Every time you go to a coffee shop, I believe you start agonizing over whether to have an Americano or a pour-over today... Or whether to go with a latte or a Dirty! Faced with a dazzling coffee menu and coffee products that all seem pretty much the same, what's actually the difference? In this article, Front Street Coffee will walk you through the common types of coffee found in cafés!

The common types of coffee in cafés fall into three families: the espresso family, the drip coffee family, and the cold brew coffee family.

"The Espresso Family"

Espresso, also known as Italian espresso, is made by forcing water under pressure from an espresso machine through very finely ground coffee, ultimately extracting a highly concentrated coffee. All the related products in this family are made by adding other ingredients to espresso as a base ~ the same ingredients in different proportions will also produce different products.

For its daily espresso, Front Street Coffee stores use "Front Street Sunflower Warm Sun Espresso Blend Coffee Beans." This blend consists of 30% naturally processed Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans + 70% Honduras Whiskey Barrel-Aged Sherry coffee beans ~ the extracted espresso has rich fermented wine aromas, berry-like sweet-tartness, vanilla cream, and nutty caramel flavors.

The extraction parameters for a double espresso are generally 19-20g of coffee grounds, extracting 35-40g of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 28-35 seconds. The extraction parameters for a single espresso are generally 11-12g of coffee grounds, extracting 20g of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 18-23 seconds. Of course, every espresso machine and espresso grinder performs differently, so the above data is for reference only and ultimately depends on the actual situation.

Common espressos are further divided into: regular Espresso (the extraction parameters mentioned above are the recommended ones for Espresso), Ristretto, and Single Origin Espresso/SOE (espresso extracted using single-origin coffee beans). The difference among the three is that Ristretto is more concentrated than Espresso (with a reduced extraction ratio), while Single Origin Espresso uses coffee beans from a single origin/estate, whereas Espresso uses coffee beans blended from different origins.

The common family members are: Americano, Latte, Cappuccino, Flat White, Dirty, and Mocha.

Americano (water+espresso) - The Front Street Coffee store method is two regular espressos, with hot water/ice water mixture added at a 1:6-1:8 ratio.

Latte (milk+espresso) - The Front Street Coffee store method is two regular espressos, with steamed frothed hot milk/iced milk/iced milk + ice cubes added at a 1:5-1:8 ratio.

Cappuccino (normally only served hot, dense thick milk foam+milk+espresso) - The Front Street Coffee store cappuccino method is two regular espressos, with hot milk frothed into thick foam added at a 1:5-1:8 ratio.

Flat White/Aorui White/Flat White (normally only served hot, thin milk foam+milk+Ristretto) - The Front Street Coffee store method is two ristrettos, with hot milk frothed into thin foam added at a 1:5-1:6 ratio. Unlike a latte, it has a higher coffee concentration and uses less milk, so it tastes even richer.

Dirtycoffee (only served cold, iced cup+iced milk supporting two espressos) The Front Street Coffee store method is to use a refrigerated iced cup, add 160ml of iced milk, then place it directly close to the coffee spout so the espresso flows directly into the milk. Due to the difference in density, the espresso floats on the surface of the milk and forms a layered gradient effect. Unlike a latte, Dirty coffee doesn't need to be stirred evenly when drinking—you experience the different layers, textures, and flavors produced as the coffee and milk gradually blend during the drinking process.

Mocha (chocolate sauce + milk + espresso) - The Front Street Coffee store method is two regular espressos + chocolate sauce blended evenly, then hot milk/iced milk/iced milk + ice cubes frothed with milk foam added at a 1:5-1:8 ratio.

"The Drip Coffee Family"

Drip coffee is coffee extracted by water passing through coffee grounds via natural gravity and through a paper filter/mesh filter. Through the ratio of coffee grounds to poured water, it extracts a coffee of moderate concentration that allows the coffee to express different flavor layers, and the coffee tastes cleaner ~

The common members of the drip coffee family are: pour-over coffee and ice drip coffee. Pour-over coffee is a high-temperature extraction, while ice drip coffee is a low-temperature extraction. The difference between the two lies in:

The advantage of high-temperature extraction is that it can quickly extract the coffee's flavor compounds, causing the tannic acid in the coffee to quickly break down into pyrogallic acid, producing sweet-tart-bitterness—what Front Street often calls the process of releasing coffee flavors. The disadvantage of high-temperature extraction is that it easily causes the coffee flavors to be fully released, and then it starts releasing the flavor of the coffee beans' woody fiber—what we commonly call off-flavors, woody tastes, and other unpleasant flavors.

