Nowadays, when you go to a specialty coffee shop, you can always see espresso drinks made with SOE (Single Origin Espresso) on the recommended menu. Is espresso made from single-origin coffee beans necessarily tastier than espresso made from blended coffee beans? Which single-origin coffee beans are suitable for making espresso? In this article, Front Street Coffee will answer these questions one by one.

What is SOE?

SOE (single origin espresso) refers to espresso made from coffee beans of a single origin/region/estateespresso. The emergence of SOE reflects that people's pursuit of specialty coffee can no longer be satisfied by pour-over coffee alone. In the past, people believed that blending coffee beans gave espresso a stable, rich, mellow, and bittersweet flavor. But with the promotion of specialty coffee, there has been a gradual shift toward extracting espresso with strong flavor layering from single-origin coffee beans.

SOE is so expensive! It must taste better than ordinary espresso made from blended coffee beans, right!

Not necessarily. Because espresso is a high-concentration coffee liquid extracted quickly under pressure, the flavors of the coffee beans are amplified. Coffee beans that taste just right in pour-over coffee may become very extreme when made into espresso. For example, lightly roasted coffee beans may overemphasize acidity, turning pleasant fruity acidity into harsh sharpness or vinegar-like sourness; for example, darkly roasted coffee beans may intensify bitterness, becoming very bitter or obviously burnt-bitter with a smoky taste, making it hard to swallow.

Then why is SOE still so popular?

As Front Street Coffee just mentioned, the promotion of SOE reflects coffee lovers' extreme pursuit of coffee flavor. This has also led many people to form a habitual way of thinking: SOE coffee tastes better than blended coffee. Many shop owners also blindly launch SOE without fully understanding it, believing that if beans taste good in pour-over, they will definitely taste good as espresso.

But they often overlook that coffee beans, as a concentrated extract, cannot always remain stable in quality. So in many cases, if you had a delicious SOE at one coffee shop this time, you may be disappointed the next time you drink it. This is also why blended coffee beans are the standard choice for making espresso: by blending different origins and different coffee beans in different proportions, the coffee flavor can remain stable over the long term.

Do not blindly follow the SOE trend!

SOE can be offered as a limited-supply drink in a shop, but it cannot be a long-term main promotion, and you should not run a shop that only sells SOE! Front Street Coffee has also talked with many coffee professionals about SOE offerings, and everyone's answers were surprisingly similar. They reported that after drinking it, many customers found it plain and unremarkable, not as tasty as coffee made from blended beans. Some shops that originally only offered SOE eventually gave in to reality and switched to blended coffee beans.

What coffee beans are suitable for makingSOE espresso?

In order to better express the flavor of the origin, you can choose coffee beans with obvious flavor characteristics for making SOE. Although Front Street Coffee does not sell single-origin coffee beans specifically for SOE, it has also explored espresso extraction with several single-origin coffee beans. Finally, here are several single-origin coffee beans you can try for SOE. (Only coffee beans are recommended here; no stable parameters can be provided, since every espresso machine has its own temperament.)

Light roast "Front Street Coffee Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Coffee Beans"After extraction into espresso, the flavor shows the sweet-and-sour taste of berries, the acidity is not particularly sharp, and it has a caramel finish. Made intoAmericano, it appears especially soft; made into a latte, the soft acidity highlights the milk's sweetness and brings a honey-like finish.

Medium roast "Front Street Coffee Costa Rica Mozart Coffee Beans"Extracted as espresso, the flavor shows a very obvious raisin aroma, with pleasant sweet-and-sour notes and fermented aromas. Made intoAmericano, it has fruity sweet-and-sour notes and fermented aromas, with a slight floral finish; made into a latte, it has a charming dried-fruit aroma with sweet-and-sour notes and brings out the milk's sweetness.

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