About small, round, dark brown coffee beans.

Small and round dark brown coffee beans, quietly emitting a fragrant fragrance in the grinder, injected into the cup showing the beautiful color of amber, these are the three very deep impressions of coffee.

As you explore the history and beauty of coffee, you can also see the coffee trees that are caressed by the tropical sun and whose leaves twinkle. It has a small white flower similar to jasmine, its fruit from green to yellow-green, and finally to red, coffee beans are the seeds in its fruit.

Moreover, if you go to the coffee bean refinery, you will surely see the red pulp called coffee cherry and the fresh and green coffee raw beans with the endocarp and silver skin removed. These are the coffee beans for export.

At present, there are about 60 coffee-producing countries, most of which are located in areas with an elevation of 300 to 400 meters, and sometimes coffee trees are cultivated on highlands with elevations of 2000 to 2500 meters, but those planted on slopes above 1500 meters above sea level are said to be of better quality.

The most suitable conditions for the cultivation of coffee trees are: the average annual rainfall is 1500-2000 mm, and the average temperature is about 20 degrees, which will not defrost.

Coffee is an evergreen plant of the Akanaceae family. If it is wild, it can even grow to more than eight meters. However, in the farm, the height is cut to about two meters to ensure the quality of coffee beans and facilitate management.

At present, the main tree species planted are Arabica species, Robusta species (Carneva species) and Liberika species. It can be subdivided into dozens of varieties, which will be distinguished in production, circulation and trading.

Even in the same producing country, it will have a subtle influence on the flavor and quality of coffee beans and produce their own characteristics because of the differences in climate, altitude and soil quality in different regions. Therefore, according to the variety, origin, brand, there will be different attributes; therefore, it is impossible to describe the characteristics of a country's coffee beans in one sentence!

a. Washing type / non-washing type

Washing type: in the sink, after rubbing with water and utensils, the pulp and colloid are removed and dried, which is called washing coffee bean with uniform quality.

Non-washing type: after the sun is naturally dried, the pulp and peel is removed by a sheller, and its quality is unstable.

b. Flat beans / round beans

The fruit of coffee consists of two oval seeds opposite each other. The connecting side of each other is a flat joint, which is called flat bean. But there is also a round seed called a round bean, which tastes no different. Ripe and red coffee cherries have multiple structures. In the middle is the predecessor of the coffee bean, the light green seed.

Generally speaking, the fruit of coffee is made up of two oval seeds opposite each other. The side that connects with each other is a flat joint, so it is called flat bean. But some are made up of a round seed, and its taste is no different.

Coffee beans, the dark brown beans seem ordinary, but they have a lot of knowledge at all stages. For a coffee cook and drinker like me, coffee beans are grown, produced and roasted. I think it is enough to have a general understanding of professional knowledge, and coffee merchants can be responsible for the production. After all, this is an era of paying attention to the division of labor. But it is the responsibility of our users to grind and make coffee, and we must have a clear understanding.

The ideal time to grind coffee is to grind it before cooking. Because ground coffee is easy to oxidize and lose its flavor, especially without proper storage, coffee powder is also easy to change flavor, so it is naturally impossible to cook mellow coffee. Some people are afraid of trouble or do not want to buy more bean grinders, so they usually buy ready-made coffee powder when they drink coffee at home. At this time, they should pay special attention to the problem of storage. Because the climate in Taiwan is humid, it is best not to place coffee powder at room temperature at will. A more appropriate way is to put it in a sealed jar and refrigerate it in the refrigerator, and do not put it in the same place with garlic, fish and shrimp and other heavy-flavored food. Because the coffee powder is easy to absorb, a careless coffee becomes a strange taste coffee, then even the best quality coffee will be spoiled. However, some people put the cooked coffee powder in the refrigerator as a deodorant, which is a good way to make the best use of things.

When grinding beans, the size of the powder depends on the way it is cooked. Generally speaking, the shorter the cooking time, the finer the ground powder; the longer the cooking time, the thicker the ground powder. In terms of actual cooking, the ESPRESSO machine takes a very short time to make coffee, so the grinding is the finest, and the coffee powder is as fine as flour; it takes more than a minute to cook coffee in the "plug air" way, and the coffee powder is medium-sized grinding; American filter coffee takes a long time to make, so the coffee powder is the thickest, one by one like Beijing grains on a shell beach. Grinding coffee powder with appropriate thickness is very important for making a good cup of coffee, because the extraction of water-soluble substances in coffee powder has its ideal time, if the powder is very fine and cooked for a long time, resulting in over-extraction, the coffee may be very bitter and lose its aroma. On the other hand, if the powder is coarse and cooked too fast, resulting in insufficient extraction, the coffee will be tasteless because it is too late to dissolve the water-soluble substance in the powder.

There are different brands and types of bean grinders for grinding coffee, and the ideal one is a grinder that can adjust the thickness of the beans. When grinding with a bean grinder, do not grind too much at one time, just enough powder for one time, because the longer the bean grinder is used at one time, the easier it is to get hot, which indirectly causes the coffee beans to be heated in the grinding process and causes the aroma to be released in advance, which will affect the aroma of the cooked coffee.

Coffee beans contain oil, so the bean grinder must be cleaned after grinding, otherwise the grease will be fouled and will smell stale after a long time, and even the most advanced beans will be ground into a strange-smelling powder. After each use of the bean grinder, be sure to wipe the blade table with the wet market and clean the plastic top cover with warm hot water. But for the American popular flavored coffee, the added flavor is strong and strong, and it will last for a long time. It is best to put two tablespoons of white Jing sugar in and beat it before cleaning. Of course, it is better for a grinder to grind only the same kind of beans, so there is no problem of mixing.

According to the size of coffee beans, the grinding methods can be divided into rough grinding, medium grinding and fine grinding. Use the appropriate grinding method according to the coffee utensils.

There is also medium fine grinding or very fine grinding (powdered coffee powder) which is finer than fine grinding. The time to grind coffee beans is to brew coffee and only grind the required portion to be of high quality. After the coffee bean is ground into powder, its surface area increases and absorbs moisture, which is easy to oxidize. In short, with the passage of time, coffee powder also plays a role of deterioration to damage the flavor.

And after the ground coffee beans are placed, the carbon dioxide retained inside the coffee beans will be lost together with the aroma. In this way, when the coffee powder is extracted and filtered, the coffee powder should be expanded without expansion, and the coffee can not be brewed anyway. The secret is to consider grinding and homework consistently, so brewing coffee is the most delicious and mellow.