What is the concentration of espresso? is there a difference in the concentration, intensity, texture and thickness of espresso?

Let's talk about how to understand the coffee concentration (Strength). Nowadays, when people talk about the concentration of coffee, they may be talking about one of the following three:

1. The intensity of flavor

2. The texture, weight or consistency of coffee

3. Concentration of dissolved coffee flavor

These three things often appear in the same sentence, so to avoid confusion, I will use this definition below:

When I use the words "Strength", "Strong" and "Weak", I mean the concentration, or TDS-Total Dissolved Solids, of the dissolved coffee flavor.

When I use the word "Intensity", I mean the intensity of flavor.

When I use "rich", "watery", "heavy" and "light", I'm talking about texture, weight and consistency.

Concentration

In order to talk about concentration quickly and effectively, we express it as a percentage of the total extract. Most Espresso concentrations (TDS) will be somewhere between 7% and 12%, which means they contain 88% Mur93% water. Dripping coffee is generally between 1.2% and 1.8%, which means they contain 98.2% 98.8% of water.

"98.8% is all water?!" You might ask. All right, all right. Water is about the most important ingredient in coffee, but it is obviously not the most noticeable. Coffee is an extremely strong flavor medium. Small changes in concentration can be easily identified by our taste system. For anyone with a keen taste bud, a change of only 0.1% of the concentration is easy to detect. This means that espresso with an extreme concentration of 7% and 12% can lead to a very different taste experience.

Concentration plays two major roles in your coffee drinking experience. One is the intensity of flavor, and the other is the texture, weight and consistency of coffee.

Intensity

A cup of Espresso can be 10 times stronger than a cup of filtered coffee. This almost ensures an increase in the intensity of perceptible flavor, as your tongue will be exposed to more than 10 times as many flavor ingredients. Although this is not a simple linear enhancement like dimming the lights.

Concentration also affects our perception of flavor. When the coffee flavor concentration increases, our ability to distinguish the flavor will be significantly weakened. When the concentration is high, the flavor intensity we feel will also increase rapidly. Although the flavor substances in coffee are the same, your taste system will feel differently depending on the concentration.

Coffee with low concentration is not necessarily watery or dull. Sometimes, low concentrations of coffee can make it easier for our taste system to taste the subtle flavors hidden in high concentrations of coffee. A lighter, more refined Espresso is relatively soft and sometimes much easier to taste than a high concentration of Espresso.

The higher concentration of Italian concentrated extraction will affect our ability to taste the original taste of coffee. The best way to achieve this experience is to extract a short and strong Espresso with traditional "deep baked Italian" beans, and then dilute it to different concentrations with water. When tasting the initial high concentration of coffee, you may mistakenly think that the coffee beans are not roasted that deep. Once diluted, you can easily taste the flavor of baking that was less obvious before.

When the concentration of coffee reaches a certain value, no matter what kind of beans it is, no matter how it is cooked, coffee will become unbearable and unbearable. Unfortunately, our tongues have not evolved to accurately taste very high concentrations of liquids. If you are wondering whether the high concentration is the reason why a cup of concentrate tastes bitter, try diluting some of the concentrate with water before drinking it. If the bitterness disappears, then the concentration is the culprit. If the bitterness is still there, there's another reason.

Texture, weight and consistency

The sensible ingredient is an important element of a good cup of coffee noodles. Everyone will expect a certain degree of texture, weight and taste when drinking coffee. These preferences vary greatly depending on location and culture, but generally speaking, a cup of Espresso that suits most people's taste should taste sticky and full. Drip coffee should also have proper texture and mellow thickness so as not to taste like boring water.

Here is a set of words I use to describe the intensity of coffee, from too light to too strong. Some of them can be used to describe the intensity of the flavor, but the words listed here and their order are purely in terms of the texture, weight and alcohol thickness that the concentration changes bring to the coffee.

The words in this list are not the most detailed, but they should be enough to describe the concentration of any cup of coffee.

The most perfect concentration

Like most of the subjective dimensions of coffee, the perfect concentration is hard to define. Everyone has different expectations of what is in their cup. For me, an ideal concentration can provide a full, mellow taste without reducing the flavor of the extracted coffee. The following is my favorite concentration range:

The optimum concentration of Espresso is between 7.5 and 9.5% (TDS). Higher than this concentration of Espresso causes my taste buds to send a clear "bitter" signal to my brain. Below this concentration, you will enter a relatively mysterious (but delicious) 2-7% zone. This concentration of coffee is difficult to define as Espresso or drip coffee-no matter how it is filled. If you are going to produce a cup of Espresso with a concentration of less than 7% (TDS), you'd better give the guest an expectation of taste and density before drinking it.

For drip coffee, my personal favorite concentration range is 1.3-1.7%. No coffee with a concentration of less than 1.3% can give me a sense of satisfaction. This kind of coffee lacks weight and will definitely make me crave more flavor. Coffee with a concentration of about 2% is also eerily disappointing. I feel that with the change of concentration, the taste of coffee will show ups and downs, while 2% happens to fall in the middle of a certain trough. It's too strong for dripping coffee, but not as good as a cup of American coffee.

In short, practice is the king. I think it is extremely important for baristas to study and experiment with the concentration of coffee as an independent variable.