Coffee common sense Italian espresso Espresso coffee production standard

First: What are the "golden rules" for making espresso? The "gold" rule?

The golden rule: The time it takes to make a cup of "standard Italian coffee"(25-30 ml), that is, from the first drop of coffee to the closing of the switch, should be 25-30 seconds.

Since it is called the golden rule, whether it is its importance, or its role and correctness, it should be as irreproachable as gold. But is this "golden rule" really that valuable? Is this "golden rule" really that high?

First let us examine its correctness.

If this is the condition for making a cup of high-quality coffee, can it guarantee the quality of coffee? Experienced people basically know that if only this condition is met, it is difficult to guarantee the quality of coffee. Even basic coffee foam is hard to guarantee. So this is not a complete condition, it has to be combined with other conditions for this rule to make sense. Without the cooperation of other conditions, this rule can be said to be meaningless.

Second, let's see what it means.

After the grinding thickness, water temperature, water pressure and other conditions are determined, the amount of coffee powder directly affects the extraction results. Under this condition, the extraction is suitable and flow rate has nothing to do. If there is no condition to change the working state of the machine, it is completely unnecessary to care about the flow rate; just find the best extraction state.

Of course, the best extraction result in this state is not necessarily the best state that the coffee bean can achieve. If you need to improve the taste and quality of coffee, you need to further adjust the working state of the machine. In this process, the Golden Rule can play a role of reference for your adjustment work to a certain extent. This is the gold content of the Golden Rule, that is, the role and significance of its existence.

Italian espresso coffee production standards

Who knows why? Italian coffee has been made for more than 100 years, and there is still no uniform standard accepted by coffee industry insiders all over the world. Most parts of Italy, especially in the north, basically follow the standard of 40-45 ml. All cafes in the south, especially Florence, insist on a standard of 25-30 ml; that is to say, espresso: ristretto

If Italians are the founders of Italian coffee, if they do not have a uniform standard, what can we use as a standard?

The Americans came out to decide, they said it was the standard of 25-30 ml. Why not? It seems to have been learned from Florence, or rather a place that truly represents Italian tradition. Of course, this is the birthplace of the European Renaissance. It is the birthplace of all European culture. But is that evidence?

Why do most regions not follow this standard and adhere to the 40-45 ml standard? You say you're right, you say you're right. What is the truth?

In order to understand which criteria are correct or appropriate, we must ask the question "why?" What criteria are used to determine the size of this capacity and what are the principles? So far, it seems, we haven't heard such a reply. What is the standard and where is it?

1. A feeling that has never been recognized,"taste"

Those familiar with red wine know that it is very important to identify the quality of a red wine and its taste of "thin" and "thick". A good red wine is very thick and full, while a bad red wine will show a "not thick enough" taste. Compared to most beverages, there is basically no difference in taste "thin and thick". Most people are unfamiliar with this feeling.

Italian coffee, however, is different, and one of its important taste characteristics is "very thick taste."

Due to the different quenching ingredients, in general, if the Italian coffee is not made to a standard, or quenched too deep, or quenched too shallow, it will not have a very thick taste. The basic characteristic is that the texture is very thin. Plus, most new coffee companies blend Italian coffee beans that don't taste good enough to have a thick enough taste.

In contrast, a good espresso company blends espresso beans with a thicker texture. This is often one of the main advantages that Italian coffee companies present to their coffee beans.

How to maintain the "thick" taste?

If it is a good Italian coffee bean, it should have a thick enough taste. This first requires a good preparation, otherwise even if you use thick coffee beans, the coffee you make will not have enough thick taste.

Second,"thick taste" as one of the essential characteristics of Italian coffee, can not be abandoned. Therefore, when we define the standard Italian coffee, we cannot lose this important taste characteristic.

According to our test results, in a cup of well-made Italian coffee, if the cup volume is no less than 60 ml, or even no less than 50 ml, it will not lose its "thick taste." Therefore, we set the standard Italian coffee cup size at 40-45 ml is a reasonable standard.

How do you make it compatible with other standards?

What we cannot ignore is the Florentine production standard, 25-30 ml. And that's the standard most Americans hold to. According to Italian tradition, and common sense, this standard is a standard for making stronger coffee. Its Italian name is ristretto. The Chinese name we gave it is "espresso Italian coffee."

The general concept of this coffee is stronger coffee, coffee that is more concentrated than standard Italian coffee. Therefore, products made according to such standards are products that meet their general concepts. This coffee has a stronger flavor and tastes as thick as standard Italian coffee, and there is not much difference in taste.

In contrast, if the standard espresso cup size is 25-30 ml, then this espresso cup size can only be 15-20 ml. This kind of production method is probably not available in Italy, and it will not be liked by many people.

Even Americans, or Florentines, like it, can request espresso to satisfy their tastes. So we're not necessarily setting a standard for everyone, but more of a collection of Italian traditions to come up with a unified name for each of the different methods of production. This is a unified language of communication needed by people in the international coffee industry, including coffee consumers around the world.

Four, the production method of espresso coffee

In general terms, espresso coffee is similar to standard espresso coffee, using the same amount of coffee powder in a cup; however, as a more concentrated cup of coffee, it must be a little less, usually two-thirds of the original cup.

As more active Americans, many people are not satisfied with this kind of production. They argue that it is not enough to simply reduce the amount of coffee served in order to make espresso more flavorful. So they increased the fineness of the ground coffee compared to the flow rate of standard Italian coffee, making it take the same time to produce a smaller amount of water as it takes to produce a cup of standard Italian coffee.

For this reason, even if a coffee shop uses only one blend of coffee beans and uses one coffee machine to make coffee, it is necessary to prepare two coffee mills to make standard Italian coffee and espresso coffee. Because in a business environment, it is not appropriate to adjust the coffee grind at any time.

Similarly, Americans even believe that the ground coffee should be ground differently when making a standard espresso and a double espresso. So you may need a coffee mill specifically for double espresso. It seems like this question is getting out of hand. The simplest is probably the most correct. So we followed that understanding and developed our coffee making standards. This is in line with the general concept of these different coffee drinks, and it does not bring any inconvenience to the equipment configuration and operation of the coffee shop.

5 Why is it getting stronger?

Sichuan people love to eat chili, Hunan people love to eat chili, more and more people in places also began to love to eat chili. If some people eat chili peppers more than Sichuan and Hunan people, it is inevitable. But what if most people are like that? That could be a problem. In Italy, most people drink only standard Italian coffee.

Only a few people drink double espresso. In the United States, however, more people simply can't limit themselves to standard espresso, and more are drinking double espresso, or even two double espresso cups together; or two double espresso cups. It can be seen that their taste is even greater than the trend.

Why not?

It is hard to imagine that American Italian coffee is a little too soft. It is well known that the most respected American coffee is 100% Arabica coffee blend; even do not blend, only a single origin Arabica coffee beans. So it's conceivable that such "soft" coffee beans are one of the main reasons why many Americans love stronger coffee.

It is also well known that the rich flavor of Italian coffee is not baked, but through the blending of different coffee beans. Even some blends use a portion of "robasta coffee," but it's hard to really get that rich flavor because of the technology and the difficulty of mastering coffee flavors. As a result, they had to reduce the amount of cups to increase the rich taste of coffee.