Coffee technology A little knowledge of coffee roasting

Soft and smooth Colombian coffee, blue mountain coffee with a unique aroma and slightly sour taste, Indonesian coffee with a balanced flavor of syrup and chocolate. More than 3000 kinds of coffee beans are produced in more than 50 countries around the world every year, so it is not easy to choose the most suitable coffee among the many choices. Some experts believe that, in fact, the roasting of coffee beans has a more direct impact on the taste of coffee. Understanding the different taste and flavor of coffee brought by different roasting types is undoubtedly a "shortcut" to choose your own ideal coffee.

The roasting of coffee is realized in three stages. In the shallow baking stage, when the beans make the first light sound, the volume expands at the same time, and the color changes to cinnamon. Acidity dominates the flavor of shallow baked beans, and the texture and taste have not been brought into full play. When it comes to the middle baking stage, that is, when it is roasted for 10 to 11 minutes, the coffee beans show an elegant brown color. This method of baking is also called city roast. Medium roasting can not only preserve the original flavor of coffee beans, but also moderately release aroma. After entering the deep baking, the coffee oil begins to surface, and the beans are burned into an oily dark brown. The darker the coffee beans are, the sweeter the flavor is. At this time, the oil has turned into caramel, bitterness is exhausted, and the aftertaste is endless.

Doug Langworthy, a master roaster of Starbucks coffee, said that unlike in the past, distinguishing products according to the depth of roasting makes consumers more able to choose their favorite taste "at a glance". "different baking methods will bring very different feelings, and consumers can easily choose more suitable products according to their own preferences."

Different baking methods cast personality

"shallow baking, soft mellow, soft flavor, subtle and round. The medium roasted coffee is medium mellow, the flavor is balanced and smooth, and the deep roasted coffee is rich in purity and strong in flavor. " The influence of different roasting methods on the flavor of coffee is particularly obvious.

Lightly fried coffee beans are usually light brown, with a strong smell, crisp, slightly mellow, and high acidity is the main flavor. The medium-fried coffee beans are light brown in color and have a strong mellowness while retaining most of the acidity. Deep-fried coffee beans have turned dark brown, often with a glossy layer of fat on the surface, and the acidity is replaced by a slightly bitter taste to produce a spicy taste. Some very deep-fried coffee beans even contain a bitter taste of charcoal ash, which is significantly reduced in mellow.

"different roasting methods can make very well-balanced, very high-quality coffee." Doug Langworthy said that in fact, different roasting methods can only represent different personalities and styles of coffee, just like different personalities of people, but there is no difference between the pros and cons. Doug Langworthy himself has a penchant for "gold roasted coffee" in Starbucks products that are lightly roasted. "I like the elegant and gentle charm. The roasting of professional coffee is the personal expression of the chef. "

Find your favorite by smelling, inhaling and tasting.

Just as tasting red wine requires certain skills and methods, tasting coffee also requires a variety of necessary steps. If you want to know how to choose the right type of baking, you first need to know how to "taste" and distinguish the different feelings brought by different types of baking.

The first step is to "smell". In fact, the sense of smell and taste are directly connected, and people often start from the sense of smell when judging whether food is delicious or not. At the same time, different types of roasted coffee have been able to detect significant differences in taste. Lightly roasted coffee has a soft aroma with a sense of sweetness and balance; moderately roasted coffee tastes the most "coffee", mellow and layered. When it comes to deep baking, there is an obvious "sweet" and "slightly charred" feeling in the strong smell.

Once you have a preliminary impression of the different types of baking in terms of smell, you can move on to the second step of tasting: big sucking. This is also a way to make full use of the nasal cavity and taste buds to make smell and taste work together. Take a big sip of coffee and let the taste go straight to your nose so that you can directly and strongly feel the aroma of this baking method and further verify the feeling of the first step of "smell". Through this "smell" and "smoke", the three types of coffee must have a fresh outline and personality in your heart.

Of course, to know what you really like, you have to start with more details. Therefore, the third step is the "sip" stage. Put the coffee into your lips and sip it carefully, allowing it to flow slowly from the inside of the lips to the tip of the tongue, and then slowly to the middle of the tongue. Let the taste buds of different parts feel the fine layers of coffee. At this point, if your tongue is sensitive enough, you can tell the aroma and sweetness of some berries that may appear in light baking, chocolate, cinnamon, caramel and spices that may appear in medium baking, and with a little bitterness in deep baking. Of course, the flavors of these details vary widely, but through three-step tasting, you can find the type of taste you want more clearly.