NO.1 Choose fresh coffee beans
Before choosing any coffee beans, let Front Street teach you how to judge the freshness of coffee beans.First, choose products that clearly indicate the roast date (not the expiration date or shelf life), have brand credibility, and are purchased from professional coffee roasters that emphasize fresh roasting. In addition, good coffee packaging bags usually have a "one-way exhaust valve" design (the button-shaped small hole at the top of the coffee bag) to allow coffee beans to release naturally produced carbon dioxide.
Every bag of coffee beans sold by Front Street uses one-way exhaust valve packaging and is roasted within 5 days to ensure that every bag of coffee beans is in the freshest condition when it reaches the customer. The reason Front Street emphasizes fresh roasting so much is that, as time passes, coffee basically has little aroma left after more than 50 days from roasting, so even very expensive coffee beans will not taste good when brewed. Therefore, it is recommended that you drink it as soon as possible within its peak flavor
Howevercoffee beans are not necessarily better the fresher they are. In the first two days after roasting, because there is too much gas, the aroma has not yet stabilized, so it can be stored for 2–3 days before brewing and tasting.
NO.2 Choose coffee that suits your taste
Sourness and bitterness are the two main flavor expressions of coffee today. Either the brewed coffee is mainly sour, or it is mainly bitter, and these two flavors correspond to light-roasted and dark-roasted coffee beans.
If you like coffee with fruity acidity, we recommend the light-roasted Front Street Red Cherry Coffee (lemon, citrus), Front Street Tarrazu Coffee (sweet orange, honey), and Front Street Kenya Coffee (cherry tomato, smoked plum, plum);
If you like a rich, sweet-bitter taste, you can try the dark-roasted Front Street Golden Mandheling Coffee (caramel, spices), Front Street Queen's Estate Coffee (cocoa, chocolate), and Front Street Yunnan Arabica Coffee (nuts, brown sugar);
If you want to drink coffee that is neither bitter nor sour, it is recommended to buy beans with obvious sweetness such as Front Street Strawberry Candy Coffee (rose, grape) and Front Street Mozart Coffee (pineapple, raisin).
NO.3 Prioritize coffee with high cost performance
Front Street believes that beginners are still in the early stage of getting familiar with coffee. Aside from the grinder, which should be chosen a little better (with more budget invested), other tools can actually be made do with for now. Then, use a low-cost setup to try different types of coffee beans, and gradually improve both brewing and tasting abilities.
Coffee beans for pour-over are generally single-origin coffees, from a single origin, usually in specifications of half a pound or less. Different producing regions, varieties, processing methods, grades, and roast levels all affect the final taste of the coffee. Based on Front Street's experience, at the beginner stage it is best to first choose beginner-friendly everyday coffee beans according to your own taste preferences. First, it can help me quickly distinguish regional flavors, and second, even if you practice several times, you won't feel distressed. Taking Front Street's everyday coffees as an example, if you can accept acidity, you can first try Front Street Ethiopia Yirgacheffe;
If you like soft sweet-and-sour notes, you can choose Front Street Costa Rica Tarrazu or Front Street Rwanda Red Bourbon; if you want lower acidity, you can try Yunnan Arabica; if you want no acidity and at the same time nutty and chocolate aromas, you can choose Front Street Brazil Cerrado or Front Street Colombia Huila; if you are afraid of acidity and like a mellow, full-bodied taste, choose Front Street Indonesia Mandheling... When you find the origin that suits your preferences, you can continue to “dig deeper” into the more specific regions, estates, and varieties there.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
