How to make a good cup of coffee beans at home

Seeing the solicitation of coffee in the topic of experience, I can't help but recall my experiences of drinking coffee in the past few years: from the black history of drinking McDonald's coffee in the middle of the night when I was in primary school, to report to the cafe every day for a period of European life, and then to start messing with all kinds of coffee at home, and finally I can no longer drink too strong coffee because of my health. The memories of coffee are entangled as if they had experienced a relationship: first acquaintance-- like glue-- is a stranger.

I am not a professional barista, just an ordinary person who likes coffee. I only have some superficial understanding of coffee, so I would like to ask you Haihan, the great god, for advice on what I have said wrong.

Now let's get to the point: how to make a good cup of coffee at home.

I don't know how many people like me feel that drinking freshly ground coffee at home is an extremely high-end thing: it takes all kinds of dazzling utensils and complicated processes to get such a small cup of coffee. It is true that coffee is more complicated than tea, but in fact, when operating at home, you will find that it is not as complicated as you think. In addition to the high equipment requirements of Espresso and the relatively cumbersome process, other kinds of coffee are still easy to operate at home. Philharmonic pressure and hand brewing can still make a good cup of coffee.

What I said above is just to tell you that you don't have to worry about buying all kinds of coffee equipment in the first place. in my opinion, what is essential at the beginning is high-quality beans, a better grinder and a love of coffee. Later, the utensils used to make coffee can be purchased according to their own needs. I will mention the equipment requirements of different production methods in the later experience.

The production process of coffee beans

As the first article in the series, we should of course mention the coffee beans that are the most important part of a cup of coffee.

Coffee beans are not born like this. Let's briefly talk about the production process of coffee beans.

First of all, there must be a coffee tree.

Then the coffee tree bears coffee fruit.

The picked coffee fruit is treated by sun or water washing, and the peel and pulp are peeled off to get raw coffee beans.

When raw beans are baked, they become beautiful cooked beans.

Grind into coffee powder

What you can buy on the market is the last three forms of coffee: raw beans, cooked beans and coffee powder. It is recommended to buy coffee beans, and the fresher the better! Because raw beans don't have much coffee flavor, they need to be roasted to stimulate their flavor, but after baking, all kinds of flavors will disappear with the volatilization of moisture and carbon dioxide. so it is recommended that you buy freshly baked coffee beans in local cafes or online, and do not buy too many at a time, about two weeks. In addition, because the coffee beans are ground into powder and the contact surface with the air is increased, the flavor will soon be lost, and the fine powder needed for espresso can lose half of its flavor in two minutes. Therefore, it is recommended to buy cooked beans and drink them now. As for raw beans, although the preservation time is much longer than cooked beans, but their own baking at home also need to prepare a special roaster, the price is also very high technical requirements, so it is also not recommended.

The type of coffee

Let's talk about the type of coffee again:

There are four kinds of coffee trees in the world, but the coffee we drink now is mainly the fruit of two kinds of coffee trees, one is Arabica, the other is Robasta.

Coffee trees in Arabica are not easy to grow, many are on high-altitude slopes, and picking needs to be done manually. But it is better to have a balanced taste and less caffeine. And Robasta is relatively easy to grow, a variety of heat-resistant, cold-resistant, moisture-resistant, drought-resistant, disease-resistant. Once upon a time, coffee in Vietnam was planted by Robasta because of leaf rust and all the coffee trees planted in Arabica died. In addition, Rothbata is also relatively easy to harvest, in addition to manual vibration machines can also be competent. This variety has all kinds of benefits, but what is fatal is that the coffee beans produced are poor in aroma, lack of bitterness, lack of acidity, and high caffeine content, so they are mostly used to make instant coffee. Now most of the beans on the market are grown in Arabica.

Global coffee distribution

In addition to two general categories of coffee beans, different soils and climates also have a great impact on the quality of coffee beans. When you buy coffee beans, you may see that dazzling adjectives are used to describe different coffee flavors, such as tropical fruit flavor, caramel flavor, nut flavor, cocoa flavor and so on. But when you do get the beans, you will find that you can't taste so many flavors in the description at all, and you will inevitably laugh at yourself at "dull taste buds" or even lose interest in coffee. In fact, I think it is very normal not to taste the flavor described. These descriptions of coffee flavor actually come from the coffee flavor wheel produced by SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America, American Special Coffee Association).

