Why does the flavor of hand-brewed coffee change with temperature? the best drinking temperature and time for hand-brewed coffee

"tasting coffee needs to go from hot to cold." I wonder if you have ever heard similar expressions. Coffee needs to be tasted at a high temperature, but don't rush to finish it. As time goes on, the coffee temperature drops slowly, and then you taste the flavor of the coffee. Is that so?

In fact, this kind of tasting method comes from coffee cup test, which is to judge the flavor of coffee on the one hand and to test the quality of coffee on the other. So a cup test will last 30-50 minutes. In the coffee cup tasting, we will drink from the high temperature state of the coffee sample to the low temperature state to comprehensively detect whether the coffee will have defective flavor and the flavor change of the coffee.

Why does the flavor of coffee change with temperature? Two variables are involved here, one is that the flavor of the coffee itself is changing, and the other is that the temperature change makes us feel the coffee flavor has changed; the former is the coffee is changing, and the latter is that we think it has changed. Still in the form of cup test, the cup test extraction process is like this: soak the coffee powder in hot water for 4 minutes, then pick up the coffee grounds on the surface after breaking the dregs, and then taste it, but during the whole tasting process, the coffee liquid and the coffee powder at the bottom are still in relatively static contact, so, in the process of tasting, coffee extraction is still going on, but the extraction efficiency is much slower than before.

The other is that temperature affects our sensitivity to taste. For example, we can often drink in the coffee sour, sweet, bitter taste. When the sour taste is between 10 and 40 ℃, the taste buds' perception of sour taste is almost unchanged, but when the temperature rises again, the taste buds' perception of sour taste will be obvious. When the sweetness is above 50 ℃ and below 35 ℃, we (taste buds) are slower to perceive sweetness, and when we are close to human body temperature, we are more sensitive to sweetness. Bitterness is difficult to perceive at high temperatures. When the temperature drops to room temperature, we are very sensitive to bitterness. (so now you know why Guangdong herbal tea is drunk while it is hot)

It is precisely because the temperature is different, our perception of sweet and sour is different, so tasting coffee at different temperatures will have different flavor performance. Therefore, in the cup test, it will be divided into three temperatures: high temperature, medium temperature and low temperature. The high temperature zone is about 50-70 ℃, but more than 70 ℃ is actually very hot, and it is difficult to taste the flavor. The main thing to drink during the high temperature period is the flavor tonality of coffee, that is, the general flavor trend. It is difficult for most people to distinguish the fine difference between coffee in high temperature areas. For example, if sour coffee beans are used, it is difficult to distinguish them in high temperature areas. But as soon as you drink it, you can know that this coffee bean belongs to sour fruit.

Generally taste the meticulous flavor for the medium temperature region, the temperature is about 35-50 ℃. At this temperature, you can taste many meticulous flavors, and it is also a sensitive temperature for sour and sweet taste. The low temperature zone is about 35 ℃ until room temperature, which is easy to show some negative flavor, so tasting the low temperature area during the cup test is a more comprehensive taste of coffee beans. How to taste hand-brewed coffee? If you want to fully taste the hand brewed coffee, of course, you can start with high temperature, then medium temperature, and finally low temperature, and taste the flavor of coffee at different temperatures. Some coffee also have amazing performance in the low temperature area, for example, Rosa coffee has green tea and honey rhyme in the low temperature area.

If you want to taste the better flavor of hand-brewed coffee, Qianjie suggests drinking from the high temperature area to the medium temperature area. For example, some coffee, which is mainly bitter, has a balanced and mellow taste because of its dull perception of bitterness in medium and high temperature. When the coffee cooled down, although the coffee did not show a negative flavor, but due to the sensitivity of the bitter taste, making the cup of coffee "bitter", difficult to swallow.