Coffee brewing method: Italian espresso Espresso coffee production standard

First of all: what is the "golden rule" for making espresso? The "gold content" of the gold rule?

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

Since it is called the golden rule, whether it is its importance, or its function and correctness, it should be as justifiable as gold. But is this "golden rule" really that valuable? In other words, does this "golden rule" really have that high gold content?

First of all, let's examine its correctness.

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

Secondly, let's see what it means.

After the conditions such as grinding thickness, water temperature, water pressure and so on are determined, the amount of coffee powder directly affects the extraction results. Under this condition, whether the extraction is appropriate or not has nothing to do with the flow rate. If there are no conditions to change the working state of the machine, you don't have to care about the flow rate at all; just find the best extraction state.

Of course, the best extraction result in this state is not necessarily the best state that this coffee bean can achieve. If it is necessary to improve the taste and quality of coffee, further efforts should be made to adjust the working condition of the machine. In this process, the "Golden Rule" can serve as a reference for your adjustment to a certain extent. This is the gold content of the "Golden Rule", that is, the function and significance of its existence.

Production Standard of Italian espresso Coffee

Who knows why? Italian coffee has been made for more than 100 years, and up to now there is no unified standard accepted by people in the coffee industry all over the world. Most parts of Italy, especially in the north, basically follow the standard of 40-45 milliliters. However, all the coffee shops in the south, especially in Florence, adhere to the standard of 25-30 milliliters; as people say, espresso: ristretto

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

The Americans are in charge. They say it's a standard of 25-30 milliliters. Why? This seems to have been learned from Florence, or a place that really represents Italian tradition. Of course, this is the birthplace of the European Renaissance and the birthplace of the whole European culture. But is that a basis?

Why do most areas not follow this standard, but adhere to the standard of 40-45 milliliters? What is said in public is reasonable, and what is said by a woman is reasonable. What is rational?

In order to know which standard is correct, or appropriate, we have to ask a "why"? According to what criteria to determine the size of this capacity, what is the principle? It seems that up to now, we have not heard such an answer. What is the standard and where is it?

First, a feeling that seems to have never been known before, "taste"

Anyone who is familiar with red wine knows that it is very important to distinguish between the "thin" and "thick" taste of a red wine. A good red wine tastes very thick and full, while a red wine that is not good enough will show a taste that is not thick enough. Compared with most drinks, there is basically no difference in the taste of "thin and thick". So most people are not familiar with this feeling.

However, Italian coffee is different, one of its important taste features is "very thick taste".

Due to the different quenching ingredients, in general, if the Italian coffee is not up to standard, or too deep, or too shallow, it will not have a very thick taste. The basic feature is that the taste is very thin. In addition, the taste of Italian coffee beans made by most new coffee companies is not good enough to have a thick enough taste.

In contrast, Italian coffee beans made by a better Italian coffee company should have a thicker taste. This is usually one of the main advantages of Italian coffee companies in introducing their coffee beans.

Second, how to maintain the "thick" taste?

If it is a good Italian coffee bean, it should have a thick enough taste. First of all, this requires good production, otherwise even if you use thick coffee beans, the coffee will not have a thick enough taste.

Secondly, the "thick taste", as one of the necessary features of Italian coffee, can not be given up. So when we define standard Italian coffee, we can't lose such important taste features.

According to our experimental results, in a well-made cup of Italian coffee, if the cup volume is not less than 60 ml, or even not less than 50 ml, its "thick taste" will not be lost. Therefore, it is a reasonable standard for us to set the output of standard Italian coffee at 40-45 ml.

Third, how to be compatible with other production standards?

What we can't ignore is the production standard of Florence, 25-30ml. At the same time, this is the standard that most people in the United States adhere to. According to Italian tradition and general view, this standard is a more full-bodied standard for the production of coffee. Its Italian name is ristretto. The Chinese name we gave it is "espresso".

The general concept of this coffee is more full-bodied coffee, which is more concentrated than standard Italian coffee. Therefore, making according to such standards is a product that conforms to its general concept. The taste of this coffee is more full-bodied, the taste is as thick as standard Italian coffee, and there is little difference in taste.

On the contrary, if the output of standard Italian coffee is 25-30 milliliters, then the output of this extra-strong Italian coffee can only be 15-20 milliliters. And I'm afraid this kind of production method doesn't exist in Italy, and it won't be what many people like.

Even according to the preferences of Americans or Florentines, they can satisfy their taste characteristics with this extra-strong Italian coffee according to their requirements. So we are not necessarily setting a standard for everyone, but more of a collection of Italian traditions to come up with a unified name for each different production method. This is a unified communication language needed by people in the international coffee industry, including coffee consumers around the world.

Fourth, the method of making espresso

According to the general concept, espresso is similar to standard Italian coffee, using the same amount of coffee powder in a cup of coffee, but as a more concentrated cup of coffee, it must be less, usually 2/3 of the original cup.

As more active Americans, many people are not satisfied with this way of production. They believe that it is not enough to reduce the amount of extra-strong Italian coffee in order to make it more flavorful. So they increased the grinding fineness of the coffee powder according to the flow rate of standard Italian coffee, so that it took the same time to produce a smaller amount of water as it took to make a cup of standard Italian coffee.

To this end, even if a coffee shop chooses only one kind of blended coffee beans and uses one coffee machine to make coffee, it is necessary to prepare two coffee mills to meet the needs of standard Italian coffee and extra-strong Italian coffee. Because in a business environment, it is not appropriate to adjust the size of coffee grinding at any time.

Similarly, Americans even believe that the grinding thickness of coffee powder should be different when making a cup of standard Italian coffee and a double cup of Italian coffee. So another coffee mill may be needed to make double Italian coffee. It seems that this question is getting more and more out of line. The simplest is probably the most correct. Therefore, according to the previous understanding, we have developed our coffee production standards. This is not only in line with the general concept of these different coffee drinks, but also will not bring any inconvenience to the equipment configuration and operation of the coffee shop.

Why is it getting thicker and thicker?

Sichuan people like to eat chili peppers, Hunan people like to eat chili peppers, more and more places people also like to eat chili peppers. It is inevitable to say that some people are more able to eat chili peppers than people from Sichuan and Hunan. But what if most people are like this? Then there might be a problem. In Italy, most people only drink standard Italian coffee.

Only a few people drink double Italian coffee. However, in the United States, more people can't just drink standard Italian coffee, but more often drink double Italian coffee, or even two double Italian coffee together, or two double extra strong Italian coffee. It can be seen that its taste is even worse.

Why?

It's hard to imagine that American Italian coffee is a little too soft. As we all know, what Americans admire most is the blending of 100% Arabica coffee; even without blending, only Arabica coffee beans from a single origin are grown. So it is conceivable that such "soft" coffee beans are one of the main reasons why many Americans love more full-bodied coffee.

It is also well known that the rich taste of Italian coffee is not baked, but through the blending of different coffee beans. Even some blended coffee also use part of the "Robasta Coffee", due to the technology and the difficulty of mastering the taste of coffee, it is difficult to really get that rich taste. As a result, we have to reduce the output of the cup to increase the rich flavor of the coffee.

Source: Brista blog