How to taste a cup of real Italian coffee

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Picked his taste, found his point, at this moment, how to get better and make sure you can catch his heart?

Of course, you should talk with a different temperament and tell him quickly and accurately what is so good about this cup of espresso!

Let's first take a look at the three important ingredients of espresso.

Only three? That's right, please don't put artificial additives such as syrup and chocolate sauce into the discussion.

Ps. Some girls are interested in vanilla lattes, hazelnut lattes, pumpkin cinnamon lattes. These sweet-sounding romantic names are fond of. But in fact, they are not really espresso. At best, they are coffee drinks with various flavors of syrup. On the other hand, Xiao Qingxin represents the matcha latte, but there is no sign of coffee.

All right, back to the point, which three are they?

1 | espresso concentrate: the soul of espresso

2 | Milk: entangled with concentrated lingering

| 3 | Milk foam: just because the flower looks good does not mean the coffee tastes good. |

A seemingly simple, direct espresso contains too many variables. On the whole, its quality is closely related to the following four factors:

Coffee beans

Italian coffee maker

Bean grinder

Barista

Espresso needs skill and practice to taste good.

Coffee beans

Matching: balance, stability and learning from others

SOE: independence, individuality and outstanding flavor

Raw materials are always the most important thing in a dish (a drink). In Italy, matching is traditionally used, that is, more than two types of coffee beans are used. So we all follow suit. Beans used to make espresso around the world are also blended, and coffee beans are usually roasted deeper (or even deeper) because they are more stable for years.

The growth of coffee fruit

Remember, coffee beans are crops and have their own growth cycles. For example, if you run out of Guatemala this year, you will have to wait until March or April next year to get the new year. What should we do? Find ways to find inventory in other producing areas of Guatemala, or use coffee beans from other producing areas with similar flavor instead.

Assuming that this Guatemala accounts for 20% of the entire mix, another bean with 80% taste similarity has only 4% flavor difference with the original mix, which means that the difference is basically very small.

In recent years, with the rise of boutique coffee awareness, the promoters of boutique coffee began to think about the use of single-origin coffee, slightly shallow roasting to present espresso, a practice we call SOE (single origin espresso).

However, this kind of espresso has a very serious disadvantage, that is, it can not be supplied for a long time! Like seasonal food, there will be no more after drinking this batch. I don't think people will be forced to eat lychees in winter, will they?

Italian coffee maker

Commercial | Household professional espresso machine

Bean grinder

The bean grinder is very important. There are many articles about the quality of bean grinders. At present, there are several mainstream and easy-to-use bean grinders.

Barista

The last factor is the barista.

Baristas need to measure the amount of powder, decide how much coffee to grind, determine how much coffee to extract, extract time, keep the bar clean, communicate kindly with customers, always maintain a fascinating smile, and have six-pack abs. Can it be easy?

2 | Milk: entangled with concentrated lingering

Milk and concentrate are like a pair of lovers.

In addition to their own excellent characteristics, whether they can get along well with each other determines the wonderful degree of a cup of espresso. So, not all milk is suitable for espresso.

Fresh milk spoils easily and must be delivered through a cold chain.

UHT (Ultra HighTemperature Ultra High temperature Sterilization): heat it to 130 degrees 150 degrees for 1 seconds, then cool it immediately and put it in a pre-sterilized package. This method allows the milk to be stored at room temperature for up to half a year. Gradually, with the market demand and the establishment of cold chain distribution logistics, the so-called bus sterilized milk began to appear in the major supermarkets. There are many ways for bus sterilized milk: HTST (HighTemperature short time), heat the milk to 72-77 degrees for 15 seconds, then quickly cool it to 4 degrees, which can be stored at 4 degrees for 2-3 weeks.

62 degrees for 30 minutes, it can also be very effective to keep milk at four degrees for 2 or 3 weeks.

The higher the sterilization temperature, the more nutrients change, the more flavor changes, easy to have nutty, sugarcane-like aroma. This is why most of the ultra-high temperature pasteurized milk preserved at room temperature has a strong aroma of sugarcane and roasted nuts with a high sense of sweetness.

But it doesn't go well with ​​ coffee! Inexplicably, when ultra-high temperature pasteurized milk is combined with espresso, it is quite easy to mask the original flavor characteristics of coffee beans.

| 3 | Milk foam: just because the flower looks good does not mean the coffee tastes good. |

Milk foam plays a very important role in milk coffee. The dense foam will make this cup of coffee sweeter and thicker. And milk contains lactose after heating, part of the conversion into sweet galactose and glucose, will also bring out a better sense of sweetness.

Another thing that affects the feeling of milk coffee is the temperature.

Never say "extra hot" to the barista when ordering. The temperature range of our mouth and tongue is actually close to the body temperature. If the temperature is too high, we can't actually feel the sweetness of milk.

The best temperature is about 55-60 degrees, that is, it is slightly hot at the entrance!

Surface color: this does not refer to all kinds of cool flowers. According to the experience of teacher Cha (even if you don't hesitate to offend others): 99% of baristas who are very good at jacquard can't make coffee!

I have been through a lot of cities, drank a lot, and seen many "champions" making coffee. I can only say that it is terrible to see. Most baristas who focus on drawing flowers often ignore the liquid in the cup and only pursue the coolness on the surface. . You can try it. Most coffee with milk will taste better after stirring the foam on the surface. ..

You always say you can't taste good or bad coffee.

It's not your fault.

Drink espresso.

What is the right thing to do?

Let's start with espresso.

1 | espresso

Without the interference of water (or ice) and milk, the original flavor of coffee beans will be naked. The quality of the beans, the quality of the equipment, and the ability of the barista (not so much the ability as the barista's understanding of the coffee and what kind of drink he wants to present) are all gathered in this small brown liquid.

The top priority: a sense of balance! That is, the feeling of the interaction between sour, sweet and bitter coffee. We hope that there must be sour, comfortable and complex coffee, followed by obvious and rapid sweetness; as for bitterness, we hope that a little will be used as background music to support the two protagonists of coffee: acidity and sweetness.

Taste: it must be smooth and round, without astringency and rough convergence in the mouth.

Taste: have distinguishing flavors, such as oranges, apples, grapes, butter, nuts, etc.

2 | American Coffee

Only a certain proportion of water is added to dilute the espresso slightly. Similarly, we hope to have a cup of sour, sweet, bitter and balanced American style, smooth taste, and then have a special flavor!

3 | Cappuccino

Cappuccino is probably the best milk drink of barista's ability.

The correct cappuccino size should be 150~180ml. Use an espresso and add 40-50% hot milk. The temperature of the milk should be kept at 55-60 degrees as much as possible. On the one hand, you can drink the sweetness of milk, and on the other hand, it is a comfortable drinking temperature, so as not to burn your mouth.

Delicate milk foam, will make the taste more mellow, sweetness is well stimulated, of course, if there is a unique flavor, that is even better!

4 | Flat White

Enigmatic flat white, the basic taste trend is very similar to cappuccino, but because the milk foam is thinner and denser, so espresso coffee taste will be weaker than cappuccino, the pursuit is the dense taste of milk foam and milk sweet!

5 | Coffee latte

In short, the flavor should not be too fastidious, because the proportion of milk is very large, basically drink is milk. The temperature of the milk, the density of the foam and the quality of the milk largely determine the quality of this latte!

Finally, use a table to summarize the correct taste of each type of espresso, and you will know it in the future!