Does espresso have to be bitter and strong? In fact, a high-quality Espresso can also present rich layers of fruity, floral, spicy, or chocolate and caramel notes—the key lies in choosing the right coffee beans. This article will guide you through espresso's tolerance for roast levels, explain how blend beans achieve flavor balance through combinations of multiple origins or roast profiles, and compare the increasingly popular SOE single-origin espresso in recent years. Meanwhile, Front Street Coffee recommends four classic espresso blends and one Flower Queen SOE, and shares practical tips on fresh roasting, bean resting, and grinding storage, helping you find the ideal espresso daily bean for making Americanos or lattes at home.

Espresso is essentially an extraction method, using an espresso machine to quickly extract concentrated coffee liquid under high temperature and pressure in a short time, hence it is also called espresso, or Espresso.

Many people's first impression of espresso is often strong and bitter. But Front Street wants to tell you that a well-made espresso can actually showcase fruity, floral, spicy notes, and even chocolate or caramel-like sweetness. Whether you can taste these flavors depends on the coffee beans you choose.

Pour-over coffee has almost no restrictions on coffee beans—so can espresso use any beans too? Front Street's view is that coffee beans of any roast level can be used to make espresso; ultimately, it comes down to personal taste and preference.

An ideal Espresso needs to have sweetness, with an overall balanced mouthfeel, achieving harmony among bitterness, acidity, sweetness, and aftertaste. This complexity often cannot be achieved by a single coffee bean alone, so to get an excellent Espresso, you first need a reasonable coffee bean blending plan. The blending here can be a combination of coffee beans from different origins, or a coordination of the same bean at different roast levels. Either way, the core principle of blending is only one: to make the final Espresso taste balanced.

Front Street currently has six espresso blend beans, and over fifty single-origin beans covering different regions, so whether for pour-over or making espresso, you can experience flavors of various styles. Below are four selected espresso blends recommended for you:

1. Front Street Classic Espresso Blend Coffee Beans 49 yuan/227g

If you prefer a rich and full-bodied coffee taste, Front Street Classic Espresso Blend is a good choice. This recipe combines coffee beans from three origins—Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam—and uses a deep roast to maximize the rich aroma, while also easily extracting abundant, dense crema. Whether diluted with water as an Americano or paired with milk as a latte, it performs well. You can order from Front Street's Taobao store or Front Street Tmall flagship store.

2. Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso blend coffee beans 85 yuan/227g

If you want to make an espresso with fruity and floral notes, medium-roasted coffee beans should be the main component. Here we recommend Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso coffee beans, which can be ordered directly from Taobao or Tmall stores. This bean uses Front Street Costa Rica Tarrazu, known for its honey processing, and Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, as two major origins, plus Colombian coffee beans. The espresso blended this way has low irritation, and after extraction by the espresso machine, it shows good crema with a dense texture, while carrying a sweet-and-sour taste similar to strawberry gummy candy.

3. Front Street Specialty Espresso Blend Coffee Beans 75 yuan/454g

Brazil and Colombia, as two of the world's top coffee-producing countries, have long been renowned. Front Street combines coffee beans from these two regions: the nutty aroma and balanced taste of Brazilian coffee, plus the chocolate notes of Colombian coffee, achieving an effect where one plus one is greater than two. The extracted espresso presents flavors of cream cookies, cocoa, and roasted nuts.

4. Front Street Commercial Espresso Blend Coffee Beans 60 yuan/454g

If you want to replicate the same Americano or latte as in a coffee shop, you can purchase Front Street Commercial Blend coffee beans. It is blended from three major regions—Brazil, Colombia, and Vietnam—and undergoes a medium-dark roast, possessing rich crema and roasted aromas. Made into an Americano, it tastes mellow and very easy to drink; made into a latte, it is rich and smooth, leaving a lingering fragrance after drinking, and it is affordable, suitable as a daily household staple bean.

In addition to the above Front Street espresso blends, SOE single-origin espresso is also very popular in cafes nowadays. SOE is actually the abbreviation of Single Origin Espresso, meaning single-origin espresso, emphasizing the use of coffee beans from a single origin to make espresso. This concept is relative to traditional espresso blends, highlighting the characteristics of single-origin espresso, making it easier to identify the regional flavor of that origin, and easier to establish a connection between the origin and consumers. That is to say, espresso made from coffee beans of a single origin or region does not require such a deep roast level. SOE single-origin espresso pursues the unique flavor of a single region.

SOE coffee beans have relatively high requirements, needing to highlight coffee flavor while also grasping the roast level well—neither too dark nor too light. We recommend Front Street Flower Queen SOE coffee beans, produced in Hambela of the Guji region in Ethiopia, using traditional natural processing. To highlight its strawberry, citrus, and black tea flavors, Front Street uses a medium roast. Made into an SOE Americano, it has refreshing berry, light floral, and orange aromas; made into a latte, it carries flavors of cranberry cookies, cocoa, and milk candy.

Front Street Coffee Brewing Suggestions

Whether pour-over or espresso, to brew well, you must use good coffee beans and also rest the beans well. Front Street has always believed that the freshness of coffee beans is a very important part of brewing. The coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are all within 5 days of the roasting time, because Front Street deeply understands that freshness greatly affects flavor. Front Street's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," so that every customer who places an order can get the freshest coffee when they receive it. The resting period for coffee is about 4 to 7 days, so when customers receive it, it is exactly at its best flavor.

Of course, some customers need Front Street to help grind the coffee, which is also fine, but Front Street wants to remind you: once coffee beans are ground in advance, there is no need to rest the beans anymore, because during transportation, the pressure generated by carbon dioxide inside the package can also make the coffee flavor rounder, so you can immediately brew a cup upon receiving the ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly, because after contact with air, ground coffee oxidizes faster, and the flavor dissipates faster, making the taste less good. Therefore, Front Street recommends buying whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing, so you can better taste the coffee's flavor.

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