I heard that adding salt to the coffee would taste better.

There is such a rumor: coffee with salt, wonderful! I've seen coffee with lemon juice and sugar! But this is the first time I've heard that coffee with salt tastes better!

In fact, adding salt to coffee is nothing new, and some countries have a similar tradition. For example, Turkish coffee can not only "constantly" spill, divination function, but also has the effect of testing character! Can't help but let people shout: omnipotent Turkish coffee! Before marriage, the bride-to-be family will prepare a pot of coffee with salt (or other seasoning) for the husband. as long as the man does not show "ferocious appearance" after drinking it, it means that he has a good character and that the marriage will have a happy ending.

And in 19th-century Europe, where coffee was popular, people in the streets and alleys drank a few pots of coffee every day to enjoy themselves, but at that time the coffee had not yet begun to be refined, and the quality of the beans was not high. People usually fried the beans until they were scorched black. then grind it into powder and boil it directly.

The coffee brewed in this state must have a very strong bitter taste, so in order to alleviate the bitterness of the impact, people add condiments in addition to sugar to the coffee in order to neutralize the strong taste. (sugar was not used because it was an expensive luxury for aristocrats at that time.) in the end, people found that salt could weaken the bitterness of coffee and drink more of the sweetness of coffee!

The reason why salt can weaken bitterness is that people's perception of bitterness is not the direct feeling of taste buds. When we drink and eat bitter substances, the taste buds release "calcium ions", sending bitter signals to the brain to activate receptors that perceive bitterness. When salt is involved in the bitter substance, the sodium ions in the salt will activate the salt receptors on the taste buds and bind, directly weakening our perception of bitterness.

In other words, it is the intervention of salt that increases our perception of sweet and other flavors, making the bitterness less prominent, but it doesn't disappear, it just weakens the proportion. So, it's time for our experiment to see first-hand what happens to coffee with salt.

Qianjie selected the deepest baked gold Manning, whose regular cooking uses 88 °C water temperature, a screening rate of 70% of the No. 20 sieve, and a powder-to-water ratio of 1:15. But this time is different, we need to improve its extraction strength to release its bitter flavor, in order to get a high concentration of bitter coffee. Therefore, the water temperature will be raised to 91 °C, and the grinding will be adjusted to 80% of the screening rate of the No. 20 screen, three-stage water injection, and the powder-water ratio at 1:13.

Salt is added to reconcile its taste and suppress the outstanding bitterness, but not to reflect the salt taste. But the daily use of fine salt is light, salinity is high, 0.01g salt has been able to taste enough prominent taste, so the salt gear adjustment will be gradually improved by 0.01g, gradually measured. We extract three pots of gold Manning according to high concentration and high extraction parameters, and the feeling of drinking is very strong bitterness, and then we mix them to make sure that the results are not different because of the different extraction. Then separate it in turn, and add 0.01g, 0.02g and 0.03g salt to each pot respectively.

The bitter taste of Mantenin with 0.01g salt is less prominent, but it still has a more exciting feeling. Manning, which added 0.03g salt, has no bitter taste, but the salty taste is very prominent, and the balance of taste has changed from bitter to salty. It still has a negative feeling, just a different taste.

Only the taste of Mantenin with 0.02g salt is balanced, no strong bitterness, no outstanding salty taste, easy to taste, and increased a certain mellow thickness.

From the results, we know that salt can improve the bitter taste of coffee to some extent, but in fact, like the By pass in yesterday's article, it is mainly to save coffee that has been or is about to turn over, so adding salt will make it better.

If it is in the perfect extraction, coffee aroma is rich, sweet and sour balance, without any negative taste, at this time to add salt, it will destroy the flavor balance, artificially add negative taste. Therefore, additional things should be added with certain prerequisites.

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Front Street Cafe

No. 10 Baoqian street, Yandun road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu district, Guangzhou, Guangdong province