Specialty coffee producers and consumers seek sweetness in black coffee, and this does not mean adding sugar or honey, but rather drinking the natural and pure sweetness in black coffee.

But why is coffee sweet? How can we bring out the sweetness through roasting and brewing?

What is sweetness?

Sweetness is generally associated with the high sugar content of the food itself. Sweet substances are most commonly found in carbohydrates, including sucrose (usually granulated sugar) and lactose (milk).

The book "Flavor Bible" states: "Sweetness provides the greatest stimulation to the taste buds on the tongue (in contrast to salty, sour, and bitter)." However, we can feel the deliciousness of food through the subtle sweetness of balance and roundness .

In other words, sweetness is not only important for those of us with a sweet tooth, but it is also an element of balanced taste .

Why do we love sweets and sugary drinks?

Humans and many animals have a preference for sweet foods. Sweet foods give us energy, just as tasting bitterness warns us that food is poisonous. Humans are much more sensitive to bitterness than sweetness, which allows us to save our lives when we eat.

Most of us remember the bitter taste we had when we had our first cup of coffee or beer as teenagers. As time goes by, we get used to the bitter taste. "Time" is the key word.

The love of sweet taste is probably an innate natural reaction. Babies enjoy the lactose in breast milk, and lovers give each other candies and chocolates as gifts.

What type of sugar is in coffee?

What type of sugar is in coffee?

The website Coffeechemistry.com records that carbohydrates in coffee beans account for 50% of the total weight of coffee , including sucrose, pectin, mannose, glucose, galactose, rhamnose, xylose and other sugars that exist in nature. Of course, not all of these sugars are water-soluble, and only some of them will be boiled into the coffee you drink.

The sugar content in coffee is also related to the variety, tree species, and processing process. For example, Arabica coffee has almost twice the caffeine content of Robusta coffee, which is one of the reasons why Arabica has better quality . It is generally believed that Bourbon coffee is sweeter than Catimor coffee.

Coffee cherries that ripen more slowly (perhaps grown at a higher altitude, for example) will generally contain higher sugars , and honey-processed coffees may be sweeter than washed-processed coffees .

Despite this, most ripe, healthy, and unblemished Arabica beans are graded on sweetness. When sweetness is lacking, it is usually attributed to factors such as underripeness or processing defects. The Cup of Excellence cupping form states: " The perception of sweetness directly reflects the balance of the ripeness of the coffee fruit when it was harvested. "

If coffee doesn’t taste sweet, does that mean it’s underripe or defective? Not necessarily. Roasting and brewing also affect the sweetness and bitterness of coffee, and the intensity of each person’s taste buds is different.

Baking for sweetness

Sugars play an important role in roasting, especially in the Maynard reaction (caramelization). Rob Hoos wrote in the book "Adjusting Coffee Flavor": "This chemical reaction begins early in the roasting process, with amino acids acting as catalysts with reducing sugars, leading to a complex non-enzymatic saccharification process."

Are you having a headache after reading the chemical terms? To put it in terms that everyone can understand, during the baking process, more than 600 kinds of large amounts of organic compounds and melanoidins, as well as complex browning products, are produced.

During first crack, sugars, especially sucrose, caramelize. Interestingly, as the roasting time increases, the sugars break down to form complex, bitter caramel compounds.

Brew for sweetness

Brewing for sweetness means you need to carefully adjust brewing parameters and control all brewing variables to ensure the same effect every time you brew. Remember that the longer the coffee is roasted, the more you need to adjust the brewing parameters.

Why is it so difficult to bring out the sweetness? Matt Perger said: "When coffee goes from under-extraction to over-extraction, the coffee will become sweeter and sweeter, just like adding sugar, but the coffee will soon become dry and bitter." When coffee is at its best, this instant sweetness is what we pursue, but it is easy to backfire.

If coffee can be sweet, why add sugar?

Many people think that coffee is bitter, and even cannot be drunk without a spoonful or two of sugar. Some consumers may drink low-quality dark-roasted Robusta beans, which cover up most of the sweetness. Of course, it may also be related to eating habits.

Coffee professionals are often frustrated by consumers’ habit of adding sugar to their coffee, which can mask or even replace the coffee’s original flavor, which is the delicious result of careful processing, roasting and brewing.

But we must understand the customers' thoughts. As coffee professionals, we seek the sweetest flavor of coffee because we know that this is the most pleasant taste. And don't our customers think the same way? The only difference is that those who add sugar to coffee cannot taste the original sweetness of coffee like us. This is one of the reasons.

How to train your taste for sweetness

Modern food contains a lot of sugar, which reduces the sensitivity of most people to sweetness. A 355ml bottle of cola has about 39 grams of sugar. Imagine if someone ordered a latte and added nine teaspoons of sugar, how would you feel?

Ironically, to enjoy naturally sweet foods like coffee, fruit, and milk, you must reduce your sugar intake, especially foods with added sugar .

There is a little experiment that can help you taste sweetness in unsweetened foods. This is a " releasing repressed taste " proposed by Danish sensory scientist Ida Steen.

Prepare a glass of orange juice and a glass of lemon juice. First, taste the orange juice. Feel its sourness and mild sweetness. Next, taste the lemon juice. This won’t be a very pleasant feeling. You may tremble when tasting it, but it is a good training for your senses. Then, take a sip of the orange juice. Does it feel much sweeter? Try it 🙂

A cup of carefully brewed coffee can clearly taste the sweetness of itself. We must learn by drinking more; more accurately, we must taste more to explore the mystery of coffee. If you have the opportunity, take some coffee tasting courses/sensory courses, and you will have a deeper understanding of the fun of coffee!