Front Street Coffee has previously shared detailed knowledge about steaming milk foam. However, recently a friend sent some videos of steaming milk foam and asked Front Street Coffee for some advice. These problems happen to be quite common among beginners steaming milk foam, so we'll specifically discuss a few points to pay attention to when steaming milk foam. First category, after steaming. [more…]

Every coffee shop has slight differences in the milk-to-coffee ratio, beans used, and extraction parameters for their lattes. But in general, a latte is a coffee drink made by mixing a large amount of milk into espresso. Many friends have messaged Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) asking. [more…]

Espresso is a small amount of concentrated, pure black coffee extracted by forcing hot water under high-pressure steam rapidly through a puck of coffee grounds, with a golden layer of crema on its surface. Although it rarely appears alone on café menus, it is the base of common drinks such as Americano, latte, and cappuccino, and can be called the soul of a coffee shop. Starting from the definition and characteristics of espresso, this article will sort out its historical evolution and ideas for choosing blend beans, and explain in detail the complete steps for making espresso at Front Street Coffee stores, including dose, liquid yield, time control, and operational details such as distribution and tamping. Finally, it summarizes the key variables affecting extraction flavor and daily cleaning points, helping coffee enthusiasts systematically understand the logic behind a high-quality cup of espresso. [more…]

Nowadays, more and more people are paying attention to single-origin coffee, but in terms of orders at FrontStreet Coffee, espresso-based drinks still account for a larger proportion. When it comes to choosing espresso beans, what FrontStreet Coffee focuses on is [more…]

The surface of a freshly made latte is incredibly fine and smooth. But if we leave it sitting without drinking it, we can see the smooth, delicate surface gradually become rough and uneven. This phenomenon is called "defoaming," a process in which the milk foam continuously dissipates. Milk foam is a frothy substance formed by injecting air into milk. [more…]

Latte art is a romantic expression of a barista's skill, with white milk foam blooming into heart or leaf patterns on the surface of dark brown espresso. Latte art is divided into two types: free-pour latte art and etched latte art created after pouring. The wonder of the former lies in the pattern forming simultaneously with the pour, while the latter offers a wider range of designs because the stable foam allows for leisurely drawing. From a physics perspective, the core of latte art lies in surfactants—molecules that possess both hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups, capable of stabilizing the interface between air and liquid to form lasting foam. Milk proteins and coffee lipids act together as surfactants, enabling the two micron-scale foams to remain clearly separated for a long time after mixing, thereby allowing the pattern to persist. This article will guide you from the basic principles of surfactants to understand espresso's crema, the formation of hot milk foam, and why foam mixing rather than liquid mixing is the key to successful latte art, while also revealing the widespread applications of surfactants in daily life and industry. [more…]

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee) Italian espresso, also called Espresso, uses steam pressure to force scalding hot water through ground coffee, brewing a small, strong, and aromatic cup of pure black coffee topped with golden crema. [more…]

Around September 7 local time, the Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia (commonly known as the "Child of Krakatau") remained highly active, with ash plumes surging as high as about 50,000 feet (roughly 15,000 meters), reaching the cruising altitude of commercial airliners. [more…]

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow our WeChat official account: Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee). The AeroPress looks like a syringe; without really looking into it, you wouldn't think it's a coffee brewing device, and if you do look into it seriously, you'll also discover that there are competitions specifically for brewing with the AeroPress. [more…]

Many people struggle to froth milk properly when they first start learning latte art. In fact, the quality of the milk also affects how easy it is to froth. Front Street Coffee would like to introduce a few types of milk that are easy to froth! In the eyes of baristas, milk is divided into ambient milk and chilled milk, whole milk and skim milk. When making coffee la— [more…]

At Front Street Coffee shops, we often meet friends who have been teaching themselves pour-over coffee at home and come to discuss brewing-related questions with us. Many of them say that although the parameters they use are exactly the same as those we recommend in the shop, the coffee they brew always tastes inconsistent—sometimes good, sometimes bad—and they have no idea where the problem lies. In cases like this, [more…]

In the espresso coffee system, there exists a soul core, and that is espresso. Drinks like lattes, Americanos, and cappuccinos are all espresso-based coffee beverages made with espresso as the foundation. Next, Front Street Coffee will introduce you to espresso. What is espresso? [more…]

Many baristas mysteriously reach a consensus among themselves: to tell whether a café is good or bad, just order a Flat White and you'll know—if the Flat White is well made, the other coffees will basically be above standard too. When asked why, these baristas reply: because this is the milk coffee most prone to "mistakes." The most controversial Ita- [more…]

Although we rarely drink espresso on its own in daily life, making popular beverages like Americano, latte, or cappuccino would be impossible without a proper shot of espresso as the base. So in this article, Front Street Coffee will explain how to extract espresso well and what special features an espresso machine for making espresso has. [more…]

To make latte art look good, choosing the right milk is very important! Front Street Coffee's daily in-store milk coffee offerings all use full-fat fresh milk, because it is rich in protein, lactose, and milk fat. The protein in milk is what makes the milk foam stable. [more…]

At FrontStreet Coffee, steaming milk can be said to be a basic and core skill for every barista. Whether one can steam perfect milk is one of the factors used to judge whether a barista's level is up to standard. For example, the milk foam in a latte is on the thinner side, making it smooth and delicate to drink. The [more…]

Without any hints, Front Street Coffee believes that it would be hard for anyone to imagine that this syringe-like tool is actually used to make coffee. That's right, it is the very popular little coffee "toy" in the coffee world—the AeroPress. The reason Front Street Coffee calls it a "toy" is not because it cannot reliably make [more…]

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee). Every region has its own way of drinking coffee, and because some regions' coffee-drinking methods are quite representative, a local culture has emerged, just like Turkish coffee or Italian coffee. And speaking of [more…]

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee). Each region has its own way of drinking coffee, and because some regional coffee-drinking methods are quite representative, a kind of local culture has emerged, just like Turkish coffee and Italian coffee. And speaking of [more…]

After roasting, coffee beans remain in an active phase of chemical reaction and gas release even after they are removed from the heat source. When a home espresso machine extracts single-origin coffee, it relies on high pressure to force hot water through the coffee bed. If a large amount of carbon dioxide has accumulated inside the beans, bubbles during extraction will hinder full contact between the water flow and the coffee grounds, leading to [more…]