Teach you to understand coffee beans from the label

Professionals all know that coffee beans from different years and different producing areas may have different flavors. Professional roasters taste the coffee beans of each producing area every year and adjust the roasting and blending methods so that consumers can get stable flavors and products with small differences. Sometimes, when you walk into a specialty coffee shop, you are confused by the variety of coffee names. Why do coffee beans have such long names? Why is coffee divided into single, dark roast and Italian? Where do all these names come from? Xiaobian takes you to understand the meaning behind these seemingly complicated coffee bean names.

1. Origin label: "single" and "comprehensive" coffee

Coffee beans sold in the market can be roughly divided into two categories: Single Origins (S.O) and Coffee Blends.

"Single-origin coffee" refers to a single type of coffee beans from a single country or region. A soloist for coffee.

If a packet of coffee is labeled with the name of a coffee-producing country (coffee beans are not produced in continental Europe, and if the label says the name of a European country such as Italy, Vienna, etc., it is not single-origin coffee). Basically, it means it's a single-serve coffee. Such as Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Sumatra Blue Batak, Guatemala Antigua, etc., produced in a specific country, region, estate specific coffee, called "single coffee." Because each country or region has its own climate, soil and natural environment, the coffee grown is unique. Taste "Single Coffee" to understand the characteristics and flavors of coffee in a certain country or region.

"Mixed coffee" means coffee beans blended from several single-ingredient coffee houses, comparable to coffee concertos.

Such as Huang Ding coffee products: blue hole comprehensive coffee, Dak comprehensive coffee, Cabribri comprehensive coffee and so on. Blending coffee can be simple (like the traditional mamba: mantinen plus brazil) or it can be a complex art. Through proper blending, you can make each characteristic coffee a more harmonious, more exciting movement, usually Italian coffee (espresso, latte, cappuccino) coffee beans used is a comprehensive coffee.

2. The indication of baking degree: deep baking, south Italy, north Italy, Vienna, French baking

In addition to location-related labels, the most common is the label on baking degree. Green coffee beans need to go through a roasting process in order to release a unique charming aroma, coffee roasting and its flavor is closely related.

If you see "Italy,""Vienna,""South Italy" on a coffee label, don't mistake the package of coffee beans for any of these names-it probably doesn't have anything to do with them, because traditionally,"Italy" and "Vienna" are synonymous with a degree of roasting (or blending method) and don't mean coffee from Italy or Vienna (as mentioned above, coffee beans are not grown and produced in Europe). "Northern" usually means medium-light, light brown, with no oil on the surface;"Southern" usually means deep baking with a shiny, dark brown surface;"Italian" generally refers to a deeper baking. French Roast refers to a very dark roast with near-black surface color, slightly charred flavor, and no acidity. "Vienna" and "Milange" usually refer to a blend of coffee beans of different roasting degrees.

The deeper the roast, the higher the temperature of the roast. In general, light to moderate "Northern" baking flavors are brighter and lighter, may have fruity acidity, and have little or no bitterness. The deep-baked "South Italy" has a low, rich and smooth flavor with a caramel-like sweet finish. "French roast" has a monotonous flavor, possibly with a slight charred flavor, and is completely devoid of acidity.

3, coffee beans classification, small producing areas, farms, and other indications of the current classification system of coffee beans around the world is not uniform, each coffee producing country has its own classification system and classification name, so you may see the following words on the coffee label "SHB","AA+","Supremo","Extra-Fancy","round beans/small beans" and so on, these are the classification names of coffee beans. Roast beans sold in the market are sometimes labeled with single-serve coffee grades, which are usually not labeled.

Central American coffee is classified according to the elevation at which it is grown, with beans above 4500 feet labeled SHB(Strictly Hard Bean). "AA+" is the highest grade of Kenyan coffee, only batches with excellent flavor and few defects are allowed to be labeled "AA+,""AA" is the largest particle,"AB" is smaller,"PB" is round beans; Colombia in South America uses the appearance size of coffee beans and defect rate as grading standards, and "Supremo" indicates the largest particle. It is worth noting that the appearance size of coffee beans is not related to flavor, and higher production altitude usually means better flavor.

Immediately after the country name is the designation of the small producing area. Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, for example, is the name of the coffee producer, indicating that it is a "single coffee"; Yirgacheffe is a small, narrow high-altitude production area in Ethiopia's Sidamo region. Different small regions mean different flavor characteristics. For example, southern Ethiopia, near Somalia, produces the famous Ethiopia Harrar. Haramocha has a wine-like aroma, blueberry or grape flavor, thick taste, yeja sherry taste fresh and bright, citrus or lemon peel aroma, thin taste.

However, some coffee beans have a string of names immediately after the name of the small growing area, which may be the name of a coffee plantation, cooperative, or green bean processing plant.

A long list of names, such as Guatemala-Antigua SHB- Finca Los Volcanes 08 Crop, tells us the following:

Country of production: Guatemala (Guatemala)-Guatemala is a well-known coffee-producing country in Central America.

Production area: Antigua Volcano (Antigua) -This is the famous volcanic coffee production area in Guatemala.

Grade: Very Hard Bean (SHB)-Indicates that the coffee was grown at altitudes above 4500 feet.

Finca Los Volcanes-Finca is Spanish for "Estate," meaning farm.

Harvest year: 2008-The year is for roasters 'reference, so it is not usually indicated on the label of baked beans sold in the market.

Coffee beans sold in the market generally do not have such complicated labels in order to reduce consumers 'shopping trouble and identification burden.