Do you drink coffee just to wake yourself up? How much do you know about coffee? A collection of coffee knowledge that you would be sorry if you didn't know it!

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If you feel sleepy during the day, how do you recover your energy? Do you obey the urge to sleep and have a good sleep, or do you resist the urge to sleep and drink a spirit drink before continuing to do your work?

When people feel sleepy, they would want to drink a cup of coffee to wake themselves up, right? But everyone knows that there is a lot of little knowledge about coffee. Let me introduce some things about coffee below!

The origin of coffee

Since we drink coffee so often, let’s first learn about the history of coffee!

Coffee trees were first found in subtropical Africa and southern Asia, and were later exported from Africa to the world. The earliest record of coffee as a beverage was in the 15th century, when it was used in some religious ceremonies. Because it was only recorded in documents, it is unknown whether people before that drank coffee.

In the 16th century, after the Turkish army retreated after its failed attack on Vienna, they left behind a bag of coffee, which was taken to Vienna by someone who knew how to make coffee. At the end of the 16th century, coffee was introduced to Europe as "Islamic wine", but it was not until the 18th century that coffee really became an important drink in Europe, mainly because the production of coffee was too small and the price was too high, so only rich people could afford it.

In the 19th century, the French introduced coffee to China for cultivation!

Composition of coffee

The main substances in coffee are sucrose, caffeine, chlorogenic acid, fat, protein, fiber and minerals, etc. The reason why coffee tastes so good is because of the interaction of these substances.

The aroma of coffee

Coffee usually tastes great, right? These flavors mainly come from sucrose, fat and protein. During roasting, sucrose decomposes into some acids, such as formic acid, acetic acid, lactic acid and glycolic acid. These acids can increase the aroma of coffee!

Among them, fat is actually the main source of coffee's aroma. Fat is further divided into acidic fat and volatile fat. Acidic fat is just as its name suggests, it contains acid, while volatile fat is very powerful, emitting about 40 kinds of aromatic substances. So the aroma of coffee comes from the interaction of these 40 kinds of aromatic substances!

Some people may have questions about the protein part. What is the relationship between aroma and protein?

This is actually because the protein in the coffee beans will participate in the Maillard reaction with sugars during roasting, and this reaction will produce many flavor compounds, which can further enhance the aroma of the coffee.

The effects of coffee

We just talked about the taste of coffee, now let’s talk about the actual effects of coffee!

The refreshing effect of coffee is due to caffeine, which can stimulate the human central nervous system, especially the brain, which can improve people's concentration and make people more excited, so sleepiness will be reduced and the feeling of fatigue will be reduced. So when you want to relax, you can have a cup of coffee.

However, in addition to these obvious effects, caffeine can actually speed up the body's metabolism, has anti-aging functions, and stimulates gastrointestinal motility to help the body defecate.

But don't drink too much coffee before going out! Caffeine also has a diuretic function, so if you drink too much, you will always want to go to the toilet, which is really inconvenient.

Although most of the functions of caffeine have positive effects on the human body, you should not consume too much caffeine, because excessive intake may cause excessive emotional excitement, which can lead to insomnia, irritability and even easy anger.

Because caffeine can shorten a person’s reaction time and improve reaction ability, some athletes take caffeine to improve their performance!

Coffee roasting

However, the flavor of coffee is mainly determined by the caramelization analysis value (Agtron number) of the roasting. It can be roughly divided into three types of roasting: light roasting, medium roasting and dark roasting. The tastes of these three types of roasting are different. Let me briefly introduce them here!

Light baking

When the volume of the coffee beans expands, a sound will be heard and the color will turn into a light brown, a bit like cinnamon. The caramelization value is approximately between 70 and 60. The main flavors are: lemon, mango and passion fruit, etc. The coffee beans that are more suitable for light roasting are sun-dried beans or coffee with floral and fruity tones.

Medium baking

The coffee beans are brown in color, with a caramelization value between 60 and 50. The main flavors are hazelnut, caramel, roasted peanuts, etc. Most of the coffee beans that are suitable for the medium roasting method are from South America.

Deep roast

The color of the coffee beans is very dark, with a caramel value of about 50 to 40. The main flavors are: cocoa, smoky and smokey, etc. This roasting method will make the characteristics of the coffee beans disappear. Most of the common chain coffee shops on the market currently use this roasting method to ensure uniform quality.

In fact, if you want to break down the baking into different categories, there are 8 types, but I'll just leave this for those who are interested!

How to brew coffee

Now that you know that coffee has so many flavors, would you like to try it?

But in fact, even brewing coffee is a science. Different types of brewing methods will also affect the taste of the coffee!

Here we will introduce the different ways to brew coffee.

Grinding coffee beans

Coffee powder is a must for brewing coffee, but there are many details to pay attention to when grinding coffee beans into coffee powder. The most important points to note are that the heat when grinding coffee beans should not be too high. If the heat is too high, the aroma of the coffee will be lost, and you will not be able to drink good coffee. Also pay attention to the coarseness of the coffee powder. If possible, the coffee powder should be of the same size, so that when brewing coffee, the taste will be more consistent!

extraction

It sounds impressive, but it’s actually just making coffee!

