What does the color of coffee soup mean? Can I drink turbid coffee? Why are some coffees so clean and some cloudy? What material is the filter paper? What are the advantages of coffee filter paper?

There are often guests and friends talking about coffee-related content in the Qianjie store, such as the origin of the coffee, the parameters during brewing, the steps, or the taste of the coffee. Then occasionally, friends will discuss some relatively niche topics, such as the color of coffee soup.

"Soup color" is a professional term derived from tea reviews. It refers to the color and visual characteristics of tea soup after brewing, and this is one of the criteria for people to judge the quality of tea. So for coffee, can soup color also be used as a criterion for evaluating quality?

Apparently not. The color of coffee soup is influenced by many factors, such as the extraction method, the filtering equipment used, the degree of roasting of the coffee, and the concentration of the coffee. These have little to do with the quality of coffee, so the soup color of coffee cannot be a criterion for its quality. But inevitably, turbid coffee always makes friends associate it with poor quality. So today Qianjie came to share how these factors affect the soup color of coffee.

Deep and light, black and red/The color of coffee Let's talk about the color of coffee first! I believe it is not difficult for you to find that when using the same parameters to brew different coffees, the colors of these coffees are not the same! For example, some are brownish red, while some colors tend to black. The main factor that determines the color of coffee is the degree of roasting of the coffee. When the degree of roasting of the coffee is deeper, the darker the color will be; when the degree of roasting of the coffee is lighter, the lighter the color will be. The picture below shows two pots of hand-brewed brewed coffee beans from Front Street Essi Huakui (left) and Deep Roasted Coffee Bean Front Street Sumatra Golden Mantanin (right). You can compare their differences.

In addition, the concentration of coffee also affects the color. When the coffee concentration is higher, the color saturation of the coffee becomes deeper; when the coffee concentration is lower, the color becomes lighter. We can see the obvious difference between espresso and American coffee.

The "cleanliness" of coffee is the cleanliness of coffee (this refers to the visual characteristics of coffee liquor)! Many friends still have this misunderstanding: When the color of coffee is darker, the more turbid the coffee will be; and when the color of coffee is lighter, the cleaner the coffee will be. But in fact, the cleanliness of coffee is not affected by the depth of color, but by the water solubility of the extracted substances. For example, when we use filter paper to brew coffee, the final coffee is often clear and clean, and looks very clear. If we use a metal filter or flannel filter cloth to brew, the coffee we get will be a little turbid and less transparent. The reason why the former differs from the latter lies in the filtering performance of the filtering tool.

In the previous article on non-woven filter paper, Zhongqian Street introduced that the filter paper has excellent filtering performance and can filter out most substances other than coffee such as coffee grounds and grease, so the coffee washed with it is very clean. Tools such as metal filters and non-woven filter papers cannot filter some coffee grounds and grease with extremely fine particles due to the large gaps, so the washed coffee will become turbid due to the presence of these substances. The same is true for the turbidity of espresso, mocha pot coffee, and French pot coffee.

However, this does not mean that these tools are not as good as filter paper. The existence of some fine powders can enhance the mellow degree of coffee, while the oil can give coffee more aroma. Although it is not as clean as coffee washed out of filter paper, they will have a better mellow and aroma. To sum up, we can know why the soup color of coffee cannot be used as a criterion for judging coffee quality. It can only reflect the roasting degree and concentration of the coffee, and the performance of the filtering tools used. Don't generalize~

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