Zhihu: Why does Nestlé Gold Medal taste the same as freshly ground coffee?

As an old friend of Nestlé Coffee, I have participated in many Nestlé Coffee activities before, such as the "Sense Coffee" in Sanlitun, Beijing last year and the bamboo forest theme cafe in Huangshan this year. Nestlé Coffee likes to use the form of limited-time coffee shops to allow consumers to experience Nestlé's coffee products up close, making various creative combinations of ingredients and coffee, and making coffee close to people's hearts in terms of space and theme.

Last weekend, the editor was invited to participate in the "Coffee Lab" flash event jointly created by Nestlé Gold Medal Coffee and Zhihu. In this "Coffee Lab", Nestlé's classic Gold Medal Coffee became the protagonist. What tricks can Nestlé Gold Medal Coffee play with the imaginative Zhihu?

｜ It’s more like a coffee museum than a laboratory

The entire pop-up space was transformed into a small coffee museum. The colors of the space are mainly gold and brown. If coffee is the gold of ordinary people, this is the feeling.

On the wall as you enter the door are reasons why you must drink coffee, collected by Zhihu users in the morning. As the leader in the coffee industry, Nestlé Coffee is also quietly paying attention to the psychological changes of its customers.

I decisively chose: "Because drinking coffee can prolong your life."

The first booth around the space is equipped with aroma bottles that introduce coffee flavors, followed by coffee beans of several different roasting degrees. Although the editor has seen relevant knowledge about coffee in many places, the presentation of this overall atmosphere allows people to understand coffee beans, roasting, varieties and flavors in a very systematic way.

｜ Coffee has gradually entered the daily life of modern people, but do you really understand it?

The "Coffee Trivia" of the Gold Medal Lab provides a comprehensive knowledge popularization on the discovery of coffee, the aroma of coffee, and the impact and promotion of coffee on people's lifestyles and urban culture, such as:

What is the origin of the name Mocha? "The Port of Mocha is the first port in the world to export coffee beans to the world. Yemeni coffee beans have the quality of chocolate, which is why coffee with chocolate is now called Mocha." Can ordinary people also drink the best coffee in the world at a low price? "Coffee is very special among commodities, because even the most expensive coffee is very cheap to brew yourself. Bill Gates may drink more expensive wine than you, but you can drink the same coffee as the world's richest man!"

On the vivid and interesting knowledge wall, the coffee you are familiar with is full of stories, which can be elegant, simple, or humorous. On the UGC wall specially created by Nestle Gold Medal Coffee × Zhihu, different answers to "Life sometimes, why do we need a cup of good coffee" are specially selected to explain the influence of coffee culture on every coffee lover. In the eyes of some Zhihu users, "good coffee is not just a cup of coffee, but a private time that belongs to oneself."

| Coffee blind test, guess which one is Nestle Gold? Which one is the freshly ground coffee in the coffee shop?

The most important part of the whole experiment is to experience the secret of the newly upgraded Nestlé Gold Medal coffee, which has a pure taste like freshly ground coffee. This experience is in the form of an interesting blind coffee test.

Let consumers experience it for themselves and then give their own answers. At the event, it was very interesting to experience the pure taste of Nestlé Gold Medal Coffee, which is like freshly ground coffee, in a blind test. At the same time, it also requires the experiencer to mobilize their taste buds and personal perception to carefully appreciate the charm of Nestlé Gold Medal Coffee.

In the coffee blind tasting area, participants, under the guidance of a barista, carefully tasted four different cups of coffee (two cups of freshly ground coffee and two cups of Nestle Gold Medal coffee) to experience the special feelings that different coffees bring to them. In this process, many people found that they could not distinguish the subtle changes between the four cups of coffee they experienced, and the four cups of coffee participating in the blind tasting were comparable in terms of the participants' preferences.

Although it is just a small game, I also take it very seriously. After comprehensively experiencing the four cups of coffee, I chose the first and second cups. It was a completely blind test, based only on taste and intuition. Because the first cup of coffee tasted strong enough, and the second cup had a better moist aroma.

The answer is that the first and third cups are from the newly upgraded Nestle Gold Medal, while the second and fourth cups are freshly ground coffee from the coffee shop. I personally have been drinking freshly ground coffee for so long, but I didn't expect that Nestle Gold Medal coffee could be comparable to coffee from the coffee shop.

At the scene, the person in charge of the Nestlé brand also said that he also enjoys the feeling of drinking coffee in a cafe, but if you are a very busy office worker and do not have much free time, then a cup of Nestlé Gold Medal during work breaks is also a good choice.

"After drinking, you can still see the coffee sediment at the bottom of the cup, just like the coffee in a cafe," one experiencer praised Nestle Gold Medal Coffee. More experiencers were surprised by the taste experience that Nestle Coffee brought to people. "Drinking coffee depends on taste buds and sense of smell. The most wonderful advantage of Nestle Gold Medal Coffee is its very mellow taste."

｜ Why can Gold Medal Coffee be compared with freshly ground coffee?

During the event, in addition to savoring the upgraded new product from Nestlé Gold Medal Coffee, Nestlé Gold Medal Coffee also demonstrated in detail the mysterious production process of making a cup of coffee, so that everyone can understand the birth of a cup of good coffee. At the scene, the barista introduced, "If you want to put it simply, it is actually very simple, just like making a cup of coffee in a cafe first, and then removing the water, so this is actually a very pure cup of coffee, as a drinker, you can also add milk and so on according to your preferences."

As I asked in the title, why does Nestle Gold taste like freshly ground coffee? Because it is made from freshly ground coffee.

Although it sounds simple, the real effort of a good cup of instant coffee can be seen everywhere from the selection of raw materials to the ingenious production process (in order to allow consumers to enjoy a cup of coffee more conveniently, the technology involved is more complicated than directly making a cup of freshly ground coffee): as an upgraded product of Nestlé Gold Medal Coffee, Nestlé Gold Medal specially selects Arabica coffee beans, and focuses on balancing the acidity of coffee in roasting, striving to present the original aroma of the coffee beans while pursuing a soft and mellow taste.

Through the newly upgraded "micro-grinding" process (the new technology promoted by Nestlé this year): the coffee beans are ground into micron-sized particles and then extracted. The barista said that this extraction process is similar to our usual hand-brewing. After successful extraction, the coffee liquid is then freeze-dried into a solid using low-temperature technology, and finally refined into original aromatic particles. The entire production process can fully extract the mellow flavor of the coffee beans and retain the original aroma and flavor of the coffee to the greatest extent.

｜ Pop-up coffee shop uses Nestle Gold Medal to make creative coffee

There is also a coffee bar on site. The barista uses Nestle Gold Medal as the base to make three creative coffees, "Tipsy Summer", "Osmanthus in Autumn in Beijing", and "Pure Black and White". Whether it is paired with sour lemons, or with cream syrup and milk foam, the rich taste of Nestle Gold Medal can hold up! Although this creative coffee bar only exists for one day, a bottle of Nestle Gold Medal coffee is available 365 days a year, making pure coffee for professional coffee lovers, bringing you a little happiness in life.

Unfortunately, the coffee lab jointly created by Nestle Gold Medal Coffee and Zhihu only lasted for one day, October 27th. It was still a very profound experience for me. This form of integrating coffee and life is very close to consumers. After the whole day's activities, I noticed that in the voting buckets in the blind test area, Nestle Gold Medal was really chosen by more people, indicating that the taste of Gold Medal Coffee is actually more acceptable. After putting aside the inherent cognition of instant or freshly ground coffee, the choice made by your taste buds is the most real, allowing us to be true to our own feelings, which is also the charm of coffee.