How to taste the balance and aroma of hand-brewed coffee? Differences between deep-roasted coffee and lightly roasted coffee

We all know that the easiest and most understandable way to judge whether a cup of hand-brewed coffee is successful is to "drink" it directly. If its taste passes, it means that there is no big problem in terms of raw materials, parameters, techniques, etc.; on the contrary, if the taste is wrong, it means that something is different in a certain link. Therefore, to make coffee well, you must first learn to "taste" it.

Many people may say that it's fine as long as they think it tastes good, but why should they use it to define it... As the saying goes, thousands of people have a thousand flavors. Qianjie believes that if you just have nothing to do at home and drink it yourself, there is really no need to deliberately force your coffee. Label it as "good" or "bad". But if we have a love for fine coffee and really want to improve our brewing skills, then we cannot let the situation be randomly controlled, but we must master the basic methods of tasting.

Today, Qianjie acts as a guest from the perspective of tasting, imagines how we should evaluate its quality when the barista brings a cup and puts it on the table.

1. No strong negative taste

Coffee itself is bitter, but in fact, our taste buds are not tolerant of the bitterness in coffee. Because it contains a large amount of aromatic substances, from grinding coffee beans into powder, dissolving in water, and then tasting in the mouth, every step allows us to feel a bright, strong, or soft aroma, thus making people ignore it. part of the bitterness.

In addition to the coffee beans themselves, the brewing process is also an important factor affecting the concentration of each aroma. Once a certain parameter fails to keep up, the corresponding soluble substance will be over-extracted or under-extracted, and some sharp, irritating, and stuck feelings will appear; only when grinding, temperature, powder-to-water ratio, and water injection techniques are all grasped in place, will the good flavors of coffee converge in the cup at the same time.

So if this cup of hand-brewed coffee does not have a strong bitter taste, or obvious irritating negative taste such as grass, wood, smoke, plastic... we can all include it in the qualified category.

2. The taste is relatively balanced

If divided according to the degree of roasting, coffee beans can be roughly classified into three types: lightly roasted/medium lightly roasted fruit acid type, medium roasted balanced type, medium deep/deep roasted burnt aroma type. The barista/brewer's task is to highlight their unique personality during the extraction process while avoiding taste imbalance.

For example, the hand-baked Qianjie Wash·Fruit Ding will be filled with hot water at 91 - 93 ° C, ground with fine sugar (the sieving rate of China No. 20 standard sieve is 80%), and the powder-to-water ratio is 1:15. The purpose is to highlight the sweet floral fragrance and moderate bright citrus acid.

If you drink it and you shudder from acid (provided you can accept the aroma of the fruit acid), then the cup of coffee should be overextracted or underextracted. The problem is likely to be in the water temperature or grinding degree. When the entrance has both citrus acid and honey-like sweetness, and there is no discomfort from beginning to end, it means that the extraction is reasonable.

Similarly, if the medium and deep roasted PWN gold mantinin is brewed, in order to present caramel fragrance, roasted hazelnut and black cocoa, it will be extracted by using hot water at 86~87℃, coarse granulated sugar grinding (China 20 standard sieve sieving rate 70%), powder water ratio 1:15, three stages.

When drinking coffee, the first feeling is bitterness, and it stays in the mouth for a long time. It is accompanied by a mixed taste. There should be a problem at some point. On the contrary, a cup of Qianjie PWN Gold Mantelin not only has a strong baking aroma, but also has a mellow, smooth and full taste. After swallowing, there is nothing uncomfortable and long-lasting sweetness. So needless to say, we can also know that this must be a delicious cup of coffee.

3. Continue to exude aroma

It is generally believed that a good cup of coffee should have aroma overflowing before drinking, and the taste should be very pleasant after swallowing. You immediately want to take a second sip. After drinking the entire cup, you can't help but pick up the cup and smell it. The residual aroma at the bottom. It can be seen that a good cup of hand-brewed coffee not only has a good taste, but also has a rich aroma.

The temperature of freshly brewed hot coffee is about 65~78℃, and the high temperature stage (55~68℃) is the best time for us to capture the aroma. Medium-light roasted coffee usually exudes the sweet aroma of flowers, fruits, and a slight fermentation as soon as it is brewed, such as Qianjie. HaMatthew's magnolia fragrance, front street. The fragrance of roses with strawberry candy, the front street. The aroma of preserved fruit of blackberries;

On the other hand, medium and deep roasted coffee mainly shows the slightly rich aroma of dark chocolate, toast, fried nuts, etc. brought by the caramelization reaction, like Qianjie. Cream peanuts at Queen's Estate, Front Street. Manternin's Spices, Front Street. The black cocoa of the bird of paradise is a typical example.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473