Friends who love milk coffee know that what we commonly call latte is actually a popular coffee drink made by combining espresso and milk. The addition of milk makes the originally strong and bitter espresso sweet and delicious, and even friends who don't usually drink coffee find it "really good."

We know that espresso beans have different flavor performances and positioning for different market demands. Based on extraction experience, Front Street Coffee recommends using espresso blend coffee beans with higher stability. Blended products usually combine flavor profiles from different regions and use medium or darker roasts, making it easier to extract rich crema (coffee beans with high crema are more suitable for milk coffee), so our espresso has a thick and rich taste with higher fault tolerance.

For example, Front Street Coffee has an espresso bean called Front Street Commercial Blend, which is composed of 90% Brazilian and Colombian Arabica coffee beans with 10% Vietnamese Robusta coffee beans. The espresso it produces not only has rich golden crema but also has a traditional Italian style with aromatic bitterness. Front Street Coffee positions it for use in large commercial cafes.

Front Street Coffee has noticed that in addition to common blends, there is an increasingly popular category on many coffee shop menus, namely SOE coffee.

SOE is the abbreviation of "Single Original Espresso." Literally, it means single-origin espresso, clearly to distinguish it from House Blend Espresso. It is not hard to see that SOE, which advocates a single origin, often uses beans with a lighter roast level to present a rich and light mouthfeel different from traditional bitter coffee, such as the citrus-lemon notes of Ethiopian beans, the raisin-honey sweetness of Costa Rican beans, the tomato-berry acidity of Kenyan beans, and the floral-honey charm of Panama Geisha. The higher the recognizability, the easier it is for consumers to remember the characteristics of SOE, but in terms of cost, higher-quality single-origin beans are also relatively more expensive.

When we use coffee beans with a lighter roast to extract espresso, because the coffee beans have been roasted for a shorter time and their internal texture is harder, the flavors are more difficult to fully release, and after adding milk they become even more bland and tasteless. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust various parameters to improve the extraction rate, such as extending the extraction time, increasing the water temperature, making the grind finer, and increasing the dose. The difficulty level is much higher than with dark-roasted beans. Front Street Coffee believes that to present the unique style of SOE, high-quality coffee beans, an appropriate roast level, corresponding grinding parameters, and proper extraction are all indispensable.

It is precisely because this type of coffee bean is roasted much lighter than traditional espresso beans that the purpose of making espresso is to express the bean's own flavor, with less bitterness, a delicate aroma, and a thinner, less rich mouthfeel. So when using this type of single-origin bean to make latte, adding a large proportion of milk can easily mask the "coffee flavor." When Front Street Coffee makes SOE latte, it uses a coffee-to-milk ratio of 1:5, which can both reflect the fresh sweetness of the milk and not overshadow the character of the SOE coffee beans.

Below, Front Street Coffee uses the store's regular single-origin coffee, Milasu · Strawberry Candy, as the extraction subject to demonstrate how to extract a sweet and delicious SOE latte. This is a Geisha blend from Milasu Estate in Costa Rica, processed with raisin honey processing. The extracted espresso presents rich notes of rose, candied fruit, and strawberry fruit candy, and is very pleasant whether made into an Americano with water or a latte with milk.

Front Street Coffee stores use the Lelit Bianca coffee machine, paired with the Galileo Q18 espresso coffee grinder. As for the coffee machines we usually use at home, as long as they can reach 9 bar of pressure, they can meet the functions of extracting espresso and steaming milk foam.

Strawberry Candy · Geisha Blend SOE extraction parameters

Coffee beans: Costa Rica · Strawberry Candy

Coffee powder dose: 20g

Coffee liquid yield: 40g

Powder-to-liquid ratio: 1:2

Extraction time: 26–32 seconds

Grind size: Galileo Q18 setting 2.0

Milk volume: 200g

Front Street Coffee uses the capacity of a double basket, with a dose of about 18–20 grams, and uses 20 grams of coffee powder when producing. Usually the ratio of coffee powder to coffee liquid is 1:1.5–1:2.5. Front Street Coffee'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 time is controlled at 20–35 seconds, because within 20 seconds the coffee usually tastes thin, while exceeding 35 seconds easily causes over-extraction and a burnt bitter taste. Front Street Coffee's espresso is mostly in the range of 28–30 seconds.

Before extraction, we need to first wipe the basket dry, turn on the grinder, grind a double dose of coffee powder, and place it on an electronic scale to measure and adjust until it reaches 20 grams. Then use a distribution tool to level the coffee powder, and use a tamper to press vertically downward with force to tamp the coffee puck firmly, ensuring more stable coffee extraction.

Then turn on the extraction switch and let water run for 1–2 seconds to moisten the group head, while also removing coffee grounds stuck on it. Place an electronic scale under the cup for collecting espresso, and set the weight to 0. During extraction, place it together under the group head. Gently lock the portafilter onto the group head and start the extraction switch. Observe the changes in the extracted liquid. When the electronic scale shows 40 grams of coffee liquid extracted, at about 30 seconds, lower the switch to stop extraction, and pour the extracted espresso into a pre-prepared coffee cup for later use.

Next, pour 200g of low-temperature fresh milk into the milk pitcher and adjust the angle of the steam wand to start steaming. Be careful to control the milk foam thickness at 0.3–0.5cm and the temperature at 55–60°C, achieving a dense and silky texture. After steaming, blend it evenly with the coffee liquid, and finally finish with latte art. In this way, a cup of Geisha Blend SOE hot latte is completed.

When tasting, Front Street Coffee can feel the coffee's rich floral and fruity aroma. On the palate, there are not only aromas of berries, pink flowers, raisins, and almonds. Set off by the coffee crema, this SOE latte also has a rich finish of chocolate and hazelnut, like eating a cranberry cookie, very special.

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