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Espresso has a thicker texture and richer crema than drip coffee, and making a high-quality espresso is inseparable from good espresso beans. Generally speaking, espresso beans are blends of coffee from several origins to achieve a balanced flavor. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) would like to introduce several espresso blends for everyone.
 
What is blended coffee?
Blended coffee, also called mixed coffee or espresso beans, is made by mixing various single-origin coffee beans together so that the strengths of each single-origin bean can be fully brought out. A blend is made from coffee beans of different origins to create a more balanced taste. For example, if one coffee bean is smooth but lacks aroma, another richly aromatic bean can be added, allowing the advantages of individual coffee beans to complement one another, whether in flavor or in enhancement, thereby creating a richer new taste. Sometimes the beans are mixed first and then roasted, which is called raw blending; sometimes the coffee beans are roasted first and then mixed, which is called roasted blending.

 
Whether pre-blending green beans or roasting individually and then blending, both must depend on the characteristics of the coffees in the recipe, and both methods are acceptable. Post-roast blending provides different degrees of roasting for each bean so that every component can display its best effect.

Before blending beans, you must first know what flavors coffees of different varieties around the world each have, and beans have different characteristics depending on their origin. Different coffee beans have different personalities due to different varieties and origins, with subtle differences in acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, body, and other flavors. Single-origin coffee beans often place more emphasis on expressing the unique characteristics of a particular type of coffee. Blended beans are mostly used for espresso drinks such as Espresso, Americano, Latte, or Cappuccino. The coffee taste is more balanced, smoother, and more stable, and can be said to be more suited to mass tastes.

So what espresso blend beans should be chosen for making espresso? Front Street Coffee has listed four espresso coffee beans with different styles for everyone, and you can choose according to your own preferences:

1.Front Street Specialty Espresso Blend Coffee Beans
Colombia: Brazil

 
Colombia Huila region
Located in southwestern Colombia, it is one of the main coffee-growing regions. Colombia generally ranges from 1,500 to 1,800 meters above sea level, mostly Bourbon and Caturra varieties, washed processing method, relatively high density, uniform bean size, and plump bean shape (the distance from the center to the surface of the bean is relatively thick). Because the Huila region is filled with famous coffee-growing areas, the names of various small areas have become brand names and circulate in the market. Although the growing conditions in this region are also very good, the cultivation infrastructure of coffee farms and surrounding conditions is still not very developed. The green bean drying equipment or washed processing facilities are still not perfect, which is a very regrettable point. Coffee from the Huila region has a strong taste and relatively heavy body. In particular, the nutty, chocolate, and caramel aromas and suitable acidity of coffee from the Huila region can be called high-grade specialty coffee.

Brazil Cerrado region

Brazilian coffee generally grows at an altitude of 1,000-1,300 meters, so its density is relatively low. It is mostly Bourbon variety, using semi-dry processing, with moderate moisture content, relatively soft bean texture, and a relatively thin distance from the bean surface to the center, so it is not suitable for roasting at too high a temperature. The temperature of the inner wall of the drum will scorch the bean surface, which will produce a burnt bitter taste. We hope to express the characteristics of nuts, milk chocolate, and better body, and use it as the blending base, so Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) adopts the method of charging the beans at medium heat, maintaining the heat until the dehydration stage, and making fine adjustments as the temperature rises after the start of first crack, promoting a more complete caramelization reaction. When the temperature rises to near second crack, the beans can be discharged.
 

Front Street Specialty Espresso Blend Coffee flavor: a sweet and fragrant taste. Using medium-dark roasting, when making espresso, the taste will have soft slight acidity, light sweetness, and a nutty sweet aftertaste. The overall feeling is not too stimulating, peaceful, and the crema is medium, meeting the daily opening needs of coffee shops and home espresso coffee needs.

2. Front Street Commercial Espresso Blend Coffee Beans
Colombia: Brazil: Robusta

 
Robusta beans have strong resistance to pests and diseases and high yield. They are usually less acidic than Arabica beans and often carry a slight woody aroma. Their caffeine content is 2.2%, higher than Arabica beans' 1.2%, and their chlorogenic acid content is also higher. They are also quite bitter and are usually used in commercial beans, with a lower cost than Arabica beans.
 
In terms of the flavor of a single bean, the coffee obtained from commercial beans is much inferior to that of specialty coffee beans. Generally, commercial beans are chosen for blending, and through blending they can also make very good-tasting coffee, which can be used to make lattes, cappuccinos, and other espresso drinks. Front Street Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee) Front Street Commercial Blend makes Espresso. Because it contains Robusta beans, the crema will be richer, the taste is classic, with caramel sweetness, nutty and cocoa-like, dark chocolate flavors, balanced acidity and sweetness, slightly bittersweet, and a lasting finish. It is suitable for daily beverage production in coffee shops.

3. Front Street Classic Espresso Blend Coffee Beans
Brazil: Mandheling: Vietnam
 

This is a recipe composed of three origins: Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Brazilian Red Bourbon provides the coffee with nutty and creamy aromas, Indonesian Mandheling presents the rich body of spices, caramel, and herbs, and Vietnamese coffee gives the espresso a beautiful golden crema. In order to present the above points, Front Street uses dark roasting, which can maximize the mellow aroma of the coffee and also allow everyone to easily extract rich and dense coffee crema.

Blend flavor: with pine, chocolate, caramelsweetness, nutty, dark chocolate flavors, smooth and viscous, but the taste is relatively light, suitable for opening shops and home users who prioritize cost and have average requirements for flavor.

4. Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso blend coffee beans

Different from the previous dark-roasted blend coffee beans, this Strawberry Candy uses medium roasting and is selected from three well-known origins: Costa Rica, Ethiopia, and Colombia. It is called Strawberry Candy because it is composed of Front Street Costa Rica Tarrazu, famous for its honey processing, and Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, and on the basis of sweet and sour fruit flavors, it is paired with Colombian coffee beans with cocoa aroma. In this way, the espresso that can be blended is not only balanced and mellow, but under extraction by the coffee machine, it also has good crema and a dense texture, while also having a sweet and sour taste like strawberry gummy candy.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) chooses Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso coffee beans to make iced latte.
Espresso extraction parameters:
Coffee dose: 20g
Coffee liquid yield: 40g
Extraction time: 28s

Because iced latte coffee is mixed with a large amount of milk, the taste of milk is relatively obvious.

The espresso made from Front Street Strawberry Candy espresso used in Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores has a relatively obvious berry chocolate flavor. Paired with milk and ice to make iced latte coffee, it has a relatively smooth mouthfeel, a lasting chocolate taste, mixed with pleasant strawberry and raisin aromas, a lasting finish, and obvious sweetness, very suitable for cooling off in summer.

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