Why is latte bitter? What is the ratio of coffee to milk in Latte? How strong should the coffee foam be?

As we all know, latte is the least bitter coffee (unsweetened) among all Italian coffee. Because it adds a lot of milk to neutralize the bitterness, it is sweeter than other coffees. When we drink the obvious bitterness from a cup of latte, I believe many friends will blame the problem on "concentration is not good".

This is not without reason, after all, most of the time, the cause of the problem is concentration.

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But sometimes, it's not strange that lattes are concentrated and extracted with obvious bitterness. Because some details in the production process also affect the performance of the coffee. Milk and coffee, for example, are not properly blended.

Fusion problem fusion is a preparatory action before hot latte flower drawing. Through the rotation of the wrist, swing the coffee cup and flower jar in your hand, and pour milk into the coffee. This action can blend milk with coffee and obtain a cleaner background for subsequent flower drawing, as well as a "canvas" that is more suitable for flower drawing (coffee liquid surface with high mobility). What we need to know is that this step not only has an impact on the coffee flower, but also on the taste performance of the coffee.

The taste here mainly refers to the degree of fit between the foam on the surface of the latte and the coffee underneath! Qianjie said that this step of fusion will affect the overall performance of coffee, because the foam on the surface of the latte is partly made of grease. The coffee oil is composed of fine powder in addition to the well-known carbon dioxide, lipids and aromatic substances. Fine powder will increase the alcohol thickness of the coffee, but also provide a certain bitterness. If we don't mix well, the latte is "layered": the foam on the surface is bitter, and the coffee liquid on the bottom is sweet.

In the article "A Little Secret to make American style sweeter," Qianjie wrote that if we want American coffee to be less bitter, we can try to remove coffee fat. Although this will reduce the aroma and mellow thickness, the American style will be cleaner and less bitter. For lattes, this obviously won't work. After all, we still need grease to reduce the fluidity of flower drawing. Therefore, this step of integration is very important! As long as we blend properly, we don't have to worry about how the latte tastes "layered". The specific approach is actually very simple, that is, we need to fully shake the concentrated milk foam and milk foam during the fusion, and stir the coffee liquid surface with impacting milk. This will not only eliminate some of the concentrated oil and make it more liquid, but also precipitate some of the fine powder attached to the oil, so we don't have to worry about getting obvious bitterness on the foam.

The temperature problem of milk is a point often shared in the front street, the temperature control of milk. The reason why we want to control the drying temperature of milk in the range of 55 °C ~ 69 °C is that milk lactose is activated at this temperature, so milk has a higher sweetness; at the same time, milk bubbles are not easy to break because of the suitable temperature, and have a more lasting effect, in other words, the pattern can last longer.

But if we exceed the 70 °C threshold, some of the substances in the milk will be destroyed by the high temperature. Not only is the sweetness not so high, but the taste is not so smooth. Even if the amount of milk added to the coffee remains the same, the latte will taste more bitter because of the decline in sweetness. Therefore, the temperature control of milk is very important.

The ratio of coffee to milk is a question of proportion in the end. Because they don't have much experience in making coffee, many friends will use the proportion shared online when making lattes. It can be referred to, but it is not recommended to copy it completely. After all, the beans and milk we use are different, and the proportion of different materials is different.

For example, the coffee and milk ratio of latte in Qianjie store is 1:5, concentrated 1, milk 5, this is because the beans used in Qianjie are moderately deep-roasted, while the milk is bright fresh milk, the overall taste is slightly light, the taste is thin. The 1:5 ratio is just right, and the taste of milk and coffee is balanced. But if we use a deep-roasted coffee bean, it will be more bitter, and if we don't replace it with more milky milk, we need to increase the amount of milk to counteract the extra bitterness. Otherwise, the taste of the coffee will overshadow the milk, making the latte more bitter. (it doesn't rule out that the foam is too thick, reducing the proportion of milk in the cup.) all in all, in addition to the espresso itself, these details will also affect the overall performance of the latte. When the problem arises, in addition to the extraction of espresso, these factors are also the objects that we need to focus on.

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