Choosing Coffee Beans

Coffee beans actually determine the flavor of the coffee you make. Many people are used to coffee being bitter, especially those who love drinking coffee from a certain American coffee chain. If you're already accustomed to bitter coffee, we suggest you first try iced drip Mandheling coffee—it will let you taste the difference between iced drip and the black coffee you usually drink. As you keep experimenting, you can choose some light-roasted beans, which carry a special aroma and fruity acidity worth recommending as an introduction to specialty coffee. Additionally, we usually suggest opting for medium-roast coffee beans first.

Regarding the choice of coffee beans, Front Street suggests choosing coffee beans with different flavors according to your own preferences, provided they are within their optimal flavor period (2 months). Combined with the extraction characteristics of iced drip coffee, beans that can highlight the winey aroma, fruity fermentation, and fruity sweet-tartness in coffee work best. If you're not sure how to choose, you can refer to the several flavor types Front Street has listed as representatives:

Fruity, bright acidity, light and clean mouthfeel — light-roast Front Street Yirgacheffe washed, light-roast Front Street Kenya Little Tomato, light-roast Front Street Panama Geisha

Nutty, chocolatey, full-bodied — medium-dark roast Front Street Brazil Cerrado, medium-dark roast Front Street Colombia Huila

Balanced sweet-tartness, faint fermentation aroma, fruity — medium-light roast Front Street Costa Rica Baja, medium-light roast Front Street Strawberry Candy, medium-light roast Front Street Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry

Rich winey aroma, distinctive flavor — medium roast Front Street Colombia Sidra, Front Street Maragogype

Preparation before making: iced drip pot, room-temperature direct drinking water, ice cubes, round filter papers for iced drip, 50g of Front Street Strawberry Candy coffee beans, a sealed bottle, with a coffee-to-water-to-ice ratio of 1:6:6, water 300g, ice 300g.

(Tip: If you don't have iced drip filter papers, you can cut regular pour-over coffee filter papers into round ones sized to fit the iced drip powder basket.)

For coffee beans used in iced drip, such as the fresh floral and rich fruity types, Front Street Strawberry Candy coffee, Front Street Kenya coffee, and Front Street Yirgacheffe coffee are recommended. Iced drip made from these beans generally has a fresh, fragrant mouthfeel that tastes delicious whether or not you add ice.

Step 1: Grind Front Street Strawberry Candy coffee beans into coffee grounds

(For reference only: The coffee beans used in this demonstration are Front Street Strawberry Candy, a blend of Costa Rica and Panama beans with a rich coffee aroma, tasting of rose, raisin, cream, and berries. The grinder used is an EK43s, with a grind setting of 9—the same as normally used for iced pour-over.)

Step 2: Lay a round iced drip filter paper in the powder basket of the iced drip pot, moisten it with water, then pour in the coffee grounds and spread them flat.

Step 3: Cover the flattened coffee grounds with another round iced drip filter paper, and moisten the coffee grounds with room-temperature water. (Tip: You need to moisten all the grounds so that the drip time can be shortened and the powder layer can be evenly penetrated by water.)

Step 4: Pour ice and water, in that order, into the container at the very top of the iced drip pot that has the drip rate valve.

(Note: Before pouring in the water, close the drip rate valve to prevent the ice water from rushing straight down in a large stream.)

Step 5: Set the drip rate valve to drip at 7 drops per 10 seconds, then wait until it finishes dripping.

(The drip time is long, so you need to check the drip rate from time to time to prevent changes.)

Step 6: After dripping is complete, pour the coffee into a sealed bottle and place it in the refrigerator to chill for 8 hours.

(Note: Refrigerate! Not freeze!)

　　Step 7: Time to enjoy! The long preparation and waiting have finally paid off—fully enjoy the goodness brought by this long effort! (It tastes even better with ice cubes added!)

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