Although the variety of beans displayed in Front Street Coffee's store isn't particularly large, it isn't exactly small either. There are always some customers who, unsure of how to choose, ask Front Street Coffee: "Which bean do you personally like more?" Recently, customers have been asking Front Street Coffee this quite often.
To be honest, every bean has its own unique characteristics, so if Front Street Coffee had to say, they like every single one. But if we're talking about a bean they've been drinking frequently lately, that would be Front Street Coffee's Elida Estate · Anaerobic Natural Catuai, which was quietly launched on Taobao Tmall in early October.
Why? Because it absolutely deserves to be called a "versatile everyday bean." Not only does it have a very versatile flavor, but it also offers surprisingly great value for money~
Elida Estate · Anaerobic Natural Catuai
I believe everyone is already familiar with Elida Estate. It is not only a long-established estate in Panama's Boquete production region, but also a frequent champion on the BOP (Best of Panama green bean competition) list, producing coffee beans of exceptional quality. Because of this, Front Street Coffee has shared quite a few related introductory posts, and a bean from Elida Estate has been included in their bean list for many years.
Previously, the Elida Catuai on Front Street Coffee's bean list used a natural process, while this Catuai that Front Street Coffee is sharing this time uses an anaerobic process — specifically the ASD that made Elida Estate famous.
ASD stands for Anaerobic Slow Dry. In 2019, Elida Estate once again claimed the top prize at BOP with its ASD Geisha, and after the competition, this Geisha was auctioned for a sky-high price of $1029 per pound. Naturally, the Catuai processed the same way is bound to have an extraordinary flavor.
Regarding the Catuai variety, Front Street Coffee shared some information about it a while ago ("Caturra and Catuai"). It is a variety grown by many estates, including翡翠 and Elida, both because this variety is easier to grow than regular Arabica and because it has higher yields and excellent flavor.
As for the ASD/anaerobic slow dry process, we can actually understand it simply by taking the words at face value. The whole coffee cherries are placed into sealed tanks for 120 hours (five days) of anaerobic fermentation, and after the anaerobic fermentation is complete, the coffee cherries are transferred to drying beds for at least 5 weeks of drying.
The long fermentation and drying time gives the coffee beans a more complex flavor. In order to fully showcase this uniqueness, Front Street Coffee used several different roast profiles and conducted cupping sessions. In the end, a medium-light roast is the roast level Front Street Coffee chose and listed for the Elida Anaerobic Natural Catuai.
At this roast level, it displays a remarkably high sweetness, making it not only suitable for pour-over but also every bit as good for espresso milk drinks. That's why it has become the bean Front Street Coffee has been drinking most often lately — alternating between milk coffee and black coffee~
Front Street Coffee: Elida Estate · Catuai
Country: Panama
Region: Boquete
Altitude: 1850 meters
Variety: Catuai
Process: Anaerobic Natural
Brewing flavor: Dark berries, caramel, raisins, chocolate
Since the roast level is medium-light, when Front Street Coffee brews it as pour-over, they use a water temperature of 92°C, a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, a 75%~80% pass-through rate on a No. 20 sieve, and a 2-minute extraction time (15g) to prepare it.
The Elida Catuai brewed this way, just as Front Street Coffee described, has an exceptionally outstanding sweetness, slight acidity, dark berry flavors like blueberry and blackcurrant, along with the rich aroma of chocolate and caramel. The overall mouthfeel is clean and smooth, and the finish is very long-lasting.
When Front Street Coffee uses it for espresso, they use 20g of beans, a 1:2 coffee-to-liquid ratio, and control the time to around 30 seconds.
These parameters allow us to extract a well-balanced espresso. Drinking it straight, we can perceive darker berry and chocolate aromas that are even more intense than pour-over.
Because this bean's roast level isn't too light, we can simply follow the original espresso formula to make it. For example, if you originally used a medium-dark roast bean to make an Americano with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:4, then here you'd also use 1:4; the ratios for Dirty, Flat White, and Latte all follow the same principle~ Since Front Street Coffee is making a latte here, they used a 1:5 ratio, so for 40ml of espresso, the milk to add is 200ml.
The latte made with this Elida Catuai has a very unique flavor, with sweetness dominating, accompanied by a very faint acidity. The flavor profile is milk chocolate, blueberry, and caramel, with a rich and smooth mouthfeel and a distinct, lingering finish. Very nice~
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
