"How much do you know about coffee? You ask, I answer" - a cup of good coffee

Whether it is a single product or milk coffee, the quality of a cup of coffee does not depend on its essence, but on the taste of the person who drinks it. The best is the one that suits your taste. Some people like bitter coffee that is hard to swallow and think that it is a reflection of life, so bitter coffee will be their favorite. Life is the same, the best is the one that suits you, no matter how good others say it is, it is only suitable for others.

— —Old Boy's Quotes

The quality of coffee flavor

A cup of coffee is made up of more than 30 chemical compounds, and it is these compounds that determine the taste, aroma and acidity of coffee. Old Boy gives you an in-depth interpretation of the unique sour, bitter, sweet, and astringent taste of coffee, so that you can learn how to appreciate a good cup of coffee while tasting the delicious coffee.

As we all know, the taste of coffee includes sourness, bitterness, sweetness, fragrance, astringency and mellowness. The sourness is caused by organic fruit acids , such as citric acid, malic acid, etc. The bitterness is caused by caffeine, quinine and some alkaloids. The sweetness comes from the sucrose and fructose components unique to coffee...

Sweet Coffee

We generally evaluate based on the following six points: sour bitter sweet mellow fragrance astringent sour

“It’s easy to be sweet, but hard to be sour.” The sourness of high-quality coffee should be contained in the coffee, not obvious and sharp.

A cup of good coffee has an essential acid taste. For example, among common coffees, we say that Colombian coffee has a "bright acid taste", some African coffees have a fruity acid taste, etc. The wonderful acid taste is the reason why some coffees are highly regarded and evaluated.

The sour aroma brings a richer connotation to the sour taste, and some slightly stimulating aromas can be refreshing.

Lightly roasted beans generally reflect more of the sour taste in coffee, and the right amount of sourness can stimulate our taste buds and allow us to taste coffee better.

The sourness will definitely be affected by the quality and variety of the raw beans. As for the variety of coffee plants, coffee grown in highlands will be more sour than coffee grown in lowlands, and beans that have just been harvested will be more sour than beans that have been left for a while. Different types of acid will have different changes in acidity. Generally, beans that are roasted more lightly will have a richer sourness, while beans that are roasted more deeply will have a less sourness.

Freshly harvested beans are of good quality and have a high moisture content. If they are properly heated to produce moderate acidity, the coffee will taste better and have more depth.

bitter

Bitterness is a characteristic of dark roasted beans.

Raw beans contain only trace amounts of bitterness. The most iconic bitter taste of coffee is produced by the subsequent roasting of sugar, some starch, and caramelization and carbonization of fiber.

Generally speaking, coffee with stronger acidity will have weaker bitterness, while coffee with bitterness as the main taste will tend to lack sourness. Therefore, the proportion of sourness and bitterness gives coffee room for development in taste.

Maybe some people don’t like the bitter taste, so they choose to add sugar or milk to dilute its strong taste, but if you have not truly experienced the most original bitter taste, it is difficult for you to truly understand a cup of coffee.

The property of "bitterness" is somewhat similar to astringency. The purpose of adding sugar or milk is to suppress the "bitterness", not to eliminate it.

Coffee cherries on coffee plant

sweet

"Sweet" refers to "aftertaste", that is, when you taste coffee, the first taste on the tip of your tongue is bitter, and then after the aftertaste, your mouth and throat will have a little sweetness in the aftertaste process, which is the feeling of sweetness.

In fact, there are some substances in tea and coffee that can stimulate the salivary glands to secrete saliva, bringing a very subtle feeling, which is the so-called "mouth full of saliva". The strong aftertaste is one of the differences, but there is no good or bad. Some people like strong aftertaste, some people like light aftertaste.

alcohol

The "mellowness" of coffee is a measure of the sensitivity of the nerve endings in the mouth to the liquid and solid suspended in the coffee, a peculiar feeling.

The body of coffee is what we usually call Boby, which refers to the round, mellow and rich taste of the coffee liquid.

We need to distinguish "body" from "strength". Strength is a measure of the amount and type of soluble components in coffee. Strength gives coffee its flavor, while body gives coffee its mouthfeel. It is possible to brew a cup of coffee that has a lot of body but is not strong.

fragrant

Aroma is the life of coffee quality, which can be divided into dry aroma and wet aroma. The aroma of coffee can also be simply divided into three categories: floral aroma, fruity aroma and coffee chocolate aroma.

The coffee production process and roasting technology, the climate, altitude, variety, refining, harvesting, storage, and whether the roasting technology in the consumer country is appropriate are all factors that affect the aroma of coffee beans. Generally speaking, coffee beans need to be peeled on the day they are picked, and then fermented, washed, and dried. Only in this way can the coffee beans maintain the purest and original mellow aroma and taste.

The real source of coffee's fragrance comes from the "oil" of coffee, which is the carbonization product of sugar and other carbohydrates contained in coffee. Aroma is closely related to quality, and the disappearance of aroma often means that the quality has deteriorated.

If you want to taste the aroma of coffee, you should order single origin or espresso, not fancy coffee, which usually has a lot of milk added, such as cappuccino, latte, etc. In addition, one thing to remind you is that the lower the temperature of the coffee, the faster the aroma will decrease, so even many coffees need to be "warmed up", of course, "warming up" is the job of the barista.

Coffee Beans

astringent

Everyone knows that "astringency" makes the mouth feel uncomfortable. So many people add milk. In fact, the purpose of adding milk is to dilute the "astringency". Of course, the astringency cannot disappear, it is just covered by the smoothness of milk.

The quality of coffee varies from person to person. Many people like astringent coffee. So some people like to drink black coffee. There is also "black coffee", which is coffee without sugar or milk.

The difference between a cup of water and a cup of coffee is that water has no taste and is not viscous, while espresso is rich in oil and has a good body. A cup of coffee with good body will make the aroma stay in the mouth longer and the aftertaste will be longer.

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