"Good coffee" & "Delicious coffee" - What makes a good cup of coffee?

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How do you define a good cup of coffee?

Some say it should be strong, mellow and bitter; some say it should be refreshing and sweet; some say it should not be sour, bitter or astringent...

Usually, experienced coffee lovers will say that the coffee from XX brand and XX store is delicious; gourmet coffee lovers will say that the coffee from XX production area and XX variety is delicious...

Of course, because everyone has different experiences with different types of coffee, they will have different perceptions. For ordinary people, good coffee usually means coffee that suits their taste and that they are used to. For the coffee industry, there is already a unified objective evaluation method for "whether coffee is good or not".

In the coffee industry, good coffee means using coffee cherries grown in the best environment, processing them in the form of shelled beans (Parchment), bringing out the natural flavor of the green beans through the roasting process, and then extracting them in the most appropriate way according to the state of the roasted beans (Roasted Beans).

In short, if you want to make a cup of delicious coffee, you must first have a basic understanding of the aroma and taste of coffee in each process of the "Coffee Chain". The aroma and taste of coffee are collectively referred to as "coffee flavor". The purpose of each process in the coffee industry chain is to show the flavor contained in the coffee. Without such flavor interpretation, it is difficult to reflect the value of a cup of coffee.

But the definition of "delicious" is too subjective. As the saying goes, one man's poison may be another man's honey. Although there are many people who like specialty coffee, there are also many people who like to drink loose beans, defective beans, and flavored beans. Don't you see, the most famous international coffee competitions, such as COE (Cup of Excellence) and BOP (Best of Panama), have more than a dozen professional judges during the cupping test. Their evaluations of various coffees are also different, so the ranking is determined by the average score, which is enough to prove that everyone's preferences are different.

Therefore, simply commenting on "good coffee" is not very meaningful. The best coffee beans selected by professional judges can only be considered "highest quality coffee beans", but for drinkers, they may not be "the best". In other words, whether your coffee is good or not should not be determined by experts, but by you.

Good coffee = delicious coffee... right?

Of course not. The definition of good coffee does not lie in the subjective question of whether it tastes good or not, but in:

Judging from the selection of raw beans, whether there are any undesirable ingredients or flavors;

From the perspective of roasting, whether the original flavor of the coffee beans can be expressed, and whether any ingredients that are unpleasant to the body are produced during the roasting process;

Analyze the brewing process to see if it can extract good flavors while avoiding the extraction of bad ingredients.

If you want to go into more detail and explore the upstream and downstream of this cup of coffee to see whether it complies with "ethical" factors such as organic farming, sustainable development, environmental friendliness, fair trade, etc., that's fine, but it seems too picky.

When all these conditions are taken into consideration, then this kind of coffee is basically a good cup of coffee. Although it may not suit everyone's taste, it guarantees that this cup of coffee is composed of good factors, and of course you will not feel uncomfortable after drinking it.

What defines good coffee?

In fact, the more coffee you drink, the less you demand from it. Different coffees have different ways of tasting and different highlights. For me, the definition of good coffee is "coffee that does not make you feel uncomfortable after drinking it ."

Coffee is not strong? No problem… you can enjoy its refreshing taste

Coffee is not sweet? No problem… you can enjoy its own sweetness

Coffee is not bitter? No problem… you can taste its acidity

Coffee is not sour? No problem… you can taste its body

Coffee is not brewed well? No problem… you can expect it to be better next time

The only thing we don’t want is to give up “physical comfort” in pursuit of “sensory enjoyment”. To make the coffee stronger and more bitter, we roast it to a burnt and shiny color, and extract the bad ingredients in the coffee; or we excessively pursue the so-called “floral and fruity acidity”, roast it to a sour and astringent taste, and call it “original flavor”, which makes people feel uncomfortable in their mouths, stomachs, and hearts.

Finally, we still have to return to the essence of coffee. What is a good cup of coffee? It doesn’t matter whether it has a high score, has won an award, or has any seasoning added. As long as the coffee tastes good, it’s OK. Consumer recognition is the best.

So friends, what do you think makes a good cup of coffee?

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