Smoke coffee beans with trees! Smoky coffee is no longer a defective taste of hand-made coffee.

Perhaps in the understanding of many friends, there is a smoky smell in the coffee, which is a kind of defective smell. But not all coffee is smoky, it is defective. Examples include the smoky smell of some reasonably roasted deep-roasted coffee beans, the smoky smell of Guatemalan coffee beans, and the smoky smell of roasting coffee beans with specific wood, as we will talk about below.

It is generally considered to be a defective smoky smell, in many cases, the smoke produced by the coffee beans during the baking process is not properly released / the coffee beans are not cooled in time after coming out of the oven, and some scorched smoke is re-absorbed into the body by the coffee beans. as a result, coffee beans will have a sense of choking after grinding and cooking (for example, unpleasant smoky smell, choking smoke, etc.) These unpleasant feelings of smoke often come from the smoke produced by the coffee beans themselves during the baking process.

Recently, Hokkaido University in Japan and a coffee shop in Sapporo jointly launched a "smoked coffee", which gives coffee beans different experiences of smoky taste by burning different quality wood.

The Japanese, who have always paid attention to environmental protection, certainly do not deliberately cut down trees because of roasting coffee beans. The trees used to "smoke" coffee beans come from trees that had to be cut down when Hokkaido University demolished its dilapidated old campus. These trees have a longer age, and some are even over 100 years old.

The school felt that it would be a pity if the trees were thrown away directly, but many kinds of trees were not suitable for the production of handicrafts, furniture and other objects, so they contacted Ritaru coffee, a coffee shop in Sapporo, hoping that the wood could be dried and used in coffee bean baking. The unique smoky smell emitted by wood burning will be absorbed by coffee beans, which will eventually bring different flavor experience to coffee beans. People can also use coffee as a medium to keep the unique taste of trees in memory.

The roaster responsible for developing "smoked coffee" said that they used different kinds of wood, such as Robinia pseudoacacia, ginkgo, oak, ginkgo, and so on, and the smell of the smoke would vary with the species of the tree. the water content, thickness, temperature and felling season of the wood vary.

Always pay attention to the smoke produced by the wood during the baking process. If the wood is too humid or too much wood is put in the baking process, it will cause too much smoke / change of taste, which will eventually lead to the unpleasant smell of coffee. The baker admits that each batch of wood used has a different performance, so you need to keep trying and making mistakes until the wood gives off a mild fragrance before the coffee beans are smoked and roasted, and the stove for roasting coffee beans will be custom-made.

Most of the coffee beans used for smoking come from Guatemala / Tanzania, and the coffee beans in these two producing areas also have their own unique smoking flavor, so the coffee beans are not easy to appear "contrary to harmony" after being smoked and roasted. Some will choose coffee from other producing areas to smoke and roast according to the unique aroma emitted by the wood.

The baker hopes that through his own understanding of coffee beans, coffee beans can cater to the aroma of wood. After all, the wood used in each batch of smoked coffee is so precious.

Photo source: Internet Asahi Shimbun

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