SOE coffee beans and espresso parameters

Single-origin espresso, or SOE, needs a lighter roast than traditional espresso blends and tighter extraction control. Using Colombia Finca La Divisa Sidra, 20 grams of grounds yield 40 grams of liquid in about 27 seconds, with the first drop at the fifth second, giving medium acidity, low bitterness, and notes of citrus, strawberry, cheese, and dark chocolate.

Because SOE highlights origin character, beans with a strong regional or processing identity suit it better; Finca El Paraiso Strawberry Yogurt is not recommended for espresso. For an Americano, a 10-ounce cup uses roughly a 1:6 ratio of coffee liquid to water, while milk drinks such as a latte or flat white soften the fruit and cocoa finish.

To make a delicious espresso with single-origin coffee beans, extraction parameters and roast level are key. Using the Colombia Finca La Divisa Sidra SOE as an example, Front Street Coffee shares a complete preparation plan from espresso to Americano, latte, and flat white: 20 grams of grounds extracted to 40 grams of liquid in about 27 seconds, and explores why SOE requires a lighter roast than traditional espresso beans. The article also addresses why the Finca El Paraiso Strawberry Yogurt is not recommended for espresso, making it a useful reference for coffee lovers who are looking for SOE coffee beans or want to adjust their espresso recipe.

Front Street Coffee's bean list is mainly pour-over coffee beans, and there are quite a few beans that can be used for espresso, though most appear as blends. The most popular ones include Front Street Specialty Blend, Front Street Classic Blend, Front Street Dark Cocoa Base Blend, Front Street Commercial Blend, and Front Street Strawberry Candy Blend.

During regular business, people often ask whether there are any SOE coffee beans worth buying, and Front Street Coffee has thought about this for a while too. Considering the characteristics of SOE itself, Front Street hopes the beans used for SOE will have highly recognizable regional features or processing-method styles, so it successively launched Front Street Huakui SOE, Front Street Yirgacheffe SOE, and Front Street Grana Geisha SOE.

If you prefer espresso with prominent fruity notes, Front Street Colombia Sidra SOE would be a good choice. After extraction, it often presents flavors of passion fruit, grape, and strawberry berries, with cheesy notes mixed with a dark cocoa finish; the whole bean is quite distinctive, and it is hard to forget once you have tried it.

Espresso

After repeated adjustment, the espresso parameters were finally set at 20 grams of grounds, extracting 40 grams of coffee liquid, taking about 27 seconds, with the first drop of coffee starting to drip at the 5th second.

The espresso made with Front Street Finca La Divisa Sidra coffee beans has medium acidity, low bitterness, and slightly weak sweetness, reminiscent of citrus and strawberry, accompanied by medium-intensity cheesy and dark chocolate finish.

Americano

For the Americano, a 10-ounce cup is used, and the ratio of coffee liquid to water is about 1:6. On the palate there are fruit hard candy, dark chocolate, and a faint strawberry taste, with a smooth mouthfeel and medium body.

Milk Coffee

For milk coffee, a 12-ounce cup is used for latte, and a 10-ounce cup for flat white. The latte has a silky mouthfeel with the sweetness of milk, and the flavor leans toward lemon yogurt and vanilla ice cream, with a slight dark chocolate aftertaste.

The flat white has higher overall intensity, with clearer cheesy and lemon yogurt flavors, medium dark chocolate aroma, and medium-high sweetness.

In terms of roasting, Front Street Sidra coffee is roasted somewhat darker to pair with espresso preparation. If the light-medium roast used for pour-over were used for espresso, the acidity would be amplified, making it taste sharply acidic and unbalanced. The roast should neither be too dark, which would wipe out the bean's own flavors, nor too light, which would make the espresso lose balance.

In addition, roasting too light will also make the "coffee taste" weaker. Traditional espresso beans are remembered as being roasted darker, roughly after second crack. The purpose of dark roasting is, first, stability, with the flavors produced by roasting dominating the base profile and remaining unchanged for years; and second, masking defects. At this roast level, a large amount of milk is needed to make it easier to drink. Today's slightly lighter-roasted SOE that highlights regional flavors is the opposite, so the latte made with a 12-ounce cup mentioned earlier has less flavor intensity than the smaller flat white.

Although this Colombia Finca El Paraiso Strawberry Yogurt has a unique and impressive flavor, Front Street Coffee has not put it on the shelf as a pour-over bean, and does not particularly recommend using it for espresso. Front Street Coffee believes that this bean does not have the typical factors representing Colombian coffee and can only be regarded as an individual case. What Front Street prefers to present is a washed coffee whose base profile can represent the Colombian region. The reasons for not recommending it as SOE also involve multiple factors; in plain terms, it is relatively difficult to make and lacks stability.

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