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Nowadays, more and more people like to have a cup of rich and aromatic espresso in the morning to refresh themselves. The thick milk combined with the extracted espresso creates a perfect blend that warms both the heart and the stomach. Many customers often come to Front Street to inquire about the espresso blend recipes used by Front Street, and ask how to use coffee beans to create their own desired espresso blend. So today, Front Street will introduce the following methods for blending Front Street espresso beans.

Front Street's espresso beans are generally blended from multiple types of coffee beans to complement each other or to highlight a certain flavor. For example, some baristas like to use Kenyan, Mandheling, Brazilian, and Colombian coffee beans as base beans for blending. Because coffee beans from different producing countries, through the use of different roasting levels, give the blended espresso a unique taste and aroma. Whether the extracted espresso flavor matches personal preference is the selection criterion.

Espresso places great emphasis on the roast level. Unlike pour-over coffee, where beans of any roast level can be adjusted through water temperature or coffee-to-water ratio to brew out the flavor of the single-origin coffee's producing region, Front Street generally does not use coffee beans that are too lightly roasted. This is because lightly roasted coffee beans produce more acidity and less crema when extracted, and when added to milk to make a milk coffee or cappuccino, the basic flavor of that cup would be sour, tasting very unpleasant.

If you use normal espresso beans, you can extract a perfect cup of espresso. How do you tell whether the extracted espresso is successful? Front Street will share a little tip with everyone: you can observe it from the appearance and color of the crema. You may not understand these coffee terminology at first, so Front Street will introduce the following: crema refers to the dense, light reddish-brown foam on the surface of espresso. During the roasting process, a large amount of carbon dioxide is produced on the surface of the coffee beans. Most of it dissipates during the cooling process, while a small amount is retained inside the beans. These gases are released during grinding, which is why Front Street recommends making coffee as soon as possible after grinding.

First, you can remember a principle: even a successful espresso crema has a mirror-like glossy sheen and a thickness of about 3mm. At Front Street, we generally use 20 grams of coffee grounds to extract 40 milliliters of espresso, but not always—it depends on the taste of the extracted espresso that day. The Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) barista adjusts the extraction time to extract a perfect espresso.

Of course, Front Street also has a very easy way to know whether the extracted espresso is successful—just taste it yourself. Front Street recommends that when drinking espresso, it's best to finish it within two sips to maintain the freshest flavor. Italians typically drink their coffee in one gulp, without even needing time to sit down.

When you can't even finish the espresso you've extracted yourself, or you don't even like it, then that cup of espresso definitely won't taste good. I wonder if you've noticed that when Front Street serves each cup of single-origin coffee, the Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) barista always tastes it from their own small cup. Only if the brewing is successful will it appear on the customer's table. This is the same principle as tasting espresso.

Once everyone understands some basic concepts about espresso, Front Street can help you choose a suitable espresso blend based on the desired espresso taste and flavor.

For example, Front Street will first introduce a more balanced-flavored espresso bean option. You can try using Guatemalan, Colombian, Brazilian, and Tanzanian dark-roasted beans blended in a ratio of 3:3:2:1 for espresso beans. This blend is very suitable for friends who are just starting with espresso, because this espresso bean performs relatively balanced in acidity, bitterness, and aroma. It has the acidity of Tanzanian Kilimanjaro coffee beans, the rich fruity and smoky notes of Guatemala, and the nutty, chocolate flavors with higher body from Colombia. After Front Street blends these coffee beans in proportion, it forms a very balanced espresso.

If you want to highlight the bitterness of espresso, you can add some Robusta coffee beans in appropriate amounts to increase the richness of crema. Robusta coffee beans play a very significant role in coffee blending. At Front Street, we use Colombian, Brazilian, and Robusta coffee blended in a ratio of 3:6:1 to create Front Street's commercial espresso beans. This blend features rich nutty and chocolate flavors combined with the full-bodied crema texture of Robusta beans. It is deeply loved by coffee enthusiasts who enjoy bitterness and is also suitable for the daily output needs of coffee shops.

Of course, for an acidic espresso, African beans must be considered. For example, Front Street uses Tanzanian coffee beans and Yirgacheffe coffee, plus Brazilian and Colombian coffee beans to reduce the acidity brought by African beans, in a ratio of 4:2:2:2, to create an espresso with a relatively strong acidic taste!

Front Street has also created an espresso bean with a rather special coffee flavor, mainly featuring a wine-like aroma. The espresso blend currently used at Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores is this blend, which Front Street has named Sunflower Warm Sun. It is mainly based on Front Street's Honduras Sherry coffee beans with fermented wine aroma, paired with Front Street's Yirgacheffe sun-dried Red Cherry coffee beans, blended in a ratio of 7:3. So this special Front Street Warm Sun blend has a rich, aromatic wine scent. Paired with milk coffee, it makes a very rich and smooth latte.

What Front Street mentioned above is only about the selection of espresso beans. To make a perfect espresso, you also need to adjust according to the parameters of your own espresso machine. Just as Front Street pays great attention to water temperature, coffee grind size, extraction time, and the brewing equipment used when making pour-over for each single-origin coffee.

Espresso also places great emphasis on extraction parameters, including coffee dose, coffee-to-water ratio, total extraction time, flow rate, and so on. If you want to learn more about coffee knowledge in this area, you can come to the Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) store in Dongshankou, Guangzhou to exchange coffee knowledge together, or follow Front Street's official account to get related coffee information.

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