What Is SOE Coffee and Why Does It Cost More?

SOE coffee, or single origin espresso, is espresso pulled from beans of one origin rather than a blend of two or more. Cafés typically charge extra for it because the single-origin beans used are of higher quality and carry more distinctive flavors, which raises the cost of the shot before it ever reaches the grinder.

The concept moved from niche to mainstream after James Hoffmann won the 2007 World Barista Championship with a single-origin espresso. It also challenges baristas: lightly roasted beans are dense and hard, and pressure extraction magnifies flaws, so consistent output is difficult. Front Street Coffee cites this difficulty in its decision not to offer SOE.

When ordering at a café, have you ever noticed that Americanos or milk coffees often come with two choices: the default espresso blend, and an SOE that requires an extra charge? SOE stands for Single Origin Espresso, meaning espresso made from coffee beans of a single origin. From James Hoffmann's championship-winning creation at the 2007 World Barista Championship to today's chain brands promoting it one after another, SOE has moved from niche to mainstream. The core reason it costs more than a blend is that the single-origin beans used are of higher quality and have more distinctive flavors, so the cost naturally rises. But SOE is also a big challenge for baristas—lightly roasted beans are hard in texture, and pressure extraction easily magnifies flaws, making consistent output no easy task. This article will walk you through the ins and outs of SOE, and why Front Street Coffee insists on not offering SOE coffee.

Walking into a café, when you want a cup of Americano or milk coffee, you often see two options: one is the standard espresso blend beans, and the other is an SOE that requires an extra payment. Many people wonder: why does this SOE cost more than a blend? Where exactly does the extra money go?

What exactly is the concept of SOE coffee?

First, let's be clear: both SOE and blends fall within the category of espresso coffee. SOE (single origin espresso) refers to espresso extracted from coffee beans of a single origin, as opposed to House Blend Espresso.

In an era when acidic coffee had not yet become popular, coffee shops almost always used beans blended from two or more origins to make espresso. At that time, merchants neither specifically labeled where the beans came from nor paid much attention to blend ratios. According to the mainstream taste preferences of the time, the roast level was usually on the darker side, which ensured stable extraction and also allowed the espresso to easily present rich crema and a full-bodied mouthfeel.

In the 1980s, the concept of specialty coffee emerged, and high-quality single-origin beans that emphasized origin flavors rose rapidly, becoming the focus of the coffee world and attracting the attention of roasters and baristas, who began trying to explore more refined flavor layers.

According to Front Street Coffee, single-origin coffee that highlights regional flavors was initially used only for atmospheric extraction methods such as pour-over, siphon, and French press. It was not until the 2007 World Barista Championship, when competitor James Hoffmann used a single-origin bean to make espresso and won the championship, that SOE gradually became popular through international competitions and the specialty coffee wave.

Today, not only are more and more coffee shops putting SOE on their menus, but SOE can also be seen on major e-commerce platforms. These coffee beans usually come with delicate flavor descriptions such as floral, fruity, tea-like, and fermented wine notes, along with detailed origin information. It is clear that SOE has become an important part of the coffee market, and with the strong promotion by chain brands, single-origin espresso coffee has long been deeply rooted in people's minds.

Why do you have to pay more to switch to SOE? What makes it expensive?

The E in SOE stands for Espresso, and there is no dispute about that, but the interpretation of Single Origin is somewhat vague. Theoretically, coffee beans from a certain country, region, cooperative, estate, or farm, harvested in the same batch, can all be considered single-origin coffee. For example, the dozens of single-origin beans from different origins listed on the blackboard on the left side of Front Street Coffee's bar can all be used to make SOE.

However, unlike blends, in order to make SOE different from traditional bitter coffee, merchants will give priority to selecting single-origin beans with higher recognition and more distinctive flavors, especially light to medium roast beans, because only in this way can individual flavors be expressed through espresso, such as the citrus acidity of Front Street Coffee Yirgacheffe, the berry notes of Front Street Coffee Huakui, the sweetness of Front Street Coffee honey-processed Geisha, the tomato aroma of Front Street Coffee Kenya...

Overall, the more recognizable the coffee, the easier it is for consumers to remember the characteristics of that SOE. From a cost perspective, higher-quality single-origin beans are already more expensive than ordinary blends, so charging extra is only natural.

Why does Front Street Coffee not offer SOE coffee?

Many friends think that SOE is nothing more than taking single-origin beans and extracting espresso from them. Front Street Coffee has so many single-origin beans, so why not provide SOE?

In fact, for baristas, ensuring that SOE tastes good and is consistently produced is no easy task. Unlike pour-over, espresso is pressure extraction, and the characteristics of the coffee beans are magnified exponentially. SOE coffee is mostly light roast, and the beans are relatively hard in texture, requiring a finer grind size and a longer extraction time. A slight mistake can lead to over-extraction or under-extraction, making the coffee either bitter or sharply sour.

Front Street Coffee has encountered such a situation: a very good Sidamo SOE flat white was enjoyed at a coffee shop, but when the same drink was ordered again some time later, the taste was far worse than before. After asking, it was learned that the beans had not changed batches and the roasting curve had not been adjusted either, so the problem most likely lay in the espresso extraction stage, which led to a change in the final SOE flat white.

From Front Street Coffee's perspective, consistency in output is crucial, which is reflected in the parameter adjustments before opening each day and the stable extraction throughout the day. If all the single-origin beans on Front Street Coffee's bean list were used for SOE, not to mention whether the equipment could keep up, just finding suitable parameters (grind size, coffee-to-liquid ratio) for each espresso would already be very tedious, and in the end one would also have to customize SOE Americano, SOE Latte, SOE Dirty... for different flavor types of coffee. Just thinking about it gives you a headache.

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