When you go to a coffee shop and order a latte or an americano, you will often hear the shop ask you: "Would you like SOE or a blend?" At that moment you always have this thought: "Huh? What is the difference?! But it looks more expensive, so it should taste much better! Then let's try SOE~"

What exactly is going on with SOE?!

SOE (single origin espresso) means espresso made with coffee beans from a single origin, region or estate. The use of single origin coffee beans to make espresso first appeared in the 2007 World Barista Championship, and the emergence of SOE also broke the past belief that espresso only needed a stable bitterness (which is not meant negatively here) and could still show the rich, mellow aroma of coffee after milk or water was added, so coffee beans were often blended to achieve the idea of stable flavor.

As the concept of specialty coffee has become more and more deeply rooted in people's minds, from single origin pour-over coffee to single origin espresso, all of them reflect coffee lovers' pursuit of the ultimate coffee flavor. This has also led many people to form a habitual way of thinking: the flavor of SOE coffee is better than that of blended coffee.

Is espresso made with SOE necessarily better tasting than espresso made with blended coffee beans?

Not necessarily! Some SOE can indeed achieve both flavor and body, and after milk or water is added it will have a special performance. But in most cases, after trying a coffee drink based on SOE, people will feel: "It is actually not that amazing, and it is not as good as what is made with blended coffee beans." Why does this happen?

One reason is that coffee is an agricultural product, so even for the same coffee beans, differences in climate and soil cultivation or different roasting approaches will also cause certain differences in flavor. If you drink a very good SOE coffee at a cafe, and after some time you go again and find it is the same coffee beans but not as good as what you drank before, perhaps these coffee beans are from a new crop season or the roasting approach has changed, so that the flavor of the coffee beans themselves has become different.

In the past, people felt that single-origin coffee beans were of mediocre quality and that the flavors extracted as espresso were too erratic, so they came up with the idea of improving the flavor through coffee blends. This way, they could solve the problem of excessive flavor differences in the espresso from the same shop, whether due to harvest timing, slight differences in roasting approach, or a particular coffee bean crop failing.

Second, to express clear coffee flavors, many choose lightly roasted single-origin coffee beans. Although lightly roasted coffee beans have distinct flavors, they often lack body. Perhaps a particular coffee bean tastes balanced with no shortage of body when brewed as pour-over, but once made into espresso, because the extraction time is short, the body-giving substances in the lightly roasted coffee bean have not yet been released, resulting in a thin cup. Then, after adding milk or water, the coffee flavor becomes directly unnoticeable, and it tastes quite ordinary.

Third, pressurized extraction over-amplifies the flavors of coffee beans, making unpleasant characteristics easy to produce. When Front Street daily extracts lightly roasted washed Yirgacheffe coffee beans by pour-over, the flavors show distinct citrus, floral, honey and tea notes. If the same coffee bean is used to extract espresso, the flavors easily show sharp acidity and astringency, and one sip makes you shudder.

Take pour-over coffee as an example: most great-tasting coffee beans are roasted quite light, but they do not necessarily perform well when extracted with a pressurized espresso machine. So when buying single-origin coffee beans to make SOE, you can choose medium-roast coffee beans or single-origin coffee beans specifically intended for SOE.

How do you know whether a shop's SOE is a success?

This can be looked at in two parts. One part is that enthusiasts who know the concept of SOE, or who came to this shop because of SOE, are satisfied with the cup and keep thinking about it; the other part is making friends who have no idea what SOE is feel that this cup tastes better than ordinary coffee.

For those who enjoy a fresh, bright sweet-and-sour profile, you can give priority to Ethiopia's Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Guji, which are among the more representative single-origin regions on the market today; the brewed coffee flavor generally shows higher sweetness with rich fruit and floral notes. But because these beans are mostly used for pour-over, cold brew and the Clever Cup, they are usually roasted to a light or medium-light level. If they are applied directly to espresso, it is very easy to end up with under-extraction, sputtering coffee liquid and thin crema.

For this reason, for customers who like Ethiopian regions and need to make SOE, Qianjie specially selected three natural-process single-origin coffees and adjusted a separate espresso roast profile for them, respectively launching the Qianjie Huakui SOE coffee beans, the Qianjie Chaka SOE coffee beans and the Red Cherry SOE coffee beans.

If you prefer espresso with rich fruity aromas and rounded sweetness, then high-altitude beans from some Central and South American countries may be your cup of tea. Coffees from countries such as Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Peru are usually given a medium roast in order to bring out the sweet aromatic profile of the origin/variety as well as a caramel note, and therefore they are compatible with a variety of extraction methods.

In addition, if you want to maximise the fruity aromas of SOE coffee, you might start with single-origin beans processed by natural, honey or anaerobic natural methods. For example, Front Street Colombia Sidra is processed by double anaerobic natural, and the resulting SOE americano has distinct notes of blueberry juice, passion fruit and ripe grapes; another one, also from Colombia but anaerobic natural, Front Street Ombligon, makes an SOE latte with aromas of orange, nuts and milk candy.

If none of the single origins mentioned above is the type you like, or if you are not too fond of acidic coffee, then you might look among single origins from Asia and South America, preferably those roasted in the medium to dark range. For example, espresso made with Front Street Brazil Cerrado and Front Street Colombia Queen's Estate beans shows low acidity without bitterness and a balanced mouthfeel.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow: Frontsteet Coffee

Best value everyday light-roast pour-over floral coffee beans recommended for purchase: Qianjie Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gutingding, Qianjie Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha coffee beans, Qianjie Panama Butterfly coffee beans

Dark-roast coffee beans, rich and balanced type, recommended for purchase: Qianjie Golden Mandheling coffee beans, Qianjie Blue Mountain coffee beans, Qianjie Queen's Estate coffee beans

Espresso and latte coffee beans recommended for purchase: Qianjie Classic Blend, Qianjie Strawberry Candy Espresso Blend

The above coffee beans can now be purchased online at the Tmall "Qianjie Flagship Store". Qianjie Coffee has dozens of selected single-origin pour-over coffee beans and espresso coffee beans from around the world. Qianjie Coffee beans are freshly roasted with high value for money and excellent quality, and are shipped within 24 hours. Qianjie Coffee is the recommended choice of many coffee lovers and platforms.

Tmall Qianjie Flagship Store link: https://qianjieshipin.tmall.com

Or you can search "Qianjie Flagship Store" directly on Taobao

Qianjie Coffee store address: No. 315 Donghuadong Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou