Can espresso beans be used to make hand-brewed coffee? What is the difference between Italian mixed beans and hand-made single beans? What are the characteristics of SOE coffee beans?

As we all know, Qianjie recently launched a new Italian blend of beans with flowers and fruits on Taobao Tmall-Qianjie Strawberry Candy Espresso. Perhaps because the flavor is relatively pleasing, friends often ask the customer service on the front street backstage: "Your Italian beans are delicious. Can you use them for hand-washing? "

The answer is obvious, of course it can. Although espresso beans focus on the use of espresso machines, they can also be used to make hand-brewed coffee. Moreover, espresso and hand-brewed coffee are just different forms of coffee extraction, and can naturally extract all coffee beans. But what we need to know is that "whether it can be washed" and "whether it tastes good" are two different things! If we want to brew espresso beans by hand to make delicious coffee, then we need to find the corresponding brewing parameters based on the characteristics of the coffee beans.

In general, whether it is a single piece or a blend of coffee beans, beans used for Italian style tend to be more deeply roasted than coffee beans used for hand-brewed or French pressed pots. Other characteristics aside, the reason why coffee beans used in Italian style need to be roasted deeper is that Italian coffee needs to take into account the production of milk coffee. When we need to add milk to coffee, the beans used are not recommended to be roasted too lightly. Because although light baking can well show the flavor of the beans themselves, it cannot compete with the flavor of a large amount of milk. Especially when making milk coffee with a lot of milk such as lattes, the taste of lightly roasted coffee is very easily concealed by milk. Even if we reduce the amount of milk, the taste of coffee still cannot be expressed well.

In addition, espresso made from lightly roasted coffee beans can be particularly sour. We all know that in addition to flavor, the lighter the roast, the more acidity of the coffee remains. Espresso itself is a very high concentration coffee, and the extremely high concentration will concentrate the flavor of the coffee. So, when we use lightly roasted coffee beans that are mainly sour to make espresso, the espresso will have a very high acidity. Although many times we don't drink concentrates directly, there are always practices/drinking methods like Kang Baolan and Dirty that separate concentrates from other materials. For most people, exposure to high-intensity sourness will be even more unpleasant than high-intensity bitterness. Therefore, the beans used for espresso will be roasted a little deeper. This will reduce the acidity of the coffee while giving the coffee a scorched taste that competes with the taste of milk.

Because of this, as long as you decide to use coffee beans for Italian style, not just blending, including single coffee, the roaster will choose a deeper baking curve to cook the beans. So, if we want to make a delicious cup of hand-brewed coffee with Italian coffee beans, we first need to find a suitable parameter based on its roasting degree to brew, so that the coffee will not be over-extracted due to excessive extraction efficiency. Take the former street Essi Huakui in the former street bean list as an example! There are two roasting levels available for the Huakui sold on Taobao in Qianjie. One is a mild roasting that can well show the aroma of coffee, and the other is a moderate roasting that is more suitable for Italian style.

When brewing the former, because the baking is shallower and the density is higher, Qianjie will use a formula with higher extraction efficiency to brew it. This is the 15g powder brewing formula that Qianjie has always shared: water temperature is 92°C, grinding degree No. 20 sieve mesh 75%~80%, powder-to-water ratio 1:15, three-stage, 2 minutes. The Huakui brewed using this formula has a very excellent performance. The taste is mainly sweet and sour, the taste is clean, and the flavor is outstanding. It has berries, citrus, floral flowers, and oolong tea.

But if we use this formula to brew moderately roasted Qianjie Essi Huakui, then the results can be imagined. There is a high probability that we will get a cup of over-extracted coffee with a mixed and bitter taste. Because moderate roasting will reduce the difficulty of coffee extraction, the flavor substances in the coffee will dissolve out more quickly, and the same parameters will naturally dissolve more bitterness. If we want to avoid this situation, then we need to adjust the extraction parameters and reduce the extraction efficiency, so that we can make a pot of delicious coffee. There are two main parameters lowered on the front street here. One is the water temperature, which is lowered from the original 92°C to 90°C; the other is grinding. The grinding degree will be adjusted from 75% to 80% of the original No. 20 sieve. The sieving rate is adjusted to 70% to 75%, the purpose is to reduce the surface area of coffee powder in contact with water.

Through this adjustment, the brewed coffee can perfectly avoid over-the-top situation and can well show its charm. The performance of the moderately baked Huaqui after boiling is somewhat different from that of the lightly baked Huaqui. It has a more solid taste and will be more balanced in taste, and it is no longer mainly sweet and sour. In terms of flavor, because the baking is slightly deeper, in addition to the aroma of flowers and fruits, we also taste the aroma of chocolate and caramel, and the aftertaste will be longer than that of lightly baked flowers.

In the same way, this set of parameters can also be used on the strawberry candy Espresso mentioned at the beginning! Namely: 15g of powder, water temperature of 88~90°C, powder and water ratio of 1:15, 70%~75% sieving rate of No. 20 sieve, three-stage brewing, and 2 minutes extraction time. Strawberry candy brewed with this set of parameters also performs very pleasing! The aroma is very rich, with the main flavor being cream, chocolate, strawberry and blueberry. The taste is also balanced between sweet and sour and bitter. The taste is mellow and the aftertaste is outstanding and long. It is very good!

If the Italian beans you use are more deeply baked, then Qianjie will suggest further coarse grinding, and then control the water temperature within the range of 86°C to 88°C to avoid excessive caffeine extraction efficiency.

- END -