Coffee flavor wheel

It describes and defines the taste spectrum of coffee according to its taste (sour, bitter, sweet, salty) and wet aroma (flower, fruit, nut, chocolate, spice, etc.). In fact, as a standardized process, it serves for professional cup testing systems. For the general public who drink coffee is just a simple hobby, there is really no need to take it seriously, not to mention that the taste itself is very subjective, and it is king if you think it tastes good.

Various varieties of coffee beans

The following begins to introduce the characteristics of various varieties of coffee beans, because there are so many varieties that it is difficult to introduce them one by one, so only some of the more famous ones are selected to talk about. In fact, it is not a realistic thing to understand all kinds of coffee in the world, it is best to combine various producing areas, beans (iron pickup, bourbon, etc.), treatment methods (washing, sun, etc.) to come up with an overall concept, and then to distinguish the differences of all kinds of coffee.

The editor asked me to add specific product introductions and links, which is really a bit difficult, because the beans now baked are bought by cafes and then baked by themselves, and some of them will be sold on the Internet. If you give a specific link, you will inevitably have the suspicion of advertising, so I will only give you a search link for the baked beans. In general, a more professional bakery will write down in the description which manor it comes from, the way the coffee beans are handled, the grade, the depth of baking, and the flavor, even if it is not written, you can ask the shopkeeper.

Manning:

Produced in southern Sumatra, Indonesia, it has relatively high alcohol thickness, obvious bitterness, low acidity and deep baking degree. According to the quality of defective beans, the quality was divided into 7 grades from Grade1 (G1) to Grade6 (G6), and G1 was the best. In particular, I would like to mention Gold Manning, different from the usual understanding, Huang Man is not a grading standard, but PWN selected full-grained, larger-sized beans, named Golden Manning, and registered trademark. So strictly speaking, only beans produced by PWN can be called golden manning, and other beans of the same or better quality can not be called golden manning.

Yega Xuefei:

In the Sidamo region of Ethiopia, Yega Chuefei is usually described as "strong floral aroma, subtle sour fruit, soft bergamot and lemon flavor". There is indeed a hint of flower and fruit in the smell, but it is sour in the mouth. it may not be acceptable to those who are not used to it. However, if you like the sour taste, Yega Xuefei is a cost-effective choice, and the layering of this kind of coffee is still very good. In addition, the acidity can be reduced by increasing the water temperature and prolonging the steaming time.

Yejia Xuefei's grading system is a little confused. According to the treatment method, the SCAA is first divided into water washing: G1, G2, sun: G1, G3, G3, G4, G5 (without G2), the smaller the number, the higher the grade. But it seems that since a few years ago, Ethiopian officials have developed another set of grades, with all exported coffee beans anonymously concentrated on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). High-quality beans were divided into An and B groups, and each group was subdivided into 1 and 2 grades. Group An is Yega Xuefei, which means that high-quality Yega Chuefei beans are grade A1. This anonymous approach makes it difficult for us to trace specific farms. At present, some domestic sellers are still using the old G1, G2 classification standards, and some are using the new A1, A2 system.

Blue Mountain:

I'm afraid the most famous coffee in China is Blue Mountain Coffee, which has always appeared in front of everyone as "the most expensive and best". Blue Mountain Coffee is produced in the Blue Mountains near Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. because of its small production and monopolized by Japan, the quantity of Blue Mountain coffee to other countries is very small, which keeps the price high. In the early years, because of channel problems, there were few authentic blue mountain coffee in China, only "blue mountain flavor coffee". But now you can also buy authentic Blue Mountain in China, and there are three more common brands: M.B.C.F, Konastair and Valenford.

To say that the most important feature of Blue Mountain coffee is the balance of various flavors, but those who like it like it, while those who do not like it regard it as boring and think that the greatest feature of Blue Mountain is that it has no characteristics. My friend in Jamaica once brought me a bag of Blue Mountain, which tasted good after trying, but on the whole it was not commensurate with its price.

Finally, the classification of Blue Mountain is mentioned, which is divided into Blue Mountain No.1, No.2, No.3 and Blue Mountain mixture from high to low. And the special blue mountain round bean (PB). Here to explain round beans, there are usually two seeds in a coffee fruit, that is, our common coffee beans are flat on one side, and round beans mean that there is only one seed in the coffee fruit and the whole is oval. Round beans account for a small proportion of the fruit of coffee trees. As for the quality of round beans, there are different opinions, some people think that round beans are mutated, so they are not as good as normal beans; others think that one round bean absorbs the nutrition of two normal beans, so it is better. Generally speaking, round beans are not singled out, but blue mountain coffee and Kenyan coffee will pick out round beans, which seems to be more popular in the Japanese market.

