Coffee is made with a 60ml double shot of espresso and 120ml of drip coffee)。Therefore, Front Street recommends adjusting the amount of espresso when making it.(halve it)Of course, Front Street alsodoes not recommendeveryone try it casually, especially for friends who are not so tolerant of caffeine.(But actually, the caffeine concentration works out to be about the same as one double shot now)Besides paying attention to the proportions, we also need to choose the right two coffees to use. After all, what we care about is not only the stimulating effect; with more choices now, taste is equally important.But choosing coffee beans is not complicated—it is actually very simple. We just need to use two coffees with similar roast levels, making drip coffee and espresso respectively.Because the roast levels are similar, the flavor tone of the coffees is more or less the same, and the combined taste will be relatively consistent, so it will not feel jarring when drunk. It may not necessarily be delicious, but at least it will not taste bad.
Taking Front Street's preparation as an example, the espresso beans used here are the Front Street Strawberry Candy · Geisha Blend from the bean list. It is a medium-roast coffee bean with white floral notes, strawberry, and berry, and its taste is mainly sweet and sour. So the bean paired with it is naturally also a medium-roast coffee bean with a mainly sweet-and-sour taste. Here, the bean Front Street chose is the Front Street Ethiopia · Huakui from the bean list, which has citrus, apricot, and strawberry flavor notes. The extraction parameters are as follows:Espresso:20g grounds, 30s extraction time, 40ml coffee liquid.Pour-over coffee:15g grounds, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, EK43 setting 10 grind, 75% passing rate on a No. 20 sieve, caster sugar grind, 92°C water temperature, V60 dripper, three-stage pouring, 2-minute extraction time.After both coffees are made, first pour 20ml of espresso into the prepared cup.Then pour in 120ml of pour-over coffee.Finally, stir evenly and you can begin tasting!To be fair, it's not bad! The taste of this cup of Red Eye Coffee was just as Front Street expected, only a bit stronger in concentration than regular pour-over. For Front Street, which has to pull espresso early all year round, this flavor concentration is still acceptable. But the flavor performance was actually beyond Front Street's expectations—very pleasant surprise. The flavors of the two beans combined perfectly, without the slightest abruptness! You can clearly taste white floral notes, strawberry, citrus, and apricot. Overall, the taste is balanced between sweet and sour, the mouthfeel is mellow, and the aftertaste is oolong tea~Besides the example listed above by Front Street, everyone can also try other blending schemes, but still, that same saying: friends who cannot handle very strong coffee had best not try it casually, because it is still somewhat difficult to drink. Although it can also be diluted with water, there is no need to torture yourself like that. Isn't it better to separate them and enjoy them individually~ The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
