The Italian espresso tasting method that baristas must learn

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Unlike other drinks, the visual assessment of coffee is not based on its transparency, concentration, or nuances of liquids. However, the appearance of the brewed coffee can provide us with useful information about the quality of the coffee brand and the brewer's technology. This explains why coffee cups and spoons, while opaque, tell us the most important message: milky foam (CREAMA).

The main purpose of this assessment is to arrive at:

Color, especially concentration and nuance.

Stickiness, relating to the texture of milky foam.

Persistence, the time for the emulsion foam to dissipate.

The color of the foam mainly comes from the caramelized sugar during baking and partly from the oxidized phenol during baking. If Arabica coffee is mixed, the color or nuance can turn dark yellowish brown into dark yellowish reddish and light yellowish brown stripes.

If it is underextracted coffee, it will appear beige; if it is over-extracted coffee, it will be reddish brown. If you use Robusta, the foam will be darker and have a gray shadow.

Overextracted coffee

Underextracted coffee

The consistency of emulsion foam is mainly determined by proteins, fats, polymer sugars and other sticky substances emulsified by gases in plant cells. In the preparation of coffee. These ingredients also affect the duration of the foam, which sometimes remains on the inner wall of the coffee cup when the coffee is finished.

A good espresso has a compact, well-textured, long-lasting foam a few millimeters thick.

This is not just a proof of quality, there is a later sense of smell and taste, it is also critical to the preservation of the direction of the coffee, allowing the aroma to be retained until the coffee is finished.

First of all, the fat in the coffee prolongs the process, which allows the taster to taste it carefully. All this is possible because the aroma components of coffee reach the olfactory mucosa from the back of the throat.

When we smell coffee directly, we can evaluate the intensity and concentration of coffee aroma, roasting intensity and fineness. We can judge good smells and bad smells by the back of the throat.

The unpleasant smell is caused by defects in raw coffee, improper roasting or final improper brewing. The good smell is the feeling we can perceive, thanks to the good quality of coffee beans and the good skills of all operators in the production chain. There is also a strong personal evaluation, which can be described as the good feelings of a good espresso.