In recent years, making espresso with single-origin coffee beans has become increasingly popular. This style, known as SOE, emphasizes the authentic flavors of the origin and stands in stark contrast to traditional espresso blends. However, not all single-origin beans can handle the extraction demands of an espresso machine. Drawing on Front Street's practical experience, this article systematically explains the definition of SOE, bean selection criteria, and extraction adjustment approaches, and specifically recommends two beans suitable for espresso—Front Street Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry and Front Street Brazil Queen's Manor—along with suggested parameters for grind size, dose-to-yield ratio, and time, helping coffee enthusiasts make a cup of SOE with clear flavors at home.

The overall quality of coffee continues to rise, and using single-origin beans to make espresso is becoming more and more common on the market. This type of espresso that highlights origin flavors is clearly different from the espresso traditionally made with blended beans. But it is worth noting that not just any single-origin bean can be used to extract espresso. Today, Front Street will talk about SOE, including what it means and what aspects to pay attention to when selecting beans.

Although SOE is the abbreviation for single-origin espresso, it cannot be directly equated with specialty coffee. If you choose single-origin beans with highly recognizable flavors to make SOE, you can indeed produce a very distinctive espresso.

For example, the citrus notes in Front Street Yirgacheffe and the berry aroma in Front Street Kenya are amplified exponentially under the high-pressure environment of an espresso machine, so the flavor performance is often more intense than pour-over.

Because SOE needs to highlight origin characteristics, the beans used are usually not roasted too dark. Compared with traditional espresso beans that tend to be darker roasted, extraction is more difficult.

Therefore, on the one hand, extraction parameters need to be adjusted to increase the extraction yield, such as extending extraction time, making the grind finer, and increasing the dose.

On the other hand, when serving espresso drinks based on SOE, the ratio of espresso to milk or water also needs to be reconsidered. Reduce the amount of milk or water to make the coffee flavor more prominent and prevent the whole drink from tasting too weak.

In addition, making SOE places quite strict demands on the beans themselves. Although SOE is highly expressive, because it is a single origin, its shortcomings are also easily magnified. Factors such as roast level and particle size will all affect the final flavor.

If you do not have coffee beans of excellent quality on hand, the SOE you make will not only taste bad, but there will be nowhere to hide the flaws. In practice, SOE has very high technical requirements for every step, which is also one of the reasons it is usually sold at a higher price than regular espresso.

The espresso blend used by Front Street Coffee is intended to make the flavor richer and more balanced, but this is not the only choice. Today's SOE approach is to use single-origin beans to make espresso, highlighting the flavors of that origin while also easily exposing its shortcomings. Moreover, the roasting parameters for SOE are not the same as those for pour-over beans. Front Street Coffee once used pour-over-roasted Front Street Yirgacheffe to make espresso, and the result was so intensely acidic that it was almost undrinkable—because Front Street Yirgacheffe is already known for its fruity acidity, and under the high-temperature, high-pressure conditions of espresso extraction, the acidity was magnified several times over. What was originally an advantage instead became a disadvantage, which deviated from the original intent of coffee service. Therefore, when Front Street Coffee selects single-origin beans for making espresso, it uses a different set of roasting parameters.

Of course, some beans are highly versatile and can adapt to multiple brewing methods. Front Street will now list a few for everyone's reference.

Front Street. Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Region: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Estate: Aricha Estate Altitude: 1700-2200m Variety: Local heirloom varieties Processing method: Natural

This bean comes from the Red Cherry Project initiated by a Dutch green bean company, aimed at motivating farmers, improving green bean quality, and encouraging everyone to provide higher-quality coffee beans. Fully ripe red cherry coffee fruit is the guarantee of quality. Refined natural processing reduces the defect rate and also makes the coffee sweeter and more fragrant.

Front Street's roaster uses a medium-light roast for this bean, which preserves the rich and explosive fruit flavors of Front Street Yirgacheffe while enhancing sweetness and body, making the mouthfeel rounder. When used to extract espresso, you can still perceive the citrus fruit aroma of Front Street Yirgacheffe, with balanced acidity and sweetness and very low bitterness. Compared with darker-roasted espresso blends, the mouthfeel is slightly inferior, but the flavor is qualitatively improved.

Extraction notes: Because the roast level is still on the lighter side compared with espresso beans, the grind should be adjusted finer during extraction, and the extraction time should be shorter (about 22 seconds) to prevent the sharp acidity caused by under-extraction. Taking the Pegasus 900N grinder as an example, adjust the normal espresso grind 2 small notches finer, use 20g of coffee grounds to extract 40g of coffee liquid, with a time of 22 seconds.

Front Street. Brazil Queen's Manor Region: Brazil Mogiana Estate: Queen's Manor Altitude: 1400-1950m Variety: Yellow Bourbon Processing method: Natural

This Front Street Brazil Queen's Manor is known for its high balance. Front Street's roaster uses a medium roast, allowing this coffee to adapt to many very different extraction methods. Its balanced flavor and mouthfeel are very pleasant. When extracting espresso with a semi-automatic espresso machine, it presents rich nutty aromas, and the crema is also quite thick. It tastes rich, full, and very soft, with chocolate aroma in the aftertaste.

Extraction method: Use 20g of coffee grounds to extract 40g of coffee liquid, with a time of 27 seconds. If you want to make Americano, simply add warm water at a ratio of 1:4 to 1:6 to get a refreshing black coffee with nutty aromas; if making a latte, it is recommended to add fresh milk at a ratio of 1:5. After stirring, you can taste a smooth chocolate milk character.

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