In coffee cupping, there is a scoring category called "Balance," but it doesn't just evaluate the equilibrium of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness! Instead, it scores the harmony among the coffee's acidity, sweetness, body, and aftertaste.

Balance can be said to play a coordinating role! Simply put, when acidity, sweetness, body, and aftertaste are all well expressed in the coffee, and none of them is overly prominent to the point of overshadowing the other three, then balance is achieved.

From a roasting perspective, light roasts, due to the earliest drop time, are dominated by acidity and have too low a body; while dark roasts, with the longest heating time and the most caramelized substances, carry a higher bitterness. Therefore, if you want to find coffee beans with a balanced taste, you should target medium roasts that are neither sour nor bitter. Here are a few recommendations:

The first coffee bean that is neither sour nor bitter: we recommend Front Street Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon. This bean is loved by everyone for its balance with a prominent sweetness. The overall flavor of the entire Brazilian producing region leans toward nutty and chocolate notes with a balanced mouthfeel, while Front Street Brazil Queen Estate coffee performs even more delicately and richly.

If you are a beginner just getting into freshly ground pour-over coffee, then this Front Street Brazil Queen Estate is very suitable for practicing brewing. Front Street roasted this bean to a medium roast level. Compared to brewing some light-roasted coffee beans, this one offers a better experience. It is also very easy to brew out a sugarcane-like sweetness, while the coffee overall leans toward chocolate and creamy peanut flavors, with a good sweet aftertaste. It is very suitable for friends who neither like sourness nor bitterness in their coffee.

The second coffee bean that is neither sour nor bitter: we recommend Front Street Costa Rica Tarrazu coffee beans. This Costa Rican everyday bean is priced at 25 yuan/100g on Front Street's bean list. Don't assume it's bad just because the price is low—in fact, its quality is no inferior to coffee beans that cost several times as much. We recommend Front Street Costa Rica Tarrazu coffee beans, which display balanced flavors of chocolate, brown sugar, and mandarin, with a very clean mouthfeel.

This medium-roasted coffee is also very comfortable and simple to brew. This Front Street Costa Rica Tarrazu displays chocolate, caramel, and a faint fruity sweet-tartness, overall very balanced and soft. Moreover, the price itself is very competitive, making it undoubtedly the king of value for money among coffees that are neither sour nor bitter.

The third coffee bean that is neither sour nor bitter: we recommend Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise coffee beans. Papua's coffee was introduced from Jamaican Blue Mountain, so it is also known as "Little Blue Mountain." In terms of green bean quality, it is completely on par with Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans. Front Street Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise coffee performs similarly to Front Street Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee—both follow the balanced coffee route. In pour-over coffee, the flavor expression is cocoa, nuts, and a mulberry sweet-tartness in the finish, with a balanced and rich mouthfeel.

The fourth coffee bean that is neither sour nor bitter: the recently popular Front Street Strawberry Candy coffee beans among coffee enthusiasts. Front Street Strawberry Candy is a high-quality blend composed of Costa Rican honey-processed coffee and Panamanian Geisha coffee. It not only carries the unique clean sweetness of Costa Rican coffee but also features the citrus aroma and honeyed charm of Panamanian Geisha. The combined Front Street Strawberry Candy coffee has a complex aroma of roses, strawberries, fruit candy, and grapes, and leaves an almond aftertaste after swallowing, making it very suitable for drinking as cold coffee.

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