The scent of flowers? Sour fruit? Bitter and sour? What exactly is the "flavor" of coffee that baristas often say?

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I often hear baristas say, "my coffee is very sweet", "the acid value is very bright", what does it mean to "adjust the bitterness of coffee"? How do these great baristas tell where the smell comes from? What coffee brewing techniques are used to adjust the flavor of coffee? In fact, many people have no way to learn these skills on their own, so our philosophy has always been:

It's called coffee if you can read it and drink it.

If you just show you the brewing process, you won't know what the trick is, so today the editor will start with the "flavor" of coffee and show you what baristas often say and what they are talking about!

Which factors determine the flavor?

People should be very vague about the word flavor. What on earth is good coffee? To put it more simply, who has the final say that coffee tastes good?

The editor thinks that the answer is "it's up to you", "it's up to everyone" and "it's up to most people"!

After drinking a lot of beans, baristas and bakers from different places, "coffee experts" more or less have their own ideas about flavor, and if you study this field carefully, you will find that the topics that everyone revolves around are: "what is the delicious flavor" and "how the reason for the good taste is formed". In fact, there are several characteristics:

1. The "concentration" of coffee

The intensity of coffee usually affects consumers' evaluation of coffee. More cautiously, too light flavor may not be easy to show its own aroma and concentrated taste; and too strong flavor will cause "too bitter" or "too sour" taste. In China, there are relatively few people who like to drink espresso, and they generally drink the same concentration as American coffee, so the most intuitive thing for ordinary consumers is to drink coffee and feel its "intensity" first.

two。 How many flavors do you have? Very many kinds!

In fact, coffee has many flavors in addition to its intensity. We can often drink berries and citrus aromas like African beans, spices and herbs from Mantenin, nuts from Brazil, and sweet tomatoes, green tea and caramel from Kenya beans.

Most of these aromas are baked repeatedly from many raw bean samples by "cup testers" or "raw bean merchants".

And the flavor of coffee is not always floral and fruity, sometimes it will taste like potion and leather, and secretly tell you that what most people often drink but can't feel is actually the taste of "rubber band" and "paint" (many people must not believe it).

In fact, in China, although the self-baked coffee brand is still in its infancy, it also shows a state of contention among a hundred schools of thought, needless to say that everyone will want to show their own aroma as an attractive selling point.

But! When most people make their own coffee at home, you should find it difficult to flush out the flavor you drink in the store. Don't be discouraged. The editor will slowly teach everyone how to use their favorite beans and make a pot of coffee that you will definitely be proud of!

3. Sense of balance: the combination of bitterness, sweetness and acidity.

The topic of "sense of balance" is actually very subjective. In terms of coffee scoring criteria, "balance" mostly refers to "is it too sour?" , "is it too bitter?" "is it too thin to drink?" "will it be very astringent (scrape the mucus off the tongue)?" And "what is the overall comfort of the entrance?" These indicators.

Everyone's acceptance of "bitterness" is actually very different. For example, some friends of the editor argue: "if you drink coffee, you must add sugar!" And gluttons like us are actually fascinated by the original.

In fact, coffee can drink the "sweetness" it should have without sugar. In the evaluation of coffee, the better the sweetness, the higher the price. For example, can good tea drink its original "sweet" without adding sugar? The same is true of coffee.

The thin "acid quality" is also a factor in the score, and there is also a great difference in the acidity of coffee, with a slight difference between "acid like ripe peach" and "acid of aged vinegar". When drinking coffee, we often hope that the "sour feeling" is not too strong, too thin, soft as ripe fruit is just right, otherwise it will take away the taste of the original protagonist "coffee" itself and turn it into putting the cart before the horse when drinking vinegar or lemon juice!

PS: "sour taste" is usually the smell of very bad coffee, generally excessive in the fermentation process of raw beans, or contaminated coffee beans, especially "first-class defective beans" sour beans.

Of course, if your coffee is completely free of "supple sour" sour taste, usually very bad coffee, some coffee flavors are generally excessive or contaminated in the process of raw bean fermentation, you can drink sour beans, especially those with first-class defective beans, and are as bitter as "balsam pear" and "Huanglian". It tastes like balsam pear and yellow lotus, but it has no sense of thickness and a "sense of balance" in the whole cup. It's out of the question!

Finally: if you want to make a satisfactory cup of coffee, you must first understand the flavor, and then rinse out the flavor you like.

Um... Let me see, the flavor of my favorite coffee goes something like this:

With a hint of citrus citric acid and a hint of jasmine, the aroma of chocolate and green tea will not take away the flavor of the coffee; the process of grinding the coffee beans into powder alone will give the whole cafe a look of admiration and coveting.

"can I have a small drink?"No!"

END