Practical information | A total of 29 beginner questions

Professional barista communication, please pay attention to coffee workshop (Weixin Official Accounts cafe_style )

There's always been a lot of introductory friends

to ask us about the basics of coffee.

This time we have 29 questions.

to summarize and answer.

Q1 What is single coffee?

A: Single coffee refers to coffee made from coffee beans from a single origin, also known as fine coffee.

Q2 How is coffee classified?

A: Single coffee and blended coffee, the difference between the two is that single coffee is made of a single coffee bean, blended coffee is made of a variety of beans. The difference between the general single product and espresso lies in the different methods, one is extracted directly by hot water, and the other is extracted by steam and pressure.

Q3 Is black coffee a single coffee?

A: Black coffee refers to coffee without any added sugar or creamer. However, the single item is black coffee, but black coffee is not necessarily a single item. Some blended coffee is also suitable for hand flushing and siphoning, because it is almost the same as the single item, so sometimes we say that this blend is also good for single item.

Q4 What is fancy coffee?

A: Fancy coffee is the cappuccino, latte, mocha...

Espresso refers to coffee made from espresso as a base, milk foam made from steam, and other additives such as cream and syrup. The reason why the base of fancy coffee uses blended beans is to make the taste more balanced and rich.

Q5 Is the coffee made by the American drip pot American coffee?

A: American coffee is coffee made from Espresso and water, and the American drip coffee machine we bought is similar to hand brewing, and it is not the same as real American coffee.

Q6 What kind of equipment is suitable for brewing single-item coffee?

Answer: Hand flush, law pressure pot, siphon pot, smart cup, Philharmonic pressure can be.

Q7 Are all domestic coffee beans imported?

A: The main coffee growing areas in China are Yunnan and Hainan. Most coffee beans are imported.

Q8 Beginner, choose hand mill or electric mill?

The price of the handmill for entry is very cheap. It is suggested that if you are not sure you will like coffee, just try to get started and don't invest too much first. If you like it, you can upgrade it. Therefore, the introduction of hand-grinding bean machine, do not buy too expensive can, personally think about 100 yuan can, silver more friends can ignore the price of this part.

Electric grinding machine, then, suitable for home style is also a lot, such as is swing line M520, Taobao reference price 400 yuan.

Moving forward M520.

Q9 Why is coffee sour or bitter?

A: The acidity and bitterness of coffee have a lot to do with roasting. Simply put, the lighter the roast, the more sour it gets, and the deeper the roast, the more bitter it gets.

The same kind of coffee, different roasting people, want to express different things, roasting degree is different, resulting in coffee flavor sour or bitter. But not all coffee is suitable.

For example, Ye Jia Xue Fei, from the end of the first explosion to stop baking before the second explosion, will have a good taste, just look at your preference, but few people bake it to the second explosion density. The opposite example is mantenin, which most people are accustomed to baking until the second explosion begins and ends.

Q10 Why coffee doesn't smell good?

A: Coffee is not sesame oil, not essence. In fact, the aroma of natural coffee is not as strong as you think.

The aroma of coffee is only one of the indicators to measure the quality of coffee. Different coffees do have different aromas, some stronger, some weaker. Coffee shows different aromas at different roasting degrees. Deep baked beans may give you a bit of aroma. But it's also wonderful to take a closer look at the fresh aroma of light roast coffee.

Light roast coffee, no grinding before brewing, aroma may be weak, once ground into powder, brewed with hot water, aroma will burst out. Many people buy commercial beans that are deeply roasted, and open the package, there may be some "strong coffee aroma," but that's not necessarily the taste of good coffee.

Q11 Why are coffee beans bought in different sizes?

Poor uniformity?

Answer: First, coffee beans of different sizes are heated differently when roasting, and the uniformity is definitely not good; Second, some coffee beans are sun-treated, mixed with beans of different maturity, and the coffee uniformity baked is not good; Third, some countries export beans, not according to the size of beans, that is, not filtered through the screen, so the size of beans themselves is not uniform; Fourth, some estates mix different varieties of coffee, mixed together, even after screening, because the varieties are different, the degree of heating will be different, but also will lead to poor uniformity after roasting.

To sum up, some coffee beans have different sizes and poor uniformity, which is not something we can control. Some coffee beans have characteristics of certain coffee beans, such as Yejia Xuefei and Harald coffee, which are especially obvious under light roasting degree.

Coffee from Kenya, Colombia, etc., usually has a good size and uniformity. However, there were exceptions, such as Mantenin's beans. Although the raw beans were slightly inferior, they tasted very good. Therefore, novices need to accumulate more experience in order to truly distinguish what beans should be reliable. If you are too lazy to study, then don't get too entangled in the taste of beans, after all, the final coffee is to drink, not see.

