What is the reason for the sour taste of coffee? Why is so much coffee sour nowadays? Should good coffee be sour? What determines whether coffee is sour or bitter? Is Huakui coffee lightly roasted or medium roasted?

If there are any characteristics of Qianjie stores, one of them is that there are more beans to choose from for hand-brewed coffee. Although not all the beans on Taobao Tmall have been moved online, there are more than 30 kinds of beans, and the choices should be very rich. Even though there are more than 30 beans to choose from, many friends have found that less than 10% of the coffee with a bitter taste and the so-called "coffee flavor" account for the remaining 90% are sour coffee. So this made many friends curious: Why is most coffee nowadays sour? Is it true that others say on the Internet that all good coffee is sour?

These questions were mainly raised by some older guests and friends, whose impression of coffee was bitter and fragrant. Because before 2000, the taste of coffee was almost bitter, they couldn't help but sigh and question such a change. First of all, we need to know that good coffee does not have to be sour. Qian Jie believes that the sentence "good coffee is sour" carries certain ambiguity. Our understanding of good coffee is usually "higher quality." Although it is undeniable that most of the high-quality coffees on the market are sour, there are also some high-quality coffees whose taste is mainly bitter. For example, No. 1 Blue Mountain, Front Street, Jamaica, in Front Street Doudan.

Jamaica's Blue Mountain Coffee is a very well-known representative of high-quality coffee in the last century, and its taste is mainly bitter. Chocolate, caramel, cream, nuts, is a very classic "coffee flavor" it shows. The quality of coffee is not a factor that affects taste, it is only one of the priorities that we determine the direction of coffee taste. Those of you who read Twitter regularly know that determining whether coffee is sour or bitter depends largely on how roasted the beans are. The lighter the roast, the more sour the coffee, and the darker the roast, the more bitter the coffee. The reason why many coffees are sour nowadays is because the degree of roasting coffee is no longer all deep-roasted.

In the past, coffee was basically deeply roasted, so the taste was mainly bitter. The reason why deep baking was the mainstream in the past was that there was no so-called distinction between deep and light baking at that time. People's original understanding of coffee roasting was the same as when we were frying, where coffee beans had to be stir-fried until they were cooked. At that time, the standard for roasting coffee was that the coffee beans had to undergo a second burst, which is what we often call second burst. Beans that have experienced the second burst will have a strong burnt aroma and dark appearance without exception. And this is what people at the time thought coffee should look like.

If it's not concrete enough, we can imagine tofu flowers. Before the Internet was developed, most people did not expect that tofu flowers would have different methods such as salty, sweet, and spicy. People at that time had the same reason. Of course, Qianjie also believed that people at that time tried to dry coffee lightly, whether it was subjective or accidental. But after all, light roasting was not the mainstream at the time. Just like when people were used to eating a certain flavor of tofu pudding and thought that another flavor of tofu pudding was not popular, people couldn't accept sour coffee. In addition, the quality of coffee beans at that time was not high, the roasting theory was not so mature, and the roasting method was not so particular. In short, in the past, the sour taste of the roasted coffee would be regarded as a failure, failure, and failure to cook the coffee. So for a long time, the mainstream roasting of coffee was deep roasting. One of the main opportunities that led to a change in people's concepts was the release of the concept of "boutique coffee." Ms. Ena Knudsen believes that some high-quality coffee beans should be picked up individually to shine and should not be buried in commodities. But I never thought that this practice would indirectly lead to a change in the concept of baking. Because the quality of coffee has been improved, people have found a "breakthrough point" and developed new ways to play it.

And pushing the gears of history to turn are new forces whose concepts have not been influenced too much! I believe everyone on Qianjie has heard of "Nordic Shallow Baking", right? The degree of coffee roasting at that time was often named after the mainstream degree of roasting in a certain region, such as Italian roasting, French roasting, Japanese roasting... The Nordic light baking means that the mainstream baking in the Nordic region is light baking. Compared with places such as Italy and France, where concepts are already deeply rooted, the Nordic region comes into contact with coffee later, so it is slightly younger in comparison and its concepts have not been influenced too much. Because of this, they can break the tradition and become the first place to become popular with lightly roasted coffee.

If the Nordic light baking at that time is judged according to the color value, it is more of the level of medium baking and has not yet reached the level of light baking we know today, but compared with Italian baking in the past, it is a very, very shallow baking degree. The lightening of baking not only makes the coffee more sour, but also reduces the aroma of baking coke that blocks the flavor of coffee. As a result, the floral and fruity charm contained in the coffee can be displayed, and people can begin to drink more from coffee. The flavor is no longer the same bitterness, but the colorful acid.

Then this taste is very suitable for the public's taste, because people always don't like hardship. Therefore, in some regions/countries that have not experienced too much baptism of bitter coffee culture, coffees that are sour and do not resemble coffee are more acceptable. Therefore, in these regions/countries, coffee will be roasted relatively lightly. Whether Italian or single product! Not only because lightly roasted coffee is better accepted, but also better shows the differences between coffees.

But then again, not all coffee beans can be lightly roasted. Because some lower-quality coffee beans may not be sweet enough or have a less pleasing blemish flavor. If we make these low-quality coffee beans lightly roasted, the former will cause the coffee to appear irritating and sharp sour because the sweetness is not high enough, while the latter will cause the coffee to appear unacceptable miscellaneous flavors. Beans like this are more suitable for deep roasting, which generates more burnt aroma, thereby covering up the flawed taste of the coffee. In other words, shallow baking is also a touchstone. Only beans that meet the conditions and have relatively excellent quality can be cooked using shallow baking.

But again, this does not mean that the saying "good coffee is sour" is correct. Because what flavor coffee ultimately tastes like, what degree of roasting is used mainly depends on the specific needs! For example, Qianjie Essi Huakui sold in the Taobao Tmall store in Qianjie has two baking levels that can be selected. One is light roasting for hand-brewed, single-piece coffee, and the other is medium roasting for Italian cuisine. The former can better highlight the flavor characteristics of Huaquai. We can taste the aroma of orange blossom, citrus, strawberry and cream when we use it for hand-brewed production. The taste is mainly sweet and sour. If you want to use this bean for making espresso, Qianjie recommends choosing the latter-medium roasting. Because espresso is not only black coffee, but also latte, Australian white, Dirty and other fancy coffees with milk added. Only by roasting the coffee deeper can the taste of the coffee not be easily concealed by the milk, so we can taste more coffee flavor from the milk coffee.

To sum up, we can know that the reason why many coffees today are sour is because these non-bitter coffees are more suitable for public tastes, and at the same time, they can better show the differences between different coffee beans and better interpret the regional flavor of each producing area. The taste of coffee is not completely affected by quality, but mainly depends on the needs of the roaster ~

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