What is the body of coffee? Why do some coffees taste so mellow?

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What is alcohol thickness?

You often hear coffee lovers talking about Body, and it often appears in the cup test table. So what does Body mean? Body is the taste of coffee on the tip of the tongue and the thickness of alcohol mentioned in our mouths. Scott Rao defines it in The Professional Barista's Handbook as "the weight of a drink or the fullness felt by the taste buds".

Alcohol thickness is one of the elements of taste, but it is not highly replicative. Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood writes in the book that "sometimes a sticky taste does not have a high alcohol thickness, while a juicy taste can also give a high alcohol thickness." So, Body is not some kind of iconic taste that we can taste, but a feeling. But its existence affects the overall taste of a cup of coffee, because the flavor of coffee is a combination of many factors-taste, aroma, texture, and perhaps even sound and vision.

So as a barista ​​, Body is one of the three most important parts of coffee that coffee drinkers usually pay attention to, along with bright acidity and some obvious flavors.

Solubility of Body

If we want to highlight the taste perception of Body, we must talk about extraction, which is also the process of extracting and dissolving compounds rich in flavor and aroma from dry coffee powder into water.

Substances are roughly divided into soluble and insoluble substances in the process of extraction. Soluble substances are those that can be diluted in water; insoluble substances are solid substances and oils that remain suspended in the liquid and cannot be completely dissolved in water, as well as fibers such as protein molecules and coffee. It is these substances that are not completely soluble in water, especially oils, that increase the thickness of alcohol-the feeling of Body-for this cup of coffee.

Why do some coffee have a stronger sense of Body? In fact, there are many reasons why some coffee has a higher sense of Body than others. From the initial bean seed to the later treatment, roasting treatment, and the final brewing method are all aspects that affect the thickness of coffee bean alcohol.

Raw beans with high alcohol thickness

Some coffee beans are naturally endowed with higher alcohol thickness. For example, when I once tasted the Maracaturra of El Socorro in Guatemala (such as bean Maragogype and Katura Caturra, the grain size is similar to that of elephant bean, and the maximum can grow to 22 mesh), I found that it had the flavor of peach, a hint of whisky after cooling, a sense of caramel, and a round and full mellow thickness in the mouth.

In addition, Pacamara,Pacamara is a rare and precious variety developed in El Salvador, which is derived from bean Maragogype and Pacas Pacas. It is rich in fruit aromas, especially drupe fruits, and most importantly, chocolate flavor, tropical fruit sweetness and other diverse taste changes. Few coffee varieties can have both bright acidity and rich sweetness. But the output is relatively rare.

Honey treatment and pulp tanning will have more mellow Body. Generally speaking, the more pectin from coffee cherries comes with coffee beans, the more mellow Body can be tasted in coffee. Black honey coffee beans are usually famous for their honey syrup-like sweetness.

Bake out a mellow feeling

We can emphasize or dilute the mellow thickness of coffee by roasting raw beans, which is also based on the roaster's knowledge of coffee beans and what kind of coffee they want to roast.

First of all, let's understand that the deeper the roast, the thicker the coffee beanol is. However, Barista Hustle's Matt Perger points out that bean surface color and overall baking development do not always match. Baking is a work that integrates a variety of complex factors, and a good baker will control the firepower throughout the baking process to get the desired flavor.

The raw bean supplier Sweet Maria's can well control the thickness of soybean alcohol during the explosion period, and the alcohol thickness can be increased by lengthening one explosion when the operation is correct. They once wrote on their blog: "the more carbohydrates are released during an explosion, the more they can stimulate the mellow sweetness of coffee."

In Modulating the Flavor Profile of Coffee, Rob Hoos points out that if Maillard reaction is lengthened, more melanin-like substances can be released, which means higher alcohol thickness can be created.

However, if the whole baking process takes too long, it is possible to bring ROR to a standstill and make the roasted coffee beans lose their flavor.

How much grease the cooking utensils and filter paper will eventually seep into the cup has a great impact on Body. Differences in cooking utensils can also lead to differences in Body. Some utensils help us get a high-alcohol but muddy taste, while others have a clear, clean taste but low-alcohol thickness.

For example, the main feature of a French kettle is that it can produce coffee with high alcohol thickness; Philharmonic pressure is famous for its flexibility: you can use it to brew coffee with high alcohol thickness or pay attention to clean taste, depending on your mood.

The thickness of alcohol brought by the kettle is still due to its metal filter. The filter paper will filter out all the grease, while the metal filter will keep the grease in the coffee. In contrast to the French kettle, Chemex has a unique filter paper that highlights the cleanliness of coffee. But if you have both filter paper and filter, you have the flexibility to choose what kind of coffee you want.

If you like Body,Espresso, which is very mellow and sticky, it is your best choice. First of all, it is because of its powder-to-water ratio, and secondly, it is extracted by pressure, which can extract more compounds than gravity alone. Stress can produce crema, a layer of golden brown grease that tastes extremely bitter but is rich in melanoidins, which give Italian concentrated alcohol thickness.

If you still prefer hand-brewed coffee, you can adjust the Body by adjusting the ratio of powder to water. But we should also be careful not to underextract or over-extract, the over-extracted coffee will have an empty and boring taste.

There are also some milk-based coffee, the choice of milk will also have an impact on body, whole or low-fat milk, soy milk or fresh milk, choose the right milk can not only add a smooth taste, but also bring sweetness.

Body (mellow thickness): this may sound like a simple thing, but it's actually a little complicated. But this is one of the many fascinating factors of the third wave of boutique coffee, giving us the ability to understand coffee and explore how to control these variables to get the best flavor.