What makes an SOE latte different from a blend?

SOE stands for Single Origin Espresso, espresso pulled from beans of one origin rather than a blend. It uses specific roasting curves and extraction parameters to bring out a region's floral, fruity, sweet-and-tart or nutty-chocolate notes. Compared with blends that chase balance and stability, SOE emphasizes recognizable regional flavor and asks more of bean quality and barista skill.

Lighter roasts are common for soe espresso, so jasmine and citrus notes from Ethiopian Yirgacheffe or black plum and dark berry acidity from Kenyan washed beans can carry through milk. Colombian beans bring dark chocolate sweetness and Brazilian beans a creamy caramel body. Front Street Huakui serves as the worked example, showing the full path from espresso extraction to a finished latte.

Can single-origin beans used for pour-over also make espresso? This is a question many coffee lovers are curious about. SOE (Single Origin Espresso) uses single-origin beans as its raw material, and through specific roasting curves and extraction parameters, it presents the unique floral, fruity, sweet-and-tart, or nutty-chocolate notes of a producing region. Unlike blended beans, which pursue balance and stability, SOE places more emphasis on the recognizability of regional flavor and demands higher bean quality and barista skill. This article will start from the definition, characteristics, and origin of SOE, analyze which coffee beans are suitable for making SOE, and use Front Street Huakui as an example to fully demonstrate the parameters and steps from espresso extraction to latte production, helping you make a cup of SOE latte with clear flavor and smooth mouthfeel at home.

What exactly is SOE coffee?

SOE is the abbreviation of Single Origin Espresso, often translated into Chinese as "single-origin espresso." Its core pursuit is to amplify the signature flavor of a certain origin. Put plainly, it is espresso extracted from single-origin coffee beans, as opposed to espresso made from beans blended from multiple origins.

SOE marked on cafe menus usually uses beans with a lighter roast level, with the aim of showcasing the floral aroma and fruity acidity unique to the origin. For example, Front Street Yirgacheffe from Ethiopia has jasmine floral notes and citrus-like acidity; Front Street Kenya Little Tomato Washed Coffee presents the acidity of black plum and dark berries. Of course, some shops also offer SOE with a slightly darker roast and nutty notes, such as the dark chocolate sweetness of Colombian coffee, or the creamy, caramel-like richness of Brazilian coffee. Using these distinctive SOEs as a base, many drinks such as lattes, Americanos, and flat whites can be created.

What unique characteristics does SOE have?

Traditionally, bean suppliers blend coffee beans from two or more origins into a new blend in order to achieve balanced flavor, stable extraction, and lower costs. SOE does the opposite. It emphasizes origin traceability and must faithfully present the unique flavor of that origin from roasting to extraction.

The flavor of a cup of coffee is affected by many factors: growing terroir, processing method, roast level, brewing technique and parameters, and so on. If the flavor in the cup is to be impressive enough, merchants must select higher-quality coffee lots to produce it, and both cost and selling price will naturally rise.

When roasters make blended beans, they often deepen the roast level to make the flavor more balanced and stable while masking some defects in bean quality. SOE, however, needs to highlight a distinct flavor and mouthfeel, so the roast level is generally not too dark; otherwise, the extracted espresso lacks persuasiveness. But it also will not use extremely light roasting like single-origin pour-over, because at high concentration it easily produces harsh sour and astringent notes. Therefore, SOE requires a dedicated roasting curve, matched with corresponding extraction parameters, to bring out the high-quality flavor of the origin.

How did SOE become popular?

After the specialty coffee wave arrived, various high-quality single-origin beans gradually appeared on cafe menus. For example, Front Street's bean list filled an entire large blackboard. When making espresso, some competing baristas were no longer satisfied with balanced blended beans and instead chose high-quality single-origin beans as the raw material, paired with repeatedly tested brewing parameters, to extract a highly distinctive espresso that added much to their competition performance. In addition, with the widespread spread of images and videos in recent years, making espresso with single-origin beans has gradually become a new trend.

In fact, SOE is not a product that only appeared in recent years. In the early days when espresso was just rising, cafes around the world used single-origin coffee beans, only without deliberately emphasizing it. As coffee consumption demand continued to grow, coffee quality from different origins began to vary unevenly, and flavor and stability became difficult to guarantee. To avoid the impact of low-quality coffee, some merchants began blending beans from different origins to make the taste more stable. In recent years, as the specialty coffee atmosphere has become increasingly strong, coffee people have begun to value bean traceability and hope to drink espresso made from beans from well-known specialty origins, so SOE became popular again.

Which coffee beans are suitable for making SOE?

Front Street has always believed that drinking coffee is a very subjective matter, and everyone has different taste preferences. Here, Front Street recommends three types of beans with different flavor profiles, so everyone can choose according to their preferred style.

