Factors affecting the taste of coffee in boutique coffee

A cup of coffee, from that curling aroma began, extended to sour, bitter and sweet taste, and finally by the aftertaste that people have a long aftertaste, the middle taste is very subtle, and there are many reasons for this subtle taste.

In the big picture: green bean quality accounts for 60 percent of the factors that determine the taste of a cup of coffee, roasting for 30 percent, and extraction for 10 percent.

Just as no chef can make a delicious meal without the best ingredients, only good coffee beans can guarantee delicious coffee. In other words, the quality of coffee beans plays a decisive role in the taste of a cup of coffee. There are two types of coffee beans that people now use to make coffee: arabica beans and robersta beans. Robusta beans taste simple and extremely bitter, there is no acidity and aroma, drink not smooth enough, so most of the robusta used to make instant coffee, there is a small part used to make espresso beans, because robusta can improve the alcohol of coffee in consciousness espresso. Arabica beans, on the other hand, are relatively rich in aroma, rich in taste, have a nice sour taste, and taste softer and smoother. However, even Arabica beans are divided into three or six grades. High-quality Arabica beans grow at a height of more than 1000 meters. They are rich in sunshine, abundant in rainfall, fertile in soil, and obtained through a series of processes of careful production, picking, and processing. And among these Arabica beans, there are a small number of excellent ones. They occupy a unique advantage in the natural conditions of growth, and they are carefully processed and screened in terms of processing. They are always ranked at the top of the taste evaluation rating. They are called specialty coffee. And Arabica beans in the low-grade and low-grade also flooded the market, especially in our country market, because contact coffee this thing time is relatively short, coffee market is quite primary, so the real quality beans are very few, mostly or general quality of low-grade.

Roasting is the most difficult part of coffee technology to master. Roasting gives coffee beans a second life through the experience of fire. Good roasting can make coffee beans glow with new vitality and show their greatest glory, while improper roasting will destroy the original excellent coffee beans. The baking degree is generally divided into four levels: light, medium, deep and heavy, and each level can be divided into two levels, namely light baking including light(light)cinema(cinnamon)medium(medium)high(medium)city(city)full city(half city) italy(Italy)French(French). In the roasting process of coffee beans, a series of chemical reactions occur inside the coffee beans by heating them, and the above eight degrees are the roasting degrees reached in turn with the continuous heating. The lighter roasting can obviously show the acidity of coffee, and the deeper roasting will further explore the sweet taste and deeper taste of coffee. At the same time, with the deepening of roasting degree, the sourness will be more lost and the bitterness will be more generated. At its deepest French roast, it's carbonised beans with bitter taste and no sour taste. In order to express its personality, different single coffee items will have different roasting degrees, but there is no recognized standard for more subtle division. For example, whether Colombia super beans are roasted in medium mode to better enjoy their good acidity or roasted in high mode to obtain deeper taste and better balance and alcohol degree depends on the roaster's personal preference and the taste orientation of the consumers it is intended to face. And espresso baking is even more difficult: in addition to baking, there is also a certain difficulty in matching beans. Because deep-baked espresso using a single variety of beans will result in a single flavor is not rich enough, so generally use more than two kinds of beans when baking. Brazil beans are added to regular espresso to increase its sweetness and body, and Italians add a portion of robersta beans to increase the body of espresso, while two beans with similar personalities are not suitable for blending. Roasting is a thermal reaction that takes place completely within 15 minutes. The subtle taste changes every second with the change of heat and time during the roasting process, so it is necessary to master the roasting properly in order to maximize the personality of coffee beans.

With good roasted coffee beans, the next step is extraction. The factors affecting extraction can be found from the following aspects:

The freshness of coffee beans. Roasted coffee beans after 48 hours of its flavor fully revealed, within a week is the best period of its flavor, and with the excessive time, coffee beans in the aroma molecules continue to volatilize, and continue to absorb the smell of the air, coffee beans flavor will gradually lose, a month later its flavor has basically lost, only bitter and bad taste remaining.

Two, water. A cup of coffee is 98% water. The quality and temperature of the water affect the taste of coffee to some extent. The trace elements contained in general tap water or mineral water will react with the substances in coffee to affect the taste of coffee, and the excellent water quality will also have an adverse effect on the taste of coffee, so pure water should be used for coffee extraction. Second, about the water temperature: the most suitable water temperature for coffee extraction is between 89-93 degrees, too high a temperature will make coffee bitter weight, and too low a temperature will make coffee sour too strong.

Third, extraction time. Regardless of the method and tool used, a reasonable amount of extraction time is one of the things you need to pay attention to make a good cup of coffee. Too long an extraction time can lead to over-extraction, so that bitter and bad ingredients in coffee are extracted, and on the contrary, too short an extraction time can lead to insufficient extraction, coffee taste too weak, taste not rich enough.

Fourth, barista and coffee drinker factors. The former are objective factors, and this one is relatively subjective. But, believe it or not, technical considerations aside, a cup of coffee will taste good only if a barista is confident, serious, and trying his best to make it. Coffee drinkers, depending on their mood and understanding of coffee, can feel different coffee flavors.