Can an espresso machine be used to extract tea? What do coffee and tea have in common?

"Tea" and "coffee" are two popular drinks around the world. Although there are significant differences in their cultural background and drinking experience, there are still many places in common. For example, they all require water as a solvent to dissolve specific components. This results in them having many of the same/similar extraction methods, such as soaking, dripping, cooking, etc.

Although the operation forms are different, basically most extraction methods are universal. Therefore, Qianjie believes that many coffee drinkers have imagined such a question during such a long coffee drinking time: "Can tea leaves be thrown into a coffee machine to extract them into concentration? "As we all know, coffee machines use different extraction methods than conventional ones. Because of the addition of pressure-assisted extraction, it can dissolve the flavor substances in the coffee "completely" in the shortest time and with the least amount of water. Since there is very little "solvent"(water) in the "solution"(coffee), the concentration of coffee is very high.

With its extremely high concentration, espresso coffee can be used as a base to make various fancy coffees. Its addition not only does not dilute the taste of the drink, but also allows the taste of coffee to be displayed in the drink. The extraction essence of tea and coffee is the same, so can it also obtain a very high concentration through pressurized extraction from a coffee machine?

Mu Yong questioned, but the answer was naturally yes, and the principle was the same as explained in front of the street. However, because of the essential differences, we cannot fully apply the logic of extracting coffee when extracting tea with a coffee machine. So today, Qianjie will come to share with you how to use a coffee machine to extract a "concentrated" version of tea.

How to use a coffee machine to extract the "concentration" of tea? First of all, we need to know that if we just put tea leaves into a powder bowl and extract them, we will definitely not be able to extract high-concentration tea. Because the gap between the tea leaves is too large, the coffee machine cannot pressurize at all, and the extracted tea can only be stronger than the washed tea. If we want to make a high-concentration version of tea through a coffee machine, we must first crush the tea leaves. Because it follows Fick's law of diffusion like coffee beans: the rate of substance release is positively related to the contact area. So in order to quickly dissolve the substances in the tea leaves, we first need to increase the water-contacting surface area of the tea leaves by grinding.

Since Qianjie was also the first time I tried it, I first tried the water with the finest grinding of Ek43 and a single powder bowl to prevent extravagance and waste. The tea leaves are old white tea, because this is the only one in the store at present, and it is still hidden in the cabinet.

。Then Qianjie mentioned earlier: When extracting tea, the logic used when extracting coffee cannot be completely applied. This is because most tea leaves will expand more than three times after being exposed to hot water, so we need to reduce the amount when extracting tea with a coffee machine. Therefore, the parameters used in this extraction are: 10 g of tea leaves and 0 scale of Ek43 ground.

The "grains" of tea ground on the 0-scale are extremely clear. After simple filling, we can buckle the handle into the coffee machine for extraction!

It can be seen that the flow rate during extraction is very fast, and 100 ml of tea is extracted in less than 20 seconds. Although the color of tea is much darker than that made by ordinary use, this obviously does not meet our goal, so the grinding must be finer. Since the 0 scale was already the limit of the Ek43 in the store, Qianjie replaced the grinding tool with an Italian bean grinder. The amount of tea leaves remains unchanged, but the degree of grinding is adjusted from the 0 scale of Ek43 to the 1.2 scale of Galileo Q18. This is the best degree of grinding for today's warm sun obtained by today's morning adjustment.

If there are no accidents, accidents will happen. Because the bean inlet of the Italian mill is too small, the larger flake tea leaves cannot enter and cannot be ground. This is not that there is no solution. The solution is to manually grind it first before pouring it into a bean grinder and grinding it. Therefore, the guests who visited this morning all saw the miserable appearance of taking tea leaves out of the front street.

After some trouble, the tea leaves were ground out as expected. Compared to the one ground by ek, it is indeed much finer. It is truly an Italian bean grinder. Similarly, after simple pressure filling, put in extraction. (Guest friend: Guess why the bean grinder is called a bean grinder)

The flow rate this time is indeed much slower than the previous extraction, but it can only be compared with the previous extraction, because the extraction time of 100 ml of tea this time is 30 seconds, and the pressure value is around 6 bar. Although the color of the tea is darker than before, it is obvious that the concentration of this cup of tea still does not meet our requirements. Therefore, based on experience, Qianjie refined the grinding by five squares in one go. (The first copy on the left and the second copy on the right)

This time, ideal tea chips were finally ground out, because it can be seen from the outside that the tea grains are very young. Therefore, Qianjie directly replaced the single flour bowl with a double flour bowl of 20 grams, and increased the amount of tea used to 18 grams.

Not surprisingly, the extraction this time did proceed in the direction envisioned by Qianjie. The flow rate is slow, the pressure gauge rises to 10 bar, and then you can still see obvious "grease"(actually foam). Because tea is different from coffee, the ratio of powder and water set here in Qianjie is 1: 3.5, that is, 63 ml of tea is extracted from 18 g of tea. As the tea leaves gradually soak, the flow rate becomes slower and slower. When the time reaches 32 seconds, the liquid weight approaches the target, and the extraction ends on the front street.

Needless to say, we can see from the appearance of this cup of tea that it has a quite high concentration because the color is very dark.

Qian Jie took a small sip with a spoon. This cup of tea did have a concentration comparable to that of concentrated concentration. Then, because tea is different from coffee, even if the extraction is not very deliberately controlled, it will not appear acidic or bitter over-extracted. At most, it will be a little astringent (it can be extracted multiple times). Just like espresso, such a high-strength cup of tea is not suitable for most people to drink directly. So Qianjie made it into a "tea latte" by adding milk (in fact, it was milk tea, except that the base was made of tea with the same high concentration as concentrated tea, borrowing the meaning of "tea buccino "), with a ratio of 1:6, that is, 30 ml of tea is matched with 180 ml of milk, one cup of hot and cold.

Whether it is a cold "tea latte" or a hot one, Qianjie can say that it is impeccable in terms of taste! Because the concentration of tea is high enough, even if so much milk is added, the taste of the tea is not concealed. It has a mellow taste, a balanced and fragrant taste, which is really good! This may also be due to Qianjie's "timely stop loss" and not asking for too much, so that this cup of tea does not have an excessively prominent astringent feeling. To sum up, we can know that the coffee machine can extract a cup of high-concentration tea. However, Qianjie does not recommend directly using coffee grinders and coffee handles to make "concentrated tea". Because the bean grinder is very troublesome to clean after grinding the tea leaves, and because the ground particles are too small, a lot of tea fragments pass through the powder bowl and penetrate into the tea, which affects the taste. Even!! Most of the holes in the powder bowl are blocked and need to be washed carefully to clean it! It's really troublesome!

Therefore, if you want to try this kind of behavior, Qianjie's advice is to be mentally prepared. Or buy professional tea extraction tools, so that you won't feel embarrassed after extraction due to a moment's satisfying behavior. (Finally, Qianjie Store does not produce, does not produce, does not produce~)

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