1 minute to understand what growing beans is! How long does it take to raise coffee beans before they enter the best taste period?

Raising beans can be said to be a "required course" for almost all coffee players! However, Qianjie found that many friends who had just started had certain misunderstandings about the concept of raising beans. Not only that, because each baker recommends a different time for raising beans, some are 4 to 7 days, some are 7 to 14 days, and even extreme ones will last as long as 1 month. So this makes many friends confused as to how long beans should be raised. So today Qianjie will come to share with you the real purpose of raising beans and how to know if a coffee bean has been raised!

--The purpose of raising beans First of all, we need to know clearly that the main purpose of raising beans is not to allow coffee to form more high-quality flavors! Because many friends are often misled by the sentence "This coffee bean is fresher, so it will taste better if you raise it" and believe that raising beans can promote the formation of some high-quality flavors. The formation of coffee flavor is mainly concentrated in the roasting stage! Because only during the roasting process, the chemical reaction caused by high temperature can allow the substances in the coffee beans to develop a large amount of flavor. When the coffee beans are completely cooled after roasting, the formation of flavor slows down.

From this time on, coffee beans will continue to emit gas in the body and begin to enter the bean raising period and taste appreciation period... Although chemical reactions such as oxidation also occur during the process, they are more about degrading and losing the flavor rather than forming a new high-quality flavor. The reason why coffee beans can make better coffee after being cultivated is that the carbon dioxide in the coffee beans that hinders extraction is much less, and we can dissolve the flavor substances more completely, so that the coffee can be more delicious.

During roasting, chemical reactions driven by high temperatures not only give the coffee beans an aroma and taste, but also promote the production of carbon dioxide. When these carbon dioxide exist, it will affect the extraction of coffee beans. We can understand that these carbon dioxide will dissolve before the flavor substances. Carbon dioxide is extracted first, and then the flavor substances are extracted. Most of the time, we always use a set of parameters to brew coffee beans. Assuming that the brewing parameters are stable and the amount of dissolved substances is fixed, then the amount of carbon dioxide content at this time will affect the amount of flavor substances that we dissolve. When the carbon dioxide content in coffee beans is more, the less flavor substances are extracted.

So if we want coffee to have a fuller and more prominent flavor, then we need to reduce the carbon dioxide that affects extraction, so that more flavor substances can be dissolved. Raising beans is a way to reduce carbon dioxide in addition to brewing. The carbon dioxide in coffee beans will be continuously released after roasting is completed. We only need to place the coffee beans for a period of time to achieve the effect of reducing carbon dioxide, which is also the fundamental purpose of raising beans. When carbon dioxide is emitted to a level that will not affect the dissolution of flavor substances, coffee enters the best taste period.

How long does it take to raise beans? As Qianjie said, different merchants will have different suggestions for raising beans, and the number of days for raising beans ranges from 4 to 30 days. This is the result of different baking methods. Different heat conduction, different roasting degrees, and different roasted bean styles will change the carbon dioxide content of coffee beans and the exhaust speed.

Qianjie first talked about the impact of heat conduction methods. Currently, the mainstream coffee roasters mainly include the following three types: direct fire, semi-direct fire and hot air. The heat conduction method mainly affects the exhaust speed of coffee beans: under the condition of a similar degree of roasting, coffee beans roasted through direct fire require the longest exhaust time, followed by semi-direct fire, and the shortest is hot air. Then there is the degree of roasting of the coffee beans! The degree of roasting of coffee beans affects the amount of carbon dioxide accumulated during roasting. The deeper the roasting, the more carbon dioxide content is produced, and vice versa.

Finally, the baking style of coffee beans! Just as when we brew coffee, we use different parameters and different methods to brew coffee with different characteristics, when roasting coffee, we can also use different parameter curves to roast coffee with different flavors! It will also affect the exhaust time of coffee. So this is why each roaster's recommended bean raising time is different, because the three different combinations will make differences in the carbon dioxide content and exhaust speed of the coffee beans. However, merchants generally give a relatively conservative range. After all, no one can tell for sure about this. How can we know when a coffee bean will be raised? It's simple: drink! Only by tasting and groping with our senses can we know the state of a bean. To know what is the peak period of a bean, we first need to know what it tastes like when it is not yet raised! Therefore, the Front Street Association recommends that everyone first check the roasting date when they get the coffee beans, and then start from the fourth day from the roasting date (the first three days from the roasting is the main emission time for carbon dioxide), every 1 or 2 days, rush out a pot to taste its taste and compare it with the previous time.

With the same parameters, the flavor of coffee will theoretically improve every day. But when you suddenly discover one day that the flavor of coffee is no longer improving, it means that the coffee beans have officially entered the best taste period. And we can record this turning point, and when we buy this or similar coffee beans in the future, we can follow this rule to taste it directly in one of its best tasting ranges. Or before the tasting period comes, modify the parameters based on the difference in previous flavors, so as to drink coffee in its heyday early. Like raising the water temperature a little more, extending the time a little more, etc. Although it is easy to bring out bad substances ~