Why does coffee taste sweet? What is sweetness?

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Black coffee is bitter? That's in the past. Today's boutique coffee manufacturers and consumers will directly look for sweetness in black coffee. We are not talking about added sugar or honey here. But in the black coffee to drink the natural pure sweetness. Is that possible?

But why is coffee sweet? Can you bring the sweetness to the extreme by baking and cooking?

What is sweetness?

Sweetness is generally associated with the high sugar content of the food itself, which is most commonly found in carbohydrates, which contain sucrose (usually granulated sugar) and lactose (milk).

In the Flavor Bible, Page and Dornenburg write: "sweetness provides the greatest stimulation to the taste buds of the tongue (in contrast to salty, sour and bitter). However, through the balance and roundness, we can feel the delicacy brought by the subtle sweetness of the food.

In other words, sweetness is not only important to us sweet lovers, it is also an element of balancing taste.

Why do we love sweets and sugar drinks?

Humans and many animals have a preference for sweets. Sweets give us energy, just as the taste of bitterness warns us that the food is poisonous. Humans are much more sensitive to bitterness than sweetness, which allows us to save our lives when we eat.

Most people remember the bitter taste when our parents gave us our first cup of coffee or beer when we were teenagers. With the passage of time, we are also used to bitter taste. "time" is a keyword.

The love of sweetness is probably due to natural reactions. Babies enjoy lactose in breast milk, and lovers give candy and chocolate to each other as gifts.