The relationship between the ratio of Italian espresso powder to water and flavor

We usually see baristas in making espresso, the action is very clean and simple, it seems to make a full-bodied coffee base in two minutes. However, in practice, an ideal espresso needs to control the proportion and balance of various parameters in order to pursue the best taste and flavor, and mastering these proportions takes a long time to explore and summarize.

How does the ratio of coffee powder affect the extraction?

Because the espresso extraction is the use of steam pressure to force hot water to squeeze coffee powder, so as to quickly obtain strong coffee liquid. The taste of a cup of coffee is closely related to the parameters when brewing. The adjustment of the ratio of powder to water can change the taste, stickiness, alcohol thickness and other aspects of coffee, so we need to use timing when making coffee.

In the past, most Italian cafes used deep-roasted coffee beans, mixed with some fat-rich Robota beans, coffee usually showed a strong caramel, black flavor. During the extraction, the barista will not accurately determine the various weights, but directly determine the amount of liquid by observing the color changes of the concentrated oil. Just out of the liquid, the coffee liquid is dark brown and relatively rich, with time slowly turning to golden yellow, and then to light yellow, the general extraction of oil whitening represents the need to end the extraction.

With the advent of the era of boutique coffee, in recent years, it has become popular to use higher quality lightly roasted coffee beans to show the flavor characteristics of the producing area. The standard of Italian concentrated extraction in the industry is more stringent, summing up the concentration range acceptable to most people, as well as more stable extraction data, and the ratio of powder to liquid also tends to a fixed reference value. The general extraction time is about 25 seconds-30 seconds, and the ratio of powder to liquid is between 1.50 and 2.5. It is more common to use 1:2, such as the 20g coffee powder used in Qianjie stores to extract 40g coffee liquid.

Through the experiment in Qianjie, it is concluded that for the same amount of coffee powder, with the increase of the amount of extraction solution, the concentration of espresso will decrease, and the extraction rate will increase. The more flavor substances dissolved in the back section of coffee, the lower the thickness of alcohol. Coffee is more likely to be over-extracted and release bitter taste. When the proportion of powder and liquid is too small, the thickness of caffeine is heavier, but the flavor is incomplete, which is obviously acidity due to lack of extraction.

Therefore, Qianjie suggests that when debugging, we should first use the proportion of 1:2, and then adjust it up and down according to the taste of espresso.

What other factors will affect the taste of concentration?

The ratio of powder to water in espresso is important, but the concentration of a cup is affected by many other factors, such as coffee beans, freshness, water quality, grindness, extraction temperature, extraction time and so on.

Qianjie uses Italian coffee beans used in stores as its own "sunflower sunflower blend". The ideal Italian concentration should be whisky, vanilla, cream and berry acidity, rich flavor and soft taste. When the baristas in front street adjust the concentrated products, they will generally change the amount of powder, liquid weight, time, and degree of grinding.

Usually, Qianjie will extract the parameters of the previous day and judge the state by observing the speed of the flow rate of espresso, which refers to the amount of coffee liquid extracted per unit time. When we extract the same 40 grams of coffee solution and the time is less than 25 seconds, it means that the flow rate is too fast and the extraction time can be prolonged by adding powder. The time is more than 30 seconds, indicating that the flow rate is too slow, may be too much powder, can be reduced to increase the flow rate.

The thickness of the grinding degree is generally reflected in the speed of the extraction flow rate, the flow rate is faster and the time is shorter, which means that if the grinding is too coarse, the coffee powder will be ground finer; if the flow rate is slower, the coffee liquid cannot be dripped out, and the extraction time will be longer, indicating that the grinding degree is too fine. Just grind the coffee powder thicker. The grinding degree needs to be adjusted to a suitable range, the particles are too thick and easy to lack of extraction, the coffee flavor is light and sour; if the grinding particles are too fine, the coffee is easy to over-extract and taste bitter. When the flow rate of concentration is within a reasonable range, Qianjie will taste the coffee directly to determine whether the coffee is OK, and when the coffee flavor is normal, the debugging work is completed.

As the fine degree of Italian grinding is much higher than that of manual grinding, the adjustment can not be too large, which can easily lead to excessive variables and more unstable extraction. Qianjie is the daily product of the store, so the adjustment of parameters will be based on the accumulation of daily experience. If we have a low amount of cups at home, it is difficult to grasp. Qianjie suggests that we can record it and summarize the relationship between extraction parameters and flavor performance. This is more conducive to our rapid adjustment, but also save unnecessary waste.

Recommendation of Italian coffee beans

When making espresso at home, many friends use lightly roasted coffee beans, hoping to extract the rich taste like hand brewing. Due to the fine grinding, high water temperature and high pressure extraction of espresso, espresso converges a variety of flavors, and various flavor compounds hit our tongues exponentially. So if we use lightly roasted coffee beans for extraction, the hand-made coffee shows elegant and sweet fruit flavor, which is likely to be a strong sour taste when it comes to Espresso; the mellow taste of hand-brewed coffee becomes very bitter in Italian coffee. As a kind of crop, coffee will change with climate and soil, even if it comes out of the same place, the flavor of each batch of coffee beans will be different, and the blending of coffee beans uses a way of learning from each other. to ensure that each coffee bean can show a balanced and stable aroma and taste.

Qianjie recommends the self-baked "sunflower warm sun mixed coffee beans" in Qianjie, which is made of Ethiopian sun red cherry coffee beans (30%) and Honduran sherry barrel coffee beans (70%). The entrance of Italian espresso is very rich dark chocolate flavor, with a strong aroma of caramel, the aroma after swallowing is memorable. Both American coffee diluted with water and latte with milk are rich in aroma and taste.

A freshly made espresso is covered with a thick, dense golden foam called crema. This is the result of bubbling of carbon dioxide produced by freshly roasted coffee beans under high pressure in the coffee machine. In order for everyone to drink the full aroma of coffee and enjoy the most complete taste stage, Qianjie only delivers freshly roasted coffee beans within 5 days.

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