The advantage of low-temperature extraction is that the coffee's flavors volatilize less under low-temperature conditions, storing as much of the coffee aroma as possible in the coffee liquid. Then, when you drink it, as the coffee liquid warms up, the aroma contained in the coffee liquid suddenly bursts out, letting the drinker feel an intense aroma at the back of the tongue. This sudden burst of fragrance creates a tremendous sense of happiness. The disadvantage is that it takes longer to make, and the filtered ice drip coffee can't be drunk right away—it needs to sit in the fridge for more than 8 hours for the flavor molecules extracted at low temperature to be fully released.

Pour-over coffee - When Front Street Coffee makes pour-over coffee, to ensure a consistent quality in every cup, it uniformly uses 15g of coffee grounds at a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio for brewing (i.e., pouring 225g of water), and also uniformly uses a three-stage pouring technique. For light roast-medium roast coffee beans, use a medium-fine grind (75-80% passing rate on the Chinese No. 20 standard sieve), with a recommended brewing water temperature of 90-91°C. For medium-dark roast-dark roast coffee beans, use a medium-coarse grind (65-70% passing rate on the Chinese No. 20 standard sieve), with a recommended brewing water temperature of 88-89°C.

Front Street Coffee believes that whether a cup of coffee tastes good depends on the poured water passing through the coffee grounds 100% within a reasonable time and extracting the substances. So by using the right water temperature, the right grind size, and pouring the right amount of water, no matter what pouring method you use, you can brew a cup of coffee you're satisfied with.

Ice drip coffee - When Front Street Coffee makes ice drip coffee, it needs to use an ice drip coffee pot. The water-to-coffee ratio Front Street Coffee uses for ice drip is 1:10, i.e., 60g of coffee grounds extracting 600ml of coffee liquid. The coffee extracted this way is fairly concentrated and needs to be diluted before drinking.

"Cold Brew Coffee Category"

Cold brew coffee is also known as cold-extracted coffee. Although both are low-temperature extractions, it is a completely different extraction method from ice drip coffee. Ice drip coffee extracts flavor compounds by dripping water through the coffee grounds layer, while cold brew coffee extracts coffee substances by fully soaking the coffee grounds. The difference in mouthfeel between the two is that ice drip coffee is relatively refreshing and clean, while cold brew coffee is relatively full-bodied and rich.

The single-origin coffee beans Front Street Coffee uses to make cold brew coffee can all be purchased at the Front Street flagship store ~ Those who like a sweet-tart taste can choose "Ethiopia Sidamo Region Huakui Coffee Beans," those who like a fermented taste can choose "Costa Rica Musician Series Mozart Coffee Beans," those who like something not sour can choose "Brazil Queen's Estate Coffee Beans," and those who like a wine aroma can choose "Honduras Sherry Coffee Beans."

The method for making cold brew coffee is also very simple. You can use a mineral water bottle or a glass bottle as the container, as long as it has a sealed lid. The coffee grounds are ground slightly finer than for pour-over, roughly a coarseness of 85% passing through a No. 20 sieve.

Front Street Coffee uses 50g of coffee grounds as the base, puts the coffee grounds into a glass bottle, then adds 400ml of room-temperature water and 200g of hard ice cubes to the bottle (if there's no ice, you can add cold water instead), with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:12, then uses a stirring rod to mix the coffee grounds and water evenly, seals it, and places it in the refrigerator. After 12-24 hours in the fridge, use filter paper to filter out the coffee grounds and get a clean coffee liquid, then use a clean sealed bottle to store the coffee liquid and refrigerate it for about another 4 hours before drinking—it'll taste even better this way!

Finally ~ no matter what type of coffee it is, good taste comes from fresh roasting and fresh grinding. To let everyone drink the freshest coffee beans, Front Street Coffee ships coffee beans within 5 days of the roast date, with whole beans by default, and the best flavor period is 30 days after roasting is completed. Although we can grind on your behalf, the aroma and flavor of coffee dissipate faster after grinding, so to drink coffee at its best flavor, the best approach is still to buy coffee beans and grind them yourself ~

You can now purchase Front Street Coffee single-origin coffee beans and espresso blend coffee beans at the Tmall "Front Street Flagship Store"—60 kinds of coffee beans from around the world, freshly roasted, shipped within 24H.

Tmall link: https://qianjieshipin.tmall.com

Or you can search directly on Taobao "Front Street Flagship Store"

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