What does the coffee bean taste like? How to distinguish the flavor, aroma and taste of coffee?

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Have you found that on the coffee packaging, we will see such information, that is, the name of the coffee and the production area processing information, and the other is the brewing flavor of the coffee, for example, the red cherry in the Ye Jia Xue coffee production area in the front street coffee is berry, strawberry, lemon, fermented wine fragrance, Emerald Manor washed blue label rose summer is floral, tea fragrance, etc. These are all convenient for us to understand the details of a coffee bean.

So what exactly does coffee taste like, and why are there so many variations in coffee flavor during brewing and cup testing? In addition to these smells, there is also the aroma of coffee. The relationship between flavor, taste and aroma can be simply understood as how coffee flavor comes from.

Although this equation seems simple, if you combine the five flavors that humans can drink (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami) with a variety of different smells, you can say that coffee flavors are almost infinite!

bitter taste of coffee

Coffee is bitter, and many people believe that the bitterness in coffee comes from caffeine. But in fact, the aroma and taste of coffee are produced only after roasting. During the roasting process, the water content of the green coffee beans is slowly released, the weight is reduced, the color is deepened, the volume is expanded, and the oil containing aroma is slowly released. Coffee roasting process uses high temperature to caramelize starch in coffee beans, thus bringing sweetness and mellow feeling. Whether it is light baking, medium baking, deep baking, etc., the caramelization process is inevitable, but the degree of heating, the time of different sweetness performance. If the caramelization temperature is too high or too long, it will be burnt and bitter, this phenomenon is called carbonization. Like granulated sugar sticking to the surface of a pot, overheated sweetness turns into a pronounced burnt bitterness.

the sourness of coffee.

Beginners should not pay too much attention to the specific sour name when tasting coffee sour, but should learn to distinguish: uncomfortable acid, irritating acid, strong acid, dead acid and refreshing acid. Acidity is one of the coffee flavor description terms, if the coffee has a higher acidity, the rest of the flavor is crisp, refreshing and pleasant, if the coffee has a low acidity, it will produce a dull aftertaste.

Because acidity is often misunderstood, it can be described in bright and lively terms, among which coffee acids can be divided into two types: one is "bright, lively, moderate acidity of the fruit acid", the other is "sharp sour, over-fermented fruit acid", the former belongs to the good acid, the latter is the poor acid.

the aroma of coffee

The so-called aroma is the smell of coffee after brewing, describing coffee aroma including caramel flavor, fruit flavor, flower flavor, rich, spicy…and so on.

Bad aromas are caused by coffee flaws, improper roasting, or improper final brewing, while normal aromas are what we perceive, whether wet or dry. Coffee aromas can be divided into several categories:

1. Fruits: lemon, orange, plum, peach, asparagus, grape, plum

2. Flowers: rose, wild ginger, jasmine, violet, mint leaf

3. Sugar substances: honey, brown sugar, caramel, sweet potato

4, spices: cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cocoa

5. Wood: pine, cypress, fir, sandalwood, forest floor

6. Special aroma: wine fermentation, musk, cream, leather

The overall flavor of coffee: Taste is the taste of coffee in the mouth. For example, coffee may taste slightly chocolate or caramel. When describing coffee flavor, start with acidity and then aroma.

Coffee sweetness

Coffee itself has a very limited amount of sugar. The sweetness we feel when drinking coffee is generally perceived after the coffee is ingested. People who drink coffee infrequently or have less experience in coffee tasting are more likely to detect bitterness, sourness and saltiness, while sweetness is often less easily detected and distinguished. As the accumulation of tasting experience, the ability to distinguish the taste of coffee gradually strengthens, naturally you can experience the strength of sweetness.

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