There is also an intentional mix of beans, which have different baking degrees mixed into beans, size, uniformity will also vary. In addition, your beans can vary in size and uniformity, but there should not be stones, branches and other foreign objects or a large number of incomplete beans.

Q12 How do I store coffee beans?

A: Coffee beans that cannot be drunk in a short time can be sealed and placed in a cool place. When drinking each time, take out the right amount of grinding and brewing.

Q13 How long is the shelf life of coffee beans?

A: Coffee beans are well sealed and can be drunk for a few months. The problem is that the beans taste worse and worse over time. It is recommended that everyone buy beans, in the case of good preservation, within 1 month to eliminate the best. It is best not to exceed 3 months.

Q14 Does the bean need to be "raised"?

A: In fact, coffee beans can be drunk as soon as they are roasted, but with the passage of time, the taste of beans will change. Generally speaking, it will reach a peak on the seventh day, and then it will tend to be flat, and the stimulating taste will be smoothed out by time.

I suggest that if you want to drink a good taste, you still need to raise beans, and then drink them at different times of the month. It is also a very interesting thing to feel the change of taste of beans.

Q15 How thick should the powder be ground for hand flushing, siphon pot, French pressure pot, Philharmonic pressure, mocha pot, etc.?

A: This is not intuitive to describe in language, and many people still don't understand it.

* Coarse grind: size such as coarse white sugar, suitable for French press coffee.

* Medium grinding: gritty, size between coarse white sugar and granulated sugar, suitable for drip filtration (filter paper drip) brewing method.

* Fine grinding: size such as fine sugar, suitable for espresso coffee pot, electric coffee pot, mocha pot.

* Very fine grinding: the size is between salt and flour, suitable for Espresso, Turkish coffee, because the home grinder can not grind this texture, generally must buy ready-made grinding powder, so if you want to enjoy Espresso at home, it is best to drink large quantities, in order to drink fresh coffee.

Q16 What is the proportion of water and powder?

A: There is no standard answer to this question. Everyone has different preferences for concentration, and the proportion of gouache is different. But there is a rough ratio for reference, that is, the ratio of water to powder is 1:15. If you think the coffee made according to this ratio is weak, then add more powder or less water. This is just a simple adjustment method, affecting the coffee strength factors, as well as powder thickness, water temperature, brewing time and so on, these are good to rely on you slowly to experience.

Q17 Is there coffee that is not sour, bitter, and fragrant?

A: As mentioned above, coffee is slightly sour in light roasts and bitter in deep roasts. Is it possible for medium roasts to be neither sour nor bitter? We haven't roasted coffee like this so far. In fact, acid and bitterness are the two elements that make up the basic taste of coffee. Without these two flavors, coffee will have something less.

Q18 Coffee out of oil, good or bad?

A: Under normal circumstances, deep-roasted coffee will have oil phenomenon, even if the beans just out of the pot do not have oil, after a few days, beans may start to oil, this is normal. For oily beans, pay attention to preservation and brewing as soon as possible.

Q19 How do I know if coffee beans are good or bad?

Answer: Simple three words sum up is "smell, see, peel". Put the coffee beans close to the nose and smell them deeply to see if there is any smell of coffee beans. If there is, it means that the coffee beans are fresh enough. If the aroma is small or not, or even greasy taste, this coffee bean quickly thrown into the trash.

Take a closer look at your coffee beans, determine the origin and variety of coffee beans, and also determine whether the coffee beans are roasted evenly; take a coffee bean and strip it!! If the coffee beans are fresh, they are crisp and crisp. If the coffee beans are not fresh, it is difficult to separate a bean.

Q20 What is the best temperature for brewing coffee?

A: Often see many people will directly boil boiled water to brew coffee, in fact, this kind of water is not suitable, boiled coffee taste will also be too bitter, not easy to enter. Really suitable for brewing coffee water temperature of about 85 degrees Celsius to 92 degrees Celsius, if the temperature is too low to boil out the taste sour, on the contrary, the temperature is too high will be bitter, because the higher the temperature of the water, coffee powder extract more, although generally think that the more extract, the stronger the taste, but in fact is not the best taste, there may be mixed flavor dissolved in it.

Q21 Does filter paper affect the taste of coffee?

A: Yes. Filter paper is also divided into different grades, poor quality filter paper, sometimes the taste of pulp dissolved in coffee, so it is recommended that the filter paper can be blanched with hot water first, so as to avoid paper smell.

In fact, there are many kinds of filter paper on the market at present. The materials are divided into hemp, bamboo fiber, cotton, and Japanese washi with high grade. The fiber length of filter paper will affect the taste. Some thicker filter papers can also correct the taste of coffee. For example, American Chemex filter paper, because it is thick enough to filter out most impurities, may taste better than other filter papers. If the beans purchased today are not ideal, how much filter paper can be used to change the taste, if the coffee beans themselves are good, use general filter paper.

