With so many Ethiopian beans out there, which one should you buy first when your budget is limited? Today we're putting three popular Ethiopian beans side by side for a horizontal comparison—Yirgacheffe Gudingding, Huakui, and Kafa Forest—scoring and comparing them across three dimensions: flavor, mouthfeel, and who they suit. After reading this, you can make a decision right away. Comparison One: Flavor Performance Yirga [more…]

What is Espresso? Espresso, also known as "Espresso," is a coffee beverage or Italian-style coffee base originating from Italy. It is coffee that is rapidly extracted under high pressure. Traditionally, a single shot of espresso has a volume of about one ounce. The internationally accepted technical standard is as follows: around 7 grams of [more…]

After spending enough time with coffee, many people end up owning both a moka pot and a semi-automatic espresso machine at home. The same beans go into the portafilter for one cup, then into the moka pot's basket for another, and the gap in flavor is so big it often makes you wonder if the beans were swapped out. Understanding this difference, in turn, can help you judge when choosing beans: which beans are worth [more…]

In the cold brew world, blending is a popular trend—mixing two or three beans in certain proportions and steeping them together. The flavors complement each other, creating layers that a single bean can't deliver. With hot pour-over, blends tend to clash, but cold brew's low-temperature extraction is much gentler, allowing beans to meld together seamlessly—making it easy for beginners too. If you're tired of single-origin beans and want to explore something new [more…]

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow our WeChat official account: FrontStreet Coffee. Drip bag coffee, as the name suggests, is coffee brewed using a drip bag. The drip bag was a product developed by the Japanese; the filter bag is used to hold the coffee, and on each side there is a small piece of cardboard, like two [more…]

Speaking of flannel filter cloth, many friends may have only seen it in some Japanese films and TV dramas or in Japanese-style brewing introduced by bloggers, and have never actually used it. Because compared to filter cloth, the vast majority of people use filter paper and filter cups, this mainstream filtering tool, when brewing coffee. Ways to get to know flannel filter cloth [more…]

There are more and more coffee shops, and you may find several of them side by side on the same street. When the machines, milk, and prices are all about the same, why should customers remember your shop? The answer often isn't in the equipment, but in the beans. Today let's talk about an approach that's great for standing out: using fruity espresso beans to make a cup that no one else can. [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…]

For most people, wetting the filter paper is the default first step before brewing coffee, with two main purposes: one is to make the filter paper fit snugly, and the other is to rinse off the dust adsorbed on the paper. If hot water is used, it can also preheat the equipment along the way. In the vast majority of tutorials, aside from guiding us on how to make the filter paper adhere closely [more…]

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow our WeChat public account: FrontStreet Coffee. A while ago, a customer asked, "How do you brew your iced pour-over coffee? Is there a difference between adding ice first and adding ice later?" In this issue, Front Street will conduct an experiment to compare them, hoping to [more…]

A friend asked Front Street Coffee how to practice the pitcher movement for patterned latte art. This article serves as a supplement to "How can you pour beautiful patterned lines?" If you haven't read it yet, you can click the link to take a look first; this article won't repeat the content covered there. The first issue: if your pour is asymmetrical, there is only one possible [more…]

When comparing espresso blends and SOE side by side, looking at the roast level first gives you a better handle on things. When beans are roasted light, the floral and fruity notes from the origin and variety come through more vividly; as the roast moves toward medium-dark, nutty, cocoa, and caramel notes along with a fuller body gradually take over. Blends often combine the characteristics of different beans, while SOE concentrates [more…]

Guatemala Antigua is one of the world's most prestigious specialty coffee regions, and its unique terrain—embraced by volcanoes on three sides—gives rise to its signature floral and fruity notes along with a full body. This article takes you deep into this Central American coffee gem. [more…]

To drink iced coffee, is cold brew the only option? Not at all!! There are many ways to make iced coffee, such as Japanese-style iced coffee. Today, I'll share with you how to make a cup of Japanese-style iced coffee. A few days ago, a customer asked, "How do you brew your iced pour-over coffee? Is there a difference between adding ice first and adding ice later?" This [more…]

After using a home semi-automatic machine for a while, many people want to advance from blends to SOE, experiencing the expression of origin flavors on their home machine. SOE, or Single Origin Espresso, means extracting beans from a single region into espresso on their own, tasting the bean's original flavor personality. Although home machines have limited pressure, as long as you choose the right beans and adjust [more…]

The coffee corner at home isn't very big: a moka pot, a milk frother, and occasionally I want to make a decent latte. When buying beans, the question arises—can the beans used for a moka pot and the beans used for milk coffee be the same bag? Yes, and many people do exactly that. The key is choosing the right beans: dark roast, Arabica, espresso blend, [more…]

Drip coffee bags use drip filtration, and their design was inspired by teabags with strings. The inventor wanted to simulate pour-over drip coffee by pre-portioning ground coffee into non-woven filter bags, with paper tabs on both sides that allow the bag to hang suspended in the center of the cup. Because the coffee is pre-ground and there is also a lack of various brewing accessories, [more…]

Players who have both an espresso machine and a pour-over kettle at home often fall into a kind of happy dilemma: when buying beans, they're always torn over "should this one be for pour-over or for espresso?" Actually, the mature approach is a dual-purpose bean lineup—within the same purchase batch, some beans are dedicated to espresso, some are dedicated to pour-over, and some can pull off both faces. This article talks about [more…]

American-style black coffee beans aren't something you can master just by memorizing a few names. When buying beans for everyday use, you need to consider how quickly you'll go through them, how much to buy at once, and whether your household mainly makes black coffee or milk-based coffee. What's truly worth referencing is the balance of acidity and sweetness on the palate, the body's thickness or thinness, and the finish after the coffee cools—then, combined with your brewing habits, your range of choices will gradually [more…]

The grind size for a moka pot reveals different aspects depending on the brewing method. When buying beans day to day, you need to consider how quickly you'll drink them, how much to buy at once, and whether you mainly make black coffee or milk coffee at home. Pour-over easily draws out the aroma, an espresso machine emphasizes intensity, and a moka pot amplifies the rich, full-bodied feel. When choosing beans, you should first determine which one you use most often— [more…]