But there are more details to pay attention to here. If the water temperature is too low or too high, it will affect the taste of the coffee. Too low will make the coffee sour, and too high will make the coffee bitter. However, if you really like to drink coffee, you still have to try more before you can brew your favorite coffee!

Moreover, after the coffee powder has been brewed many times, some substances in the coffee that are not easily soluble in water will also dissolve into the coffee, which will affect the taste of the coffee and make it bitter.

Therefore, you need to pay more attention to these parts in order to drink delicious coffee. However, there are six ways to brew coffee. Let me give you a brief introduction!

Soaking method

The simplest introduction is that you mix the coffee powder and hot water thoroughly for four to seven minutes, then filter out the coffee powder through a filter, and then you can drink the coffee. However, there is also a cold water method for soaking, which takes longer. Put the coffee powder in gauze and soak it in cold water overnight. Although the taste will be more fragrant, the caffeine content will also be higher than ordinary coffee.

Therefore, friends who are in a hurry can use the hot water soaking method mentioned above, which will allow them to drink coffee faster.

Siphon method

This method is actually very similar to the immersion method using hot water, but the difference is that the siphon method requires continuous heating during the soaking process, while the immersion method does not.

The special thing about the siphon method is that it uses vapor pressure to push water upward from the bottom to the top. When extraction is not needed, turn off the heat source, the vapor pressure will drop, and the coffee on the upper layer will return to the lower layer. It is a very special method. If you are interested, you can try it.

Trickle filtration

A more common method is to put filter paper on the top of the pot, and then put coffee powder on the filter paper to prevent the coffee powder from running into the coffee. This way you can drink delicious coffee. However, the points that need to be paid attention to are the coarseness of the coffee powder and the temperature of the water. As for the more detailed brewing techniques, the shape of the pot, etc., friends who are interested can pay attention to them!

Decoction

Add water to super finely ground coffee and boil it. This method will create foam on top of the coffee and a layer of powder underneath. It is the traditional way of brewing coffee in Northern Europe.

Round Robin

The general brewing method will only let the hot water and coffee powder come into contact once, but the circulation method is different. As the name suggests, the circulation method allows hot water to come into contact with coffee powder multiple times, so that the brewed coffee will be stronger.

Pressure method

This is actually espresso, which has a strong taste. Some of the beverages that people often drink actually use espresso as the base, such as latte, cappuccino, etc. However, the special thing is that espresso actually contains less caffeine than ordinary coffee, because the contact time between hot water and coffee powder in espresso is shorter than that of ordinary coffee. For example, the caffeine content of a cup of espresso is about 80 mg, while the caffeine content of ordinary coffee is 95 to 200 mg. The caffeine intake of an adult is about 400 mg a day. Exceeding this amount will endanger health, so everyone should pay attention!

Although the caffeine content of espresso is relatively low, the serving size is also relatively small. A serving of espresso is about 30 ml, while a regular cup of coffee is about 240 ml. So it depends on your preference which type of coffee you like to drink!

How to drink coffee

After reading so many ways to make coffee, do you want to try it? If you want to drink the coffee that suits you, you must try it to know whether the flavor is suitable for you. There are many more ways to make coffee, and you can also add your favorite seasonings to increase the flavor, such as chocolate, wine, mint, etc. There are many flavors to choose from. The following introduces several types of coffee for your reference.

Black Coffee

The original flavor of coffee beans can be best tasted, but many people do not like the original bitterness or sourness, so they choose to add sugar or milk. However, the editor still recommends tasting the original flavor first, which may give you unexpected results!

Latte

It is coffee mixed with fresh milk. Because fresh milk accounts for a high proportion, it has a rich fresh milk flavor. Therefore, when fresh milk is added, you can also see the barista's latte art. It is a drink that allows you to enjoy art while drinking coffee.

Cappuccino

Like latte, cappuccino is made with fresh milk, but the ratio is different. The ratio of coffee to milk is 1:1, while that of latte is 1:2, so the taste of cappuccino is stronger. Cappuccino also has more milk foam than latte, so the taste is different from that of latte.

Macchiato Coffee

It is also fresh milk and coffee, but the proportion of fresh milk is even smaller. Basically, fresh milk is used for decoration, so it looks very beautiful, but the taste is much heavier because it is basically all coffee.

Later, a kind of coffee called Caramel Macchiato appeared. It added an extra layer of caramel on the milk foam, so you can drink three flavors of coffee, fresh milk and caramel at once. However, be careful not to stir the Caramel Macchiato too early, otherwise the caramel will sink into the coffee.

Each type of coffee has its own fans

Friends who like to drink coffee can try more. After all, in addition to the above methods, the quality of coffee beans is actually a major feature. However, coffee beans involve a lot of personal preferences, so I won’t explain it here. Because I think that delicious coffee may not be liked by everyone, so I still recommend that you try a variety of coffee beans and brewing methods to find out what your favorite coffee is like!