Those who have opened a shop and look back at their base beans will find a clear evolutionary line. Most people start with chain-style dark-roast blends, and after a year or two, the beans on the bar gradually shift toward medium roasts and specialty blends. This isn't fickleness of taste—it's that as a shop grows to different stages, the questions the base beans need to answer also [more…]

Coffee has long become part of modern daily life, and the chain brands found on street corners are precisely an important force driving the popularization of coffee culture. This article reviews ten representative coffee brands from the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and China, covering Starbucks, Doutor, Tchibo, Ditsch, Second Cup, illy, Costa, McCafe, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, as well as Guangzhou's local Front Street Coffee. Each brand has its own unique historical background and business philosophy, from affordable positioning to specialty roasting, from fast-food speed to slow craftsmanship, together forming a diverse picture of the global coffee market. Whether you seek convenience or care about flavor, you can find names worth knowing in this list. [more…]

In recent years, the growth trend of coffee shops on Taobao can absolutely be described as explosive. We can roughly divide them into several categories, and without exaggeration or bias, we've selected the standout among them for your reference. 1. Guangzhou's time-honored coffee bean roasting brand: Front Street Coffee, features: tasty, cheap, and high quality. Front Street Coffee is a specialty coffee bean store. [more…]

There are many world-famous coffee brands. Some mainly operate through chain stores, with unified raw materials and unified standards, so the quality of their coffee output is relatively consistent; others operate as independent coffee shops, and these stores offer different coffee products for customers to choose from. As the coffee culture becomes more and more [more…]

In the world of espresso beans, although new varieties are released every day, a few major brands still stand out for their exceptional quality and deep historical background. Today, let's summarize which coffee bean brands offer great value for money. 1. Frontsteet Coffe [more…]

Cupping is one of the core tasks of coffee industry professionals, and it is a way to help people evaluate coffee flavors and characteristics in a relatively fair and systematic manner. Cupping takes place throughout the entire coffee supply chain, not only at the consumer end in coffee shops, but also at the production end, including mid- and upstream roasteries and places of origin. So how do you perform a cupping? [more…]

Front Street Coffee Introduction: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee), founded in 2013, is a well-known local coffee brand in Guangzhou, specializing in house-roasted coffee beans and offering over 50 varieties of fresh coffee, available for online purchase through its Tmall flagship store and Taobao shop. Over the years, Front Street [more…]

After Starbucks announced to suspend its business in Russia and withdraw from the Russian market last year, the founder of the local famous catering company Pinskiy & Co, Anton Pinsky, and the Russian rap singer Timati collaborated to acquire Starbuc [more…]

As a symbol of American culture, Starbucks rapidly went global after Howard Schultz took over, opening 17,600 stores in 61 countries. However, when Starbucks entered countries with deep cultural traditions such as China, India, and France, it frequently encountered cultural resistance and controversy. From being forced to withdraw from its Forbidden City store, to the long wait in the Indian market, to the French people's steadfast defense of traditional cafés, Starbucks, while exporting American coffee culture, has also had to face the stubborn resistance of local cultures. This article will walk you through Starbucks' path of cultural conflict and integration around the world, and explore the balance between business expansion and cultural respect. [more…]

In a broad sense, latte coffee refers to coffee made with espresso as the base, with a certain proportion of milk added. It can be said to be an essential coffee drink on the menu of the vast majority of coffee shops, because whether it is a large chain brand or a refined independent coffee shop, the latte is almost always the highest-selling item. [more…]

SOE is one of the most popular products in today's specialty coffee shops and coffee chains. It is an espresso extracted from single-origin (single-origin) coffee beans. Its characteristic is that even at a very high concentration, the coffee liquid can still express the unique flavor profile of the coffee's origin. [more…]

Many friends have asked Front Street Coffee, "How exactly do you make your iced Americano? It's so delicious!" As a staple on coffee shop menus, the Americano tastes a little different at every coffee shop. So Front Street Coffee is going to share our Americano recipe with everyone. The origin of Americano [more…]

Malaysia's specialty coffee culture is undergoing a profound transformation. From Kuala Lumpur to Penang and then to Johor Bahru, a growing number of passionate coffee professionals are driving a shift from traditional white coffee to specialty coffee. This article explores in depth the development of Malaysia's specialty coffee scene, from specialty coffee's initial entry into the market in 2010 to today's proliferation of independent roasting workshops and coffee classrooms. We interviewed several industry pioneers, including Joey Mah, Michael Wilson, Cheryl Lee, and others, who shared how they have advanced the upgrading of the entire industry by educating consumers, improving roasting techniques, and enhancing customer service. At the same time, the article also focuses on the development of key cities such as Penang and Johor Bahru, as well as the efforts of institutions like the Asian Barista Guild in coffee education. For coffee lovers, this is a complete picture for understanding the changes in Malaysia's coffee culture. [more…]

When choosing espresso beans for a coffee shop, the origin structure is the key factor determining the flavor direction. Commercial espresso beans fall into two main routes: one is the blend base, and the other is single-origin SOE; each has its own positioning and suitable scenarios. Blended beans are the mainstream choice for commercial espresso. The core idea of blending is to use beans from different origins to complement each other, with Brazil providing [more…]

Have you ever noticed that, aside from some large chain brands, we hardly ever see trapezoid drip cups in coffee shops? Compared to trapezoid drip cups, cone-shaped and flat-bottom/cake drip cups appear much, much more frequently. So quite a few friends are curious: why do drip cups that use trapezoid [more…]

Every independent café has its own unique character, and the coffee beans they choose for brewing also differ. However, for large chain cafés like Starbucks, the espresso bean blends used to make coffee drinks are almost always consistent, so no matter which Starbucks you visit, you can enjoy the same coffee flavor. [more…]

In the UK, there is a group of independent coffee shops that reject assembly-line production and treat every cup of coffee as a work of art. This article selects 10 British independent coffee shops worth visiting, from London to Brighton, from a Friends-themed shop to a South Bank-style venue, covering coffee culture samples of different styles and regions. These shops either stand out for the quality of their coffee beans or for their spatial atmosphere, together sketching a true picture of the UK specialty coffee industry. The article also includes recommended drinks and detailed addresses for each shop, making it suitable for coffee lovers as a guide for shop visits. Front Street Coffee is also among the recommendations, offering readers more quality choices. [more…]

No matter the season, Americano is the most frequently ordered drink in coffee shops. In winter, a hot Americano is warm and mellow, while in summer, an iced Americano is refreshing and delicious. So how is this drink, popular in every street and alley, made? Please follow Front Street Coffee to learn about it. Was Americano invented by Americans? Americano's [more…]

When you go to a café and want to order an Americano or a milk coffee, you're often faced with two options: the default espresso blend, or the SOE that costs extra. At this point, some people might wonder, why is this "SOE" more expensive than the blend? What exactly makes it cost more? What exactly is SOE coffee? [more…]

Have you noticed that many coffee shops nowadays have added a "swap to SOE" option on their menus, and some even offer several SOE choices? I believe quite a few friends have begun to wonder what these letters actually mean. First, let's understand the concept of SOE. SOE is Single Orig [more…]