What is Body and how to taste the coffee?

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This is a topic that we coffee lovers like to talk about, especially in cup testing. Why do some coffees have more alcohol thickness than others? How do we emphasize this quality of coffee through roasting and brewing techniques?

What is body? Alcohol thickness / body

Mellow thickness is not the sense of taste, but our sense of feeling / touch. However, it affects the overall flavor of coffee. This is because taste is a combination of many factors-taste, aroma, texture, sound, and even vision.

Alcohol thickness is one of the three essential elements that coffee drinkers have been looking for (the other two are: acidity / the term in the wine industry is structure; flavor flavors/ is plural, representing the complexity and multi-dimension of coffee flavor).

When body is the basic element of our taste, it should be noted that it also has some differences. In the coffee dictionary, Mai wrote: "what's interesting is that you can experience a cup of light body and sticky coffee, or a cup of thick body and juicy coffee."

About 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 TheProfessionalBarista'sHandbook 's book, ScottRao 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.

Insoluble substances in Body

If we are going to emphasize body, we need to understand how it is produced. That means we have to talk about extraction. This is a process of how flavor and aroma are extracted from dry coffee into water and become our favorite coffee.

In the process of extraction, substances can be divided into soluble substances and insoluble substances. The soluble matter will be diluted in water. On the other hand, insoluble substances such as solids and grease are suspended in the liquid and do not dissolve. Most of them are protein molecules and coffee fibers. These insoluble substances-especially fats and fats-increase body.

Why do some coffees have higher body than others?

There are many factors in this, for example, some coffee varieties have more alcohol thickness. Special coffee processing methods, brewing methods, etc., and more alcohol thickness can be produced by controlling the roasting. 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.