What is coffee body? Why does some coffee feel "mellow"?

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"body" seems to be the most difficult term for coffee to understand. When we describe a "human body", we mean a person's body and posture, but "body" seems to be completely different, because the words used to describe body are more confusing "light", "heavy", "thick", and so on.

What on earth is body?

Body: body refers to the touch of coffee. The taste of coffee in the mouth ranges from light as water or skim milk to thick as milk or cream and syrup. In The Professional Barista's Handbook's book, Scott Rao defines alcohol thickness as "the weight or fullness of the drink felt in the mouth".

The so-called "body" actually refers to people's description of the "weight" or "thickness" of coffee in the mouth. After the entrance of the coffee, people need to feel its "weight" with the middle-back part of the tongue. Body can be light and delicate, or thick and heavy. Many people think that Body has something to do with the bitterness of coffee. This is a big mistake. Suffering does not mean that Body is strong.

What body shows is not a specific flavor of coffee, but a comprehensive result of the interaction of several characteristics. For this reason, body does not have a specific measure, and there is more than one factor affecting body. You can experience a cup of light body and sticky coffee, or a cup of thick body and juicy coffee.

Classification of body

So, which coffee belongs to body light coffee and which belongs to body thick coffee? Many factors of coffee can affect the "weight" of coffee in the mouth (light, medium, heavy). The treatment of raw coffee beans is closely related to the severity of body, as well as beans, for example.

Honey treatment or tanning can bring high-quality body, for example, I drank a Costa Rican black honey-treated coffee, body is mellow, as sweet as syrup. There is also Yega Xuefei sun berry orchard, and there is also high-quality body, which is as thick as jam, and coffee with heavy body is usually more complex.

It is worth noting that there are some subjective elements in the judgment of body. Therefore, the best way to learn the importance of body is to choose several different types of coffee and enhance your feelings about body by comparing the taste. Or you can compare the body of espresso with that of individual coffee. The thicker the coffee is, the more likely it is to have a strong flavor. Espresso can bring fuller flavor and fuller taste. 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.

From the point of view of baking, the taste of Body increases with baking, usually the acidity disappears quickly after medium roasting, but the Body of coffee increases quickly after medium roasting, so this tests our criteria. If the acidity of this bean is very good, then we presuppose the baking degree to be shallow and close to abandon some Body, but if the acidity of this bean is very common, such as Brazil. Manning, then our preset roasting degree will go closer to medium and deep roasting to add some Body, undeniably good sour coffee beans are very precious and difficult to obtain, while body can make up for it in baking, reaching the highest point in medium and deep roasting, but further baking Body is reduced, and Body is thin in deep roasting, which allows you to make a reference when tasting.

How to brew the mellow thickness of coffee?

Differences in cooking utensils can also lead to differences in Body. How much grease will eventually seep into the cup by hand flushing equipment and filter paper, which has a clear and clean taste but low alcohol thickness, which has a great impact on Body. For example, the main feature of the French kettle is that it can produce coffee with alcohol thickness, but the taste is easy to be mixed; Philharmonic pressure can also brew coffee with high alcohol thickness, although it has a high alcohol thickness but turbid taste. I prefer to use a siphon pot to brew coffee with mellow thickness, and it is also very clean.

For example, sun Sidamo Sakuran, medium-shallow baking, grinding 4.5 degrees, this bean is particularly dry citrus flavor, use siphon 25g beans, 300g water, 90 degrees water temperature, first add powder, reduce stirring fully steaming, 20 seconds stew after cross stir 5 times, 55 turn off heat stir 4-5 times, taste, there are passion fruit acid, strawberry acid, peach sweet, citrus taste, body round and full.