More and more specialty coffee shops are popularizing a kind of SOE espresso, and many friends come to Front Street Coffee and ask if there isSOE coffee~ Front Street Coffee stores currently offer espresso made from a blend of Front Street sun-dried Red Cherry and Front Street Honduras Sherry coffee beans, and do not offer SOE espresso for now ~ So since both are espresso, why distinguish between blended espresso andSOE espresso? In this article, Front Street will talk aboutSOE espresso.
   

What is SOE?

SOE stands for Single Origin Espresso, called single-origin espresso in Chinese. Although it represents single-origin espresso, it does not necessarily equal specialty coffee. If you choose single-origin coffee beans with easily recognizable flavors as SOE, you can create espresso with a unique and typical flavor.
 

For example, the citrus flavor of Front Street Yirgacheffe and the berry flavor of Front Street Kenya, combined with the way espresso is amplified under the high pressure of an espresso machine, make the flavor performance more prominent than pour-over. However, although SOE performs prominently, because it comes from a single origin, its shortcomings are also relatively easy to amplify, so factors such as roasting and grind size will all affect the flavor. This is also why Front Street Coffee stores do not offer SOE. Front Street hopes that every customer who comes in can drink an espresso beverage with stable and distinctive flavor.

Talking about the rise of this trend, Chen Chih-Huang, founder of Fika Fika Cafe, who won the Nordic Barista Cup coffee roasting competition in 2013, believes that the development of coffee so far is similar to whisky; everyone started out only knowing brands and tasting blended whisky, until in the past decade single malt whisky from different regions began to become popular, and SOE is exactly the same concept.

Does SOE equal making espresso with pour-over single-origin beans?

Conceptually speaking, making espresso from pour-over single-origin coffee beans is indeed SOE, "single-origin espresso," but in actual operation it is not as simple as imagined.

Compared with blends, espresso made from single-origin coffee beans makes it easier to taste clear flavors or the taste of the region. Because blended coffee beans mix several different coffee beans, their greatest advantage is balance and stability, but also because there are too many components, the flavor of the coffee bean origin is difficult to identify.

So compared with traditional blended espresso, SOE should be an espresso that highlights flavor more. This characteristic also affects the bean selection for SOE: coffee beans with high and strong flavor recognizability should be chosen as much as possible. If coffee beans with slightly weaker flavor intensity are chosen to make SOE, the resulting espresso will be thin and powerless. Just imagine such an SOE that has neither distinctive features nor the balance and stability of blended beans—wouldn't the loss outweigh the gain?
    

Second, the roast level should not be too dark or too light. A darker roast level will greatly wear away the flavor of the origin, while a lighter roast level will cause the espresso machine, under high pressure, to amplify the acidity brought by the light roast, easily making the espresso sharply sour and hard to bear. A lighter roast level also makes the coffee beans harder in texture, making under-extraction more likely. Wearing away origin flavor and the imbalance caused by sharp acidity both go against the original intention of highlighting the flavor of a single origin, so the roast curve for producing SOE from the same bean and the roast curve for producing pour-over coffee should be two different roasting curves.

What coffee beans are suitable for makingSOE?

Fresh sweet flavor: Front Street Coffee recommends using Front Street Yirgacheffe Sun-Dried Red Cherry.This coffee comes from the Aletaland estate in Yirgacheffe, at an altitude of 1,700-2,200 meters, and is processed by full red cherry sun-drying, with a very rich fruity sweetness and floral aroma.
 

Grind size: Pegasus 900N #1.7
Dose: 20g
Extracted liquid: 40ml
Extraction time: 27 seconds
Flavor description: citrus, berries, fermentation aroma, syrupy, medium bitterness, medium-high acidity, bright and lively acidity.

Rich winey flavor: Front Street recommends using Front Street Honduras Sherry Barrel.This coffee comes from the Moca estate in Honduras, at an altitude of 1,500-1,700 meters, and is processed by refined washed Sherry barrel fermentation, with a very rich winey fermentation aroma and dark chocolate creamy flavor.
 

