Brazilian coffee's flavor is not particularly outstanding, with low acidity, but Brazil produces a large volume of coffee at low prices, and its quality and flavor are stable, featuring a balanced taste of cocoa and nuts with a rich, mellow aroma. Therefore, it is often one of the components in espresso blends, not only reducing costs but also providing sweet, mellow aroma to espresso. The most representative ones are four coffees: Front Street Classic Espresso Blend, Front Street Dark Cocoa Blend, Front Street Commercial Blend, and Front Street Specialty Blend.
Nutty Cocoa Flavor No. 1. Front Street Classic Espresso Blend:Front Street Classic Espresso Blend adds Robusta to the basis of the Mamba recipe, fully enhancing the coffee's crema and making the espresso's body stronger. It is suitable for home preparation and latte art.
Nutty Cocoa Flavor No. 2.Front Street Commercial Blend:The Americano made with Front Street Commercial Blend has a sweet, mellow taste with rich dark cocoa and toasted bread flavors, very easy to drink. Made into a latte, it is rich and smooth, leaving a lingering fragrance after drinking, and it is affordably priced, making it a daily go-to bean for home preparation.
Nutty Cocoa Flavor No. 3. Front Street Specialty Blend: The nutty aroma and balanced taste of Brazilian coffee combined with the chocolate notes of Colombian coffee perfectly achieve an effect greater than the sum of its parts. The extracted espresso features flavors of butter cookies, cocoa, and roasted nuts. Suitable for those who dislike acidity, for making Americano and latte.
Nutty Cocoa Flavor No. 4.Front Street Dark Cocoa Blend: For those just starting out, we naturally first consider value for money, and this coffee can meet the needs of the vast majority of home users. It has soft fruit acidity, caramel sweetness, nutty and dark chocolate flavors, smooth and viscous, and is affordably priced. Suitable for shop owners and home users who prioritize cost and have moderate flavor requirements.
On the burlap sacks of Brazilian coffee exports, there will be a string of English letters and numbers, such as "CERRADO NY-2 SC-17/18 SS FC". This string of numbers actually represents the grading of Brazilian green coffee beans, established by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA). It usually consists of the specific coffee producing region, defect grading, coffee bean screen size, cup score, and sensory grading.
In Brazil, there are a total of 26 states, of which 17 states mainly grow and export coffee. Therefore, Brazilian coffee producing regions are distinguished by state. However, with the development of specialty coffee, people have higher requirements for the traceability of coffee beans with good flavor, and producing regions have been more finely divided. Nowadays, each large state is also divided into many sub-regions.
Relatively well-known and common ones include Mogiana (MOGIANA), Sul de Minas (SULDE MINAS), Cerrado (CERRADO), etc. Coffee beans from these regions will be specifically marked on the burlap sacks. In addition, to highlight their origin, some coffee beans will also be marked with port information, such as the familiarSANTOScoffeethat departs from theSantosport.
Coffee is mainly distributed in the flat plateaus of south-central Brazil, at an altitude of around 1,000 meters, and can be planted on a large scale. No other country can approach Brazil's coffee production area. In addition, Brazil is the world's most advanced and most industrializedcoffeeproducing country, so large-scale machinery operations can be seen in Brazilian coffee plantations. Although mechanized harvesting can save labor costs, it affects the specialty grade of the coffee to a certain extent.
Brazil also has some specialty coffee producing regions, where coffee is grown in high mountain areas at an altitude of 1,000-1,400 meters, in relatively steep terrain areas with limited mechanization, mostly using manual harvesting.
Parameters for making espresso with Front Street Brazil Classic Espresso Blend
The coffee machine at Front Street's store is a commercial single-group "Lelit Bianca", which can adjust extraction by changing the pressure, with a maximum pressure of 11 bar. A home coffee machine only needs to reach 9 bar of pressure to meet the functions of extraction and milk frothing, paired with an espresso grinder.
Coffee beans: Front Street Classic Espresso Blend
Coffee powder dose: 20g
Coffee liquid yield: 40g
Powder-to-liquid ratio: 1:2
Extraction time: 26–32 seconds
Grind setting: Galileo 2.0
The coffee machine used by Front Street has a double-shot basket capacity, requiring 20 grams of coffee powder each time. The extracted powder-to-liquid ratio is 1:2, meaning 40 grams of coffee liquid is produced within a reasonable time. The extraction time is related to the flow rate of the coffee powder. Generally, a single extraction is controlled between 20 and 35 seconds. If it is less than 20 seconds, the coffee taste tends to be thin and bland, while if it exceeds 35 seconds, it tends to be over-extracted, causing a burnt and bitter taste in the coffee. Therefore, Front Street controls the espresso time within the range of 26–32 seconds when producing.
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 exactly 20 grams. Then use a distribution tool to level the coffee powder, and use a tamper to press down vertically with force to tamp the coffee puck firmly, ensuring more stable coffee extraction.
Then turn on the extraction switch and let water run for 1–2 seconds to moisten the brew head, which can also wash away any stuck coffee grounds. Place an electronic scale under the cup for the Espresso, zero the weight, and place it under the brew head together during extraction.
Gently lock the portafilter onto the brew head and start the extraction switch. Observe the changes in the extracted liquid. When the electronic scale shows 40 grams of coffee liquid extracted, at about 30 seconds, turn off the extraction switch. For the drinking method of Front Street Classic Espresso Blend coffee beans, Front Street will use a 1:5 ratio of coffee to hot water, diluting the espresso into a hot Americano. This retains the original palatable character while not losing the balanced and mellow taste, as well as the clean, sweet aftertaste and other good flavors.
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
