How Do You Pick Beans for Specialty Coffee Drinks?

Match the bean to the drink's flavor direction. Signature drinks fall into three groups: refreshing, rich fruity, and deep and heavy. A medium-dark roasted blend suits deep, heavy drinks, while a medium roasted blend with fruity notes fits refreshing and fruity recipes. When the coffee's own flavor clashes with the other ingredients, the drink tastes disjointed, and no recipe can fix that.

Roast level and processing method decide how a bean performs in a mixed drink. Front Street Coffee used a medium-dark roast for its White Toast Dirty and a medium roast Geisha blend for the Grape Oolong Dirty, two Dirty recipes with very different profiles. For balance, keep the coffee from dominating, then adjust ratios of coffee, milk, syrup and ice until no single ingredient takes over.

Signature coffee drinks are all about balance among the flavors of various ingredients, not letting any single taste dominate. Many people find their homemade versions fall short of expectations, and the problem often lies in the pairing of coffee beans with other ingredients. This article categorizes signature drinks into three types—refreshing, rich fruity, and deep and heavy—and explains the suitable roast levels and specific recommendations for coffee beans for each, along with practical tips for adjusting ratios, to help you find the perfect balance between coffee and ingredients.

(Coffee Martini)

Front Street Coffee has recently shared quite a few signature drink recipes, such as lychee sparkling Americano, jasmine lemon cold brew, white toast Dirty, and grape oolong Dirty. The accompanying issue is this: many friends try to recreate them at home but find their versions not only taste less good than described in Front Street Coffee's articles, but the flavors of the various ingredients also clash with each other, making each sip feel disjointed. So they came to Front Street Coffee's store to ask why.

After some discussion, Front Street Coffee found that the recipes themselves were not wrong; the key issue was that the coffee beans people used produced a coffee flavor that did not harmonize well with the other ingredients. Although Front Street Coffee did not elaborate on bean selection in each signature drink article, only mentioning it briefly, that does not mean bean selection is unimportant. The vast majority of signature drinks aim for balance of flavors, not letting one ingredient overpower the others. Therefore, whether the coffee's own flavor can pair well with the ingredients becomes the key to a successful signature drink, which is also why developing signature drinks is such a test of a barista's skill.

Take the two Dirty signature drinks Front Street Coffee recently shared—"White Toast Dirty" and "Grape Oolong Dirty." Both are Dirty, but for the former, Front Street Coffee used a medium-dark roasted Front Street Coffee Signature Blend, while for the latter, it used a medium roasted Front Street Coffee Geisha Blend·Strawberry Candy.

Different roast levels and processing methods give coffee beans completely different flavor profiles. If you want the final signature drink to have both complexity and overall harmony, choosing the right beans is indeed crucial. So today Front Street Coffee will discuss what kinds of coffee beans are suitable for making different types of signature coffee drinks.

Refreshing signature coffee drinks

Front Street Coffee will start with those refreshing signature drinks, such as lychee sparkling Americano, jasmine tea cold brew, apple juice coffee, etc. (or other similarly styled drinks). These signature drinks, which are not strong in flavor but full of aroma, can all be classified as the refreshing type.

This type of signature drink can certainly be made with dark roasted coffee, but there is a problem: dark roasted beans have a heavier taste and can easily suppress the aromas of other ingredients. Because dark roasted coffee is roasted longer, it has a stronger roasted note. The ingredients used in refreshing signature drinks are not strong in flavor to begin with, so the delicate aromas are easily masked by the dark roast's roasted notes, while the bitterness also becomes more pronounced.

So for this type of signature drink, Front Street Coffee usually recommends using coffee that is not too intense—light-medium or light roasted natural or washed beans are very suitable. Their roast level is not deep, so they do not have much burnt bitterness; instead, they show more of the coffee's own floral and fruity notes, with a flavor dominated by acidity and sweetness, making them a great match for refreshing signature drinks.

For example, Front Street Ethiopia·Huakui from Front Street Coffee's bean list produces coffee with citrus and berry acidity, rich layering, and a light body; and Front Street Washed Yirgacheffe·Gudingding produces coffee with fresh aromas of jasmine, lemon, and oolong tea, tasting very clean.

Rich fruity signature coffee drinks

Next, let's talk about fruity signature drinks with a richer flavor, such as orange C, noni, wampee Americano, as well as lemon, berry, grape oolong Dirty, etc. (or other similarly styled drinks). These signature drinks have strong flavors and aromas that are not easily overpowered by coffee, so beans with a slightly darker roast can be used.

Because the ingredients themselves are flavorful enough, as long as the ratio is controlled well, there is no need to worry about being overshadowed by the coffee. For this type of coffee, Front Street Coffee recommends using light-medium, medium, or medium-dark roasted coffee beans. Coffee at these three roast levels is neither too acidic nor too bitter, with just the right sweetness, and performs very well when paired with other ingredients.

For example, Geisha Blend·Strawberry Candy from Front Street Coffee's bean list, with its medium roast, has flavors of strawberry gummy, white floral, and berries, rich in taste with high sweetness; and Front Street Coffee Finca El Diviso·Sidra, an anaerobically natural processed Colombian bean, has rare and intense coffee flavors of grape, passion fruit, and apricot, with a faint red wine aroma in the finish. Many coffee shops use this bean, or the Ombligon from the same estate, for their signature drinks and espresso.

Deep and heavy signature coffee drinks

Besides the "lively" types mentioned above, there are also some signature coffee drinks with a heavier body and deeper flavors. For example, the White Toast Dirty and Pistachio Dirty mentioned earlier, or signature drinks dominated by deep flavors like nuts, chocolate, and wood, with a rich and full mouthfeel.

This type of coffee is best made with medium, medium-dark, or dark roasted coffee beans. Because beans at these roast levels have undergone sufficient caramelization and Maillard reactions, they have rich caramel, chocolate, and nut aromas, which complement the flavors of this type of signature drink and better highlight each other's characteristics.

Although dark roasted coffee has relatively high flavor consistency, beans from different origins still differ in flavor. For example, Front Street Brazil Queen Estate from Front Street Coffee's bean list, with its medium-dark roast, features mainly nut, cream, toast, and chocolate flavors, with a rich body and soft aroma; while Front Street Indonesia·Golden Mandheling is dark roasted, with flavors of chocolate, pine, spice, and caramel. Compared with Queen Estate, Golden Mandheling has a more intense aroma and a more pronounced sweet aftertaste.

Front Street Coffee tips...

No matter what coffee beans are chosen, the final ratio with other ingredients still needs to be adjusted according to the type of signature drink and the strength of the coffee; you cannot directly copy the parameters shared by Front Street Coffee. After all, even with the same coffee, the flavors of the ingredients can differ. For example, with lemons, some are more acidic and some are less acidic.

So Front Street Coffee suggests that the ratios and recipes used should still be adjusted according to the actual taste of the signature drink. The method is simple: if the coffee flavor is too strong, reduce the amount of coffee or increase the other ingredients; if the coffee taste is too harsh, switch to a milder bean, or change the type of coffee, such as replacing 40ml espresso with 40ml cold brew (for example), which is lower in strength and less concentrated in flavor.

In short, there are many ways to solve the problem, and how to solve it specifically depends on each person's own understanding. One more thing to add: Front Street Coffee's store does not serve any signature coffee drinks.

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