If you prefer fruity sweetness and acidity, you can choose medium-light roasted single-origin beans. The SOE will show the bright acidity and sweetness of various fruits. For example, Front Street Ethiopia Natural Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee Beans on Front Street's bean list has the sweet-and-tart taste of tropical fruits and berries.

If you choose single-origin beans with chocolate and nutty notes, a slightly darker roast level will be used, and the resulting espresso will have rich crema and full hazelnut aroma, such as Front Street Brazil Queen Estate Coffee Beans, which presents the sweet fragrance of creamy peanut and dark chocolate.

Tips for making SOE

No matter how coffee is extracted, Front Street believes freshness is crucial. If the bean roasting date is more than a month ago, some of the aroma may already have been lost, and an unpleasant woody taste may also develop. Front Street hopes that every customer who places an order can taste the coffee aroma during its optimal flavor period, so it only ships beans freshly roasted within 5 days. To make SOE flavor more outstanding, Front Street recommends choosing freshly roasted single-origin coffee beans.

In addition, when extracting SOE with beans at a lighter roast level, because the roasting time is short, the internal texture of the beans is harder and the flavor is more difficult to release. At this time, extraction parameters need to be adjusted to increase the extraction yield, such as extending extraction time, raising water temperature, making the grind finer, and increasing the dose.

Making SOE is a great test of a barista's extraction skill. It is necessary to consider the bean roast level and slowly adjust various parameters to present the best flavor and mouthfeel. If the beans are not well chosen and you are not familiar with the espresso-making process, the probability of failure will be higher, and the coffee made will either be so bitter it is hard to swallow or so sour it makes people frown. So in Front Street's view, choosing a bean suitable for SOE extraction not only makes it easy to produce a delicious espresso, but also makes it much easier afterward to add water or milk to make an Americano or latte.

Take Front Street Huakui Coffee, which Front Street likes very much. Considering that everyone may brew it differently after purchase, Front Street's roasters specially launched two different roasting curves: one is a medium-light roast suitable for cold brew and pour-over, and the other is a medium roast suitable for espresso machines and moka pots.

For example, if someone makes cold brew for convenience, or pursues a sense of ritual with pour-over extraction, then choose the medium-light roast; if you prefer golden crema, or hope to pour delicate patterns on a latte, Front Street recommends choosing the SOE roasting curve.

Front Street Huakui SOE Espresso extraction parameters

Coffee beans: Front Street. Natural Huakui SOE

Coffee dose: 20g

Coffee liquid yield: 40g

Dose-to-yield ratio: 1:2

Extraction time: 26–32 seconds

Grind setting: Galileo 2.0

The coffee machine used by Front Street has a double basket capacity, so 20 grams of coffee powder are needed each time, and the extraction dose-to-yield ratio is 1:2, meaning 40 grams of coffee liquid are produced within a reasonable time. Extraction time is related to the flow rate of the coffee powder. Generally, a single extraction is controlled between 20 and 35 seconds. Less than 20 seconds tends to make the coffee thin and weak, while more than 35 seconds tends to over-extract and cause a burnt bitter taste, so Front Street controls the espresso time within the range of 26–32 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 tightly, ensuring more stable extraction.

Then turn on the extraction switch and let water run for 1–2 seconds to wet the group head while also washing away the coffee grounds stuck on it. Place an electronic scale under the cup that will receive the Espresso and reset the weight to 0, then place it together under the group head during extraction.

Gently lock the portafilter onto the group head and turn down the extraction switch. Observe the changes in the extracted liquid. When the electronic scale shows that 40 grams of coffee liquid have been extracted, at about 30 seconds, turn off the extraction switch. Brewing parameters will produce subtle changes according to daily air humidity and the condition of the coffee beans, so it is necessary to adjust the coffee dose, grind setting, and coffee liquid yield up or down.

The ingredients for a latte are simple: only espresso and milk are needed, and there is likewise no fixed ratio, mostly between 1:5 and 1:8. The Front Street. Huakui SOE latte introduced by Front Street today uses a 1:5 ratio, with 40g espresso and 200g milk.

For example, when producing a hot latte, Front Street adds the espresso to a preheated coffee cup, then uses an espresso machine steam wand to froth the milk. The milk temperature is best controlled at 55–65°C, so that it forms dense milk foam with moderate thickness, then evenly integrates with the coffee liquid. The final latte art is the icing on the cake.

Front Street Huakui hot latte presents the sweet aroma of berries and cocoa, creamy and smooth. Front Street's iced latte first adds 75 grams of ice cubes + 200ml of fresh milk, then extracts 40 grams of coffee liquid and pours it over the surface. Stir well before drinking.

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