Grind size: Pegasus 900N #1.8
Dose: 20g
Extracted liquid: 40ml
Extraction time: 29 seconds
Flavor description: whisky aroma, soft and slightly high fruit acidity, smooth mouthfeel, creamy and syrupy, cocoa.

What should be noted when making SOE?

Front Street has found that many people think SOE is simply applying single-origin beans directly to espresso machine extraction, thereby making a single-origin espresso series, until they take home all kinds of floral and fruity beans, try them with a coffee machine, and only then discover something is wrong. First there is the画面 of gushing and spraying like below, then they are startled by the extremely sour espresso and dare not take a second sip, and then they begin to wonder whether their equipment is too poor or whether they made a mistake somewhere in operation.

In fact, the reason you cannot make the same SOE at home as in the store is very likely not your equipment or technique, but that this coffee bean's roast level was never quite suitable for making espresso. Based on the experience of Front Street Coffee baristas, choosing a coffee bean suitable for SOE extraction can not only make a delicious espresso easily, but Americano or latte made by adding water or milk will also get twice the result with half the effort. On Front Street's bean list, two single-origin coffee beans have SOE versions: one is the strawberry-scented Front Street Huakui, and the other is the classic Yirgacheffe-flavored Front Street Konga. We just need to check espresso roast when placing an order.

The coffee machine in Front Street stores is the commercial single-group "Lelit Bianca," which can adjust extraction by changing pressure, with a maximum pressure of 11 bar. A home coffee machine only needs to reach 9 bar of pressure to satisfy the functions of extraction and steaming milk foam, paired with an espresso grinder.

SOE coffeeextraction parameter sharing

Coffee beans: Front Street Ethiopia · Sun-Dried Konga

Coffee dose: 20g

Coffee liquid amount: 40g

Dose-to-yield ratio: 1:2

Extraction time: 26～33 seconds  

Grind setting: Galileo 2.0

Front Street uses the capacity of a double basket, with a dose of about 18-20 grams; Front Street uses 20 grams of coffee powder when producing.

Usually the ratio of coffee powder to coffee liquid is between 1:1.5 and 1:2.5. Front Street's extraction ratio is 1:2, that is, 20 grams of coffee powder extracts 40 grams of coffee liquid. Time is related to the flow rate of the coffee powder. Generally, a single extraction duration is controlled at 20-35 seconds, because within 20 seconds the coffee usually tastes thin, while over 35 seconds it is easy to over-extract and produce a burnt bitter taste. Front Street's espresso is mostly within the range of 28-30 seconds.

Front Street first wipes the portafilter basket dry, turns on the grinder, grinds out the amount for a double dose of coffee powder, places it on an electronic scale to adjust up or down until it reaches 20 grams. Then use a tool to distribute the grounds evenly and tamp the coffee puck firmly to ensure more stable extraction. Then turn on the extraction switch to release water, wetting the group head while washing away the coffee grounds stuck on it, gently lock the portafilter onto the group head, and start the extraction. When the electronic scale shows that 40 grams of coffee liquid has been extracted and the time is about 28-33 seconds, the extraction switch can be pulled down, and a cup ofSOE espresso is ready. We can add a suitable proportion of ice water or 80°C hot water according to our own preference to make a cup of YirgacheffeSOE Americano.

When making a hot SOE latte, Front Street uses a 1:6 ratio, adding 40 grams of espresso liquid to a preheated coffee cup, then using the espresso machine steam to froth 240g of milk. The milk temperature is best controlled between 50-65°C, so that it forms a dense milk foam with moderate thickness, then blend it evenly with the coffee liquid. The Yirgacheffe SOE latte made this way tastes like eating a lemon-flavored cookie at the first sip, with a rich, fragrant, and smooth mouthfeel, and after drinking it the whole person immediately feels warm.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add private WeChat Front Street Coffee, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

 

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