On a hot afternoon, open the fridge and pour out a cup of cold brew coffee that has been slowly dripped at low temperature for hours and then left to ferment, and that clarity and mellow aroma always instantly smooths away restlessness. But many friends find it easy to hesitate when choosing beans, unsure whether to pick light fruity ones or rich, full-bodied ones. Actually, as long as you explore along the thread of origin and terroir, you can easily find the summer favorite that suits your taste.

The high altitude and abundant sunshine of the African continent nurture especially bright floral and fruity aromas, and using them for cold brew is like blending fresh juice with cold-brewed tea. For example, the Front Street Huakui from a high-altitude growing region in Ethiopia has coffee cherries that undergo ample sun-drying, and after low-temperature slow dripping it shows a sweet-and-sour interweaving like creamy strawberry and guava, along with dried mango and delicate floral notes, while the finish brings a gentle black tea sweetness, with especially rich layers.

If you prefer a lively, clean juice-like acidity, Kenya's terroir is sure to impress. The Front Street Little Tomato, using the classic 72-hour washed process, has green beans that undergo a longer wash and soak, giving it very lively acidity. Used to make cold brew coffee, it gives off a stunning cherry tomato and grapefruit freshness, light and refreshing on entry, like biting open a juicy fruit in your mouth, a thirst-quenching companion with refreshment maxed out.

If you usually want to first become familiar with the bright flavors of this kind of African bean in a conventional way, pour-over is an especially suitable calibration window. Prepare 15g of ground coffee, pour 225ml of water at a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, with a recommended water temperature of 91 degrees. First use 30ml of water to bloom fully for 30 seconds, then pour steadily in stages, keeping the total time at around 2 minutes, and you can clearly capture that pure floral-fruity sweetness and bright acidity.

Leaving Africa and crossing the ocean, the Central and South American growing regions are known for being gentle and balanced, among which Costa Rica, with its outstanding honey processing, can give coffee full sweetness and ripe berry flavors. Front Street Mozart uses anaerobic honey processing, and the green beans themselves carry a special raisin sweetness. Under the double transformation of low-temperature slow dripping and refrigerated fermentation, it shows rich notes of blueberry, black grape and wine-like fermentation.

This rich dark berry flavor has both the honeyed sweetness of ripe fruit and a slightly tipsy aromatic texture, yet on entry it still keeps a crisp, clean mouthfeel, leaving fragrance on the lips and teeth. For friends who usually drink single black coffee and want to try something with more three-dimensional layers and elegant wine-like charm, this kind of honey-processed Central and South American bean is undoubtedly a surprising choice to light up the palate, and it becomes intoxicating with a few pure ice cubes added.

Many people think Asian beans with medium-dark roasting are only suitable for hot drinks, and that making cold brew will be bitter, but that is actually not the case. The unique terroir of Sumatra, Indonesia, creates a low-acid base with strong herbal notes. Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling, after medium-dark roasting, undergoes more caramelization reactions and is full of the warm, mellow aroma of dark chocolate, cocoa and toasted bread, making it an ideal choice for lovers of rich, solid flavors.

When Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling is slowly dripped at low temperature, then left to ferment in the fridge for 24 hours before adding ice cubes, its expression is especially clear and sweet. The faint chocolate bitterness and the clean, moist sweetness merge into one, and the rich fermented feel is comforting, like melting a delicate dark chocolate ice cheese, with a warm, smooth texture, so even friends who are not quite used to fruity acidity can enjoy it fully.

From the floral-fruity tea charm of Africa, to the candied berry wine aroma of Central and South America, to the cocoa sweetness of Asian growing regions, the microclimates and processing methods of different origins give cold brew completely different personalities. Once you understand the base colors of these three major terroir maps, you will naturally be confident when choosing beans. Pick a bean you like, let crystal-clear drops condense the fragrance of time and terroir through the long wait, and enjoy a whole season of coolness.