Espresso without perfect Crema is soulless! How do you flush the coffee fat?

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A cup of Italian concentrate with perfect Crema is a cup of Espresso with soul! Whether at home or in a coffee shop, if the concentrate from the espresso machine does not have this golden cream-like fat on it, it can never be called Espresso!

For any espresso lover, it is an unparalleled enjoyment to be able to taste an Italian concentrate with a sticky, smooth, uniform color Crema. Especially a cup of caffeine with full screen index, if there is no perfect oil as a foil, it is absolutely an irreparable tragedy! The right coffee fat is almost synonymous with a cup of well-meaning coffee, but this layer contains a deeper coffee principle.

What is Espresso Crema?

Before we pursue a perfect Crema, let's take a look at what exactly is Crema? If you do not understand the principle of Crema and want to make a perfect Crema, it is undoubtedly a blind man touching an elephant.

Coffee oil (Espresso Crema) is a layer of coffee foam that floats on espresso with rich flavor and aroma. To put it simply, the high temperature and high pressure in the brewing process combine the fat-soluble ingredients in the air and coffee, and the coffee oil is produced. It contains many ingredients of aroma, consistency and texture. The water-soluble ingredients sunk below are mainly substances that make the tongue feel the taste. In other words, crema is responsible for the aroma part and the extract is responsible for the flavor part.

An Espresso with a clearly visible Crema requires good quality, moderately ground coffee beans and a skilled barista. Compared with dripping coffee drip coffee, coffee oil gives Espresso a stronger aroma, a more saturated flavor and a stronger finish.

Some coffee lovers who enter the pit are willing to spend a lot of money and are equipped with a complete set of equipment for making Italian concentrate at home, but they are often anxious to scratch their cheeks because they can't get the perfect Crema steadily. If you go to the Internet for help, I'm afraid most people will first question whether your coffee maker is too cheap and shoddy to make a good Crema. Of course not, no matter how good the machine is, it needs to be controlled by people. if you don't master the skills and tricks of making a perfect Crema, even if you give you the most expensive and best coffee machine in the world, you can only flush out a cup of "black water".

How to judge whether Crema is good or bad?

Each barista has his or her own idea of the definition of perfect Crema. It's not easy to get out of a beautiful Crema. Crema contains sugars, oil and fat, as well as a lot of tiny carbon dioxide bubbles and ultra-fine powder. The perfect Crema should have a light brown to dark brown foam, light and supple, with a very subtle texture.

To judge whether the Crema is good or bad, tilt the espresso cup to an angle of about 45 degrees, and the elongated Crema should stretch out to cover the entire surface, and then re-form a uniform surface when the cup is upright. A good Crema should be based on a uniform layer of tiny bubbles, which are slightly "elastic", so they can remain the same.

Five tricks for making a perfect Crema

A good espresso is extracted with hot water and pressure, so in addition to the water-soluble components that will dissolve in water, some fat-soluble ingredients will also be extracted. As long as the water pressure of 8--9bar is needed, the fat-soluble components can be dissolved successfully and form Crema. To make the most beautiful and lasting Crema, the most suitable coffee bean is actually a mixture of Arabica and Robusta, which is much better than a single 100% Arabica coffee bean. Of course, there are many factors that will also affect the formation of Crema.

1. Be sure to choose freshly roasted coffee beans!

This is the first factor in a perfect Crema. Fresh coffee beans produce more Crema because they still release soluble fat; at the same time, fresh coffee beans are still in a strong exhaust period, and the beans store enough carbon dioxide, which make up a large proportion of the composition of Crema.

The fresh coffee beans, the more Crema, the older the beans, and the oxidized oil components can even damage the quality of coffee, which is the importance of fresh roasting.

In addition, if you want good oil and fat, don't buy powder when you buy beans, grind them before use and use them as soon as possible.

two。 Be sure to choose an Italian coffee machine that is "strong enough"

A "awesome" espresso machine is the perfect Espresso. This espresso machine needs to meet at least two conditions: "90-95 ℃ water temperature" and "9bar water pressure". Of course, you can also choose those "toy machines" under 1500 yuan, but according to the editor's experience, they usually can not maintain a stable water temperature and sufficient pressure, so …...

If you have a good coffee machine, remember to maintain it regularly, especially around the cooking head and powder bowl, a dirty coffee machine, it is difficult to make a good-looking Crema.

3. Don't forget to press the powder!

The act of pressing powder is of unparalleled importance in extracting espresso. Most books and websites will advise us to use 30 pounds of pressure to press powder. Where does the parameter "30 pounds" come from? we can't study it, but it's not metaphysics. If the force of the powder is too small, the fluffy coffee pressed powder will be more likely to produce a "channel effect", making the extraction uneven, the extraction of Crema will naturally be less. Compared with light pressure, heavy pressure will be easier to maintain the stability of the extraction, and extract more Crema.

If you have a weight at home, you can try to pick up the powder hammer and press it on the scale to feel the rebound of your arm under 30 pounds (13.62kg).

4. Adjust the appropriate degree of grinding

The degree of grinding, like the pressing powder, will obviously affect the formation of Crema. In the extraction of espresso, the degree of grinding directly affects the extraction time. Ideally, a normal cup of Espresso extraction time is about 25 seconds.

If you can keep the powder pressing strength stable, then you can adjust your grinding degree according to the deviation of extraction time: too fast flow rate means grinding is too coarse, and too slow flow rate means grinding is too fine.

In addition, you can try to use different bean grinders (if you have money), and different cutters have obvious effects on the extraction of Italian concentrated Crema. Even if the coffee powder used in the extraction of Italian coffee is fine enough, the performance of the bean grinder (uniformity, fine powder rate) will directly affect the quality of Espresso and the amount of Crema.

5. Choose the right water for cooking!

Finally, although many people understand that the impact of water quality on coffee is obvious, the editor still wants to reiterate: do not directly use tap water! Clean filtered water is absolutely indispensable. Even if you can meet the above points at the same time, the water quality used in cooking is not good enough, and the chances of flushing out the perfect Crema will be greatly affected. Please don't forget that 97-98% of a cup of espresso is water!

Is the perfect Crema really important? 、

Although that gentle layer of Crema sometimes has nothing to do with the quality of Espresso, Crema does add more flavor to Espresso, and I believe drinkers are looking forward to the visual feast of this luxury bubble when drinking coffee. Whether psychological or physical habits, the perfect Crema can add more elegant demeanor and evaluation to a cup of espresso. There are many little details hidden behind this cup of drink. After learning about Crema, you can experience this brown foam more carefully when you drink Espresso next time. The feeling will definitely be different.

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