In addition to Blue Mountain Coffee, coffee grades in other Jamaican producing areas are also classified from high to low: Alpine Coffee, Jamaican quality and Jamaica selection.

KONA, Hawaii:

There is a saying that Blue Mountain is the king of coffee and KONA is after coffee. But relative to Blue Mountain, KONA is obviously not well-known in China, and there is no unified translation of the name, and there have been fraud scandals in the past, and it is not easy to buy in China. With a paragraph introduction: "due to the island topography and volcanic soil, Hawaiian coffee has a very special taste, not too strong, not too sour and mellow, with pleasant wine aromas and acidity." KONA coffee is divided into four grades, which are the most advanced Extra Fancy, Fancy, Prime and Gr. No.1 et al. However, due to low production and high production costs, with the increasing demand for boutique coffee in recent years, the price of Kona on the market is catching up with the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, and it is becoming more and more difficult to buy good Kona beans. " I will give it a try if I have a chance to go to Hawaii.

Rose summer:

Rose summer is a new variety that has become popular in recent years, and it has been planted in many parts of the world. It is of higher quality in Latin American countries such as Panama, Guatemala and Colombia, and now it is well-known and priced to catch up with Blue Mountain and KONA. The flavor is mainly fruity and an aroma similar to oolong tea, so some people say that there is a feeling of drinking herbal tea when drinking rose summer.

Brazilian coffee:

When it comes to coffee, we have to mention Brazil, because Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, with the largest total output in the world. It produces coffee taste mild, slightly sour, slightly bitter, no big defects, no special advantages, more moderate, so there is not much boutique coffee, mainly used as mixed beans.

Columbia Coffee:

Brazil, which comes first in output, also wants to talk about Colombian coffee, which ranks second in output. Although its output is lower than that of Brazil, the overall quality of coffee beans is higher. The greatest feeling of Colombian coffee should be smooth, this kind of coffee is medium mellow, low acidity, sweet taste, with some nutty flavor, suitable for medium or deep roasting, drink alone, mix well.

Kenya AA:

Kenya AA is also a kind of coffee often mentioned in China, but in fact, AA is a grade of Kenyan coffee, with AA++ and AA+ above it, AB below, and PB round beans. However, at present, Kenyan coffee is collectively referred to as Kenya AA in China. The palate also has obvious fruit aromas and acidity, but its sour taste is not easy to describe compared with the bright acidity of Yega Chuefei, or can it be said to be more rugged?

Antigua, Guatemala:

Antigua coffee is produced in Antigua, because it is grown on the hillside of the hinterland of the volcano, the beans will contain nitrogen, and there will be charcoal burning or smoky taste after baking, but the expression of this flavor has a lot to do with the depth of baking. like medium baking, it's hard to show.

Costa Rican coffee:

Costa Rica was very popular in the World Cup a few days ago. I would like to say that it is also a very famous coffee producing area, of which Tarasu is the most famous. Because of the strict control of the local government, the quality of raw beans is good and there are few defective beans. In taste, because it is also planted at high altitude, it also has a strong sour taste, and coffee trees grow slowly because of the lower temperature in the mountain area, with a more complex but not monotonous taste.

Commercial beans:

Take out the commercial beans separately, because if it is really difficult to buy freshly baked beans, you can also choose commercial beans, although there is a lot of controversy over commercial beans, some people say that they have completely lost the flavor of coffee. But modern packaging still has a great effect in maintaining the original flavor, and the biggest advantage of commercial beans is that they are easy to get. If you have to buy commercial beans, recommend illy and lavazza, after all, is a big company, the quality of beans is relatively stable.

Illy

The Italian brand, which uses modern inert gas cans, plays an important role in preserving the flavor of coffee. An excerpt from a brief introduction "illy Coffee Company uses 100% selected Arabica Arabica coffee beans to produce a unique mellow flavor, which is sold in individual packages to hotels, restaurants, homes and offices. Illy coffee is the number one brand used in restaurants, restaurants and bars in Italy, with a 7.5 per cent market share, while home use accounts for 30.3 per cent of the market. Every day, 3 million cups of illy coffee (illycaffe) are sold in Italy alone, while a staggering 6 million cups are sold worldwide. Every coffee bean has been tested by an electron spectrometer and there is no tolerance for any defects. This effort makes illy the first coffee company in the world to receive ISO9001 certification. " Illy beans are Italian mixed beans, mainly divided into medium-baked red canned beans.