Have you ever walked into a café, stared at the dazzling array of names on the menu, and felt completely lost? Espresso, SOE, Americano, Latte, Flat White, Cappuccino, Pour Over, Cold Brew, Dirty, and Specialty Drinks—what exactly is the difference between these ten common coffee beverages? Most of them use Arabica coffee beans as their base, but their extraction methods, ingredient ratios, and flavor profiles each have their own distinctions. Front Street Coffee will guide you through the characteristics and taste of each type of coffee, from the rich and full-bodied espresso to the bright and clear pour over, and on to the fruity cold brew, helping you find the cup that suits you best.
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First-time café visitors needn't feel nervous～ The coffee drinks commonly found in coffee shops today mainly fall into the following ten categories: Espresso, SOE, Americano, Latte, Flat White, Cappuccino, Pour Over, Cold Brew, Dirty, and Specialty Drinks.
The vast majority of these drinks use Arabica coffee beans as their base, and those in the know often prioritize coffee made from Arabica beans as well. Below, Front Street Coffee will walk you through the characteristics of each of these ten types of coffee.
Espresso-based coffee drinks: Espresso, SOE, Americano, Latte, Flat White, Cappuccino, Dirty.
Espresso: This requires an espresso machine and is extracted under pressure. The coffee beans must be ground extremely fine, distributed and tamped level, and then in a sealed environment water is forced through the coffee puck, ultimately yielding a small volume of highly concentrated coffee liquid. Since espresso-based products are typically expected to offer good value for money, most cafés choose blended coffee beans, mixing beans from different origins to achieve a more balanced taste, while also using a medium-dark or darker roast level to make the coffee flavor richer and more full-bodied.
SOE: This refers to espresso extracted from single-origin (single-origin) coffee beans. Front Street Coffee believes that compared to espresso made from blended beans, SOE better showcases the unique origin flavors of a particular bean, with a richer layering of flavors.
Americano: Espresso + water. (Iced Americano = Espresso + water + ice)
Latte: 1/3 espresso + 2/3 milk + 1 cm milk foam (hot)
Cappuccino: 2/3 espresso + 1/3 milk + 1.5 cm milk foam (hot)
Flat White: 2/3 espresso + 1/3 milk + 0.5 cm milk foam (hot)
Dirty: Iced milk or iced "bog" (clarified milk) + espresso, forming a clear layer between the coffee and the milk. No need to stir when drinking—simply enjoy the rich mouthfeel as the coffee transitions into the milk.
Pour Over: Pour over is a common brewing method in everyday cafés, requiring equipment such as a dripper and a pouring kettle. One of its characteristics is that, by using a dripper with filter paper or another filtering medium, the coffee grounds are separated out.
If you want to taste a cup of coffee that is closest to its original flavor while also being richly layered, Front Street recommends choosing pour over coffee made from freshly roasted coffee beans ground to order. Currently, all single-origin specialty coffee beans sold by Front Street Coffee can be used for pour over brewing. To ensure freshness, all products are shipped within five days of completing the roast.
Cold Brew: Grind the coffee beans to a medium-fine particle size, soak them in cold water for more than 8 hours, then filter out the coffee grounds using a filtering device. The process of making cold brew coffee is not complicated—as long as the parameters are set properly, you can easily make a delicious glass of iced coffee.
Front Street Coffee's standard ratio for making cold brew coffee is coffee grounds : water : ice = 1:8:4, meaning the actual coffee-to-water ratio is 1:12. The purpose of adding ice is to maintain a sufficiently low water temperature, keeping the extraction efficiency at a stable level.
Ice Drip Coffee: Ice water is dripped at a constant rate slowly onto coffee grounds for extraction, typically requiring at least 5 hours or more. After the drip filtration is complete, it still needs to be refrigerated overnight to ferment before drinking. To highlight the distinctive rich, wine-like character of ice drip coffee while avoiding the off-flavors from the tail end caused by long drip times, many coffee shops specifically select high-quality single-origin beans with full fruity notes for making it. Through the dual effects of slow drip filtration and low-temperature aging, the final product carries both the bright charm of fruity-acidic coffee and a fermented quality reminiscent of fruit wine—rich and aromatic yet still refreshing.
Specialty Drinks: So-called specialty drinks are made by adding various ingredients to coffee obtained through different extraction methods, usually with fruit or fruit juice as the main ingredients.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