Q22 What is the difference between French pressed coffee and filter paper coffee?

A: Coffee brewed by hand with filter paper will absorb oil and taste brighter and clearer; on the contrary, coffee extracted by French pressure will retain rich oil and oil, so the taste will be thicker, but also because the hole in the pot is too large, it tastes more powdery. In addition, there is also a similar concept of pressure on the market, called Philharmonic pressure, because the aperture is small, the residual powder is also low, but also can drink full taste coffee, go out to carry convenient, by many people love.

Q23 How to avoid brewing coffee with mixed taste?

A: The tail section 5g-10g coffee liquid will have more miscellaneous taste, can not, at the same time silver skin also has astringent taste, there are also, defective beans also have miscellaneous taste, bad water has miscellaneous taste, uneven grinding also has miscellaneous taste... Therefore, in order to avoid rushing out of the miscellaneous smell, attention should be paid to the above several problems.

Q24 Can the milk from the manual milk pump be pulled?

The answer is yes. Let's start with the simple structure of espresso, which has two basic characteristics: the top layer is a layer of coffee-like foam, and the bottom is black coffee liquid. Such coffee can be used to make fancy coffee. We only need to inject about 30ml of black coffee into the coffee cup, and then use the milk bubbles that come out, pour in a little bit first, and then stir it with a spoon, and the white milk bubbles on the surface will become "coffee-colored bubbles", and float above the black coffee. Next, we can use milk foam to pull flowers, but with such liquid production of flower coffee, coffee flavor is too weak, pull layered flowers have limitations, so can only try, do not advocate promotion. Of course, it was good to practice this method from time to time.

Q25 Why is the foam not fused?

The degree of fusion of milk foam mainly depends on the following two points:

1, the size of the steam rod pressure. That is: the size of the steam rod pressure will make the milk foam in the process of forming different degrees of tumbling, the greater the pressure, the higher the degree of fusion.

2, the delicate degree of milk foam. Namely: the finer the milk foam sent out, the less air contained in a single milk foam, the higher the density and the smaller the buoyancy; the coarser the milk foam sent out, the more air contained in a single milk foam, the lower the density and the larger the buoyancy. If the milk foam is rough, the milk foam will float quickly on the milk surface, and the fusion degree is low; if the milk foam is fine, the milk foam will float slowly on the milk surface, and the fusion degree is high.

Q26 How to mix milk well

That is milk and milk foam, how can we mix it well, pull flowers, a pour down not all white? Temperature... Temperature is important. While you are frothing, put your empty hand on the cup to feel the temperature of the milk. When you feel that your hand is too hot to continue on the cup, it is almost ready-if you continue to beat, the milk will be hard. The hard foam looks stiff, and when you pour it into your coffee it doesn't mix with the coffee, but rather accumulates on top of your coffee like fluffy whipped cream. If beaten a little longer, it would be stratified, 90% runny milk, and a thick hard foam lid floating on top. When you pour it into your coffee, the milk comes out of the cup first... So for milk and foam to mix well-temperature is key. After the milk foam is beaten, the time cannot be put too long, otherwise it will be layered.

Q27 How can I make more and more detailed milk foam?

On how to make a good milk foam, here to provide a method, is to pour half of the milk into the flower cup, so that the steam pipe and milk perpendicular to the center or cup edge, and then let the steam head just contact the milk surface, and then open the steam to 1/2, do not move the flower cup, slowly close when the milk reaches 50 degrees, just close at 60 degrees, and finally the temperature will reach 66 degrees, you can make a cup of good milk foam.

Q28 What type of Italian machine should I use for frothing milk?

general machines have steam heads with three, four, and five holes, and as long as they are familiar with them a little, they can make good milk bubbles. However, the amount of steam produced by the machine, the humidity of the steam produced, and the size of the pores still have an impact on the milking.

Q29 Why do you need water to practice frothing?

As we all know, water is transparent, and practicing with water will give you a clearer picture of how the vortex is formed. The second is to better master the number of holes in the play of different milk bubbles!

And for beginners, remember to use a thermometer when you fail to beat the foam to a thin shape. If the temperature is not better controlled, then the coffee you make is unstable.

Q30 what is the difference between steam milking and manual milking?

First of all, the hand-beaten foam cannot be compared with the steam of the machine at all. The fineness of the steam makes its milk foam very delicate and slippery, and the radiation surface of the steam is wide, so the milk foam will be more uniform and mix better. The hand is mainly squeezed through the small hole of the filter screen, and the milk foam is thicker.