The origin of the taste of coffee

If you love coffee, if you have already drunk several different kinds of coffee, I think you may have some general understanding of the taste of coffee, some coffee may be low, people feel steady and thick, some coffee light, people feel elegant and refreshing, and some coffee mild, people feel elegant and supple. These may all be the attractions of coffee, but why can a coffee bean present such a taste? Let's trace the "origin" of coffee beans ~

For most of the friends who like to drink coffee, it is estimated that there are more contacts and more understanding of the latter three steps in the process, that is, roasting the beans, grinding them into powder, and then brewing coffee with the corresponding method. In these steps, since we get the roasted coffee, we can control the taste of the point lies in the production itself, by adjusting the water temperature, grinding fineness, brewing methods and other production variables to get a cup of coffee.

The coffee is roasted by the roaster before you get it, and the pace of roasting, the depth of roasting, and the equipment used in roasting also determine the taste of the coffee, but this is beyond the control of the maker. (If you're interested in the roasting process, check out this blog's "What's in the Coffee Roaster?-- Coffee beans roasting process (with video demonstration)"article)

If a roaster is a chef, then the ingredients used by this "chef" are coffee beans. High-quality raw materials are naturally the basis for high-quality finished products. If the appearance, taste and freshness of raw materials are not good, it is hard to imagine that the food produced is an attractive feast.

The production process of this raw material is also the process from coffee berries to coffee beans. The green bean we see is actually the seed of the coffee tree, the bean in the coffee berry, so the process from the berry to the bean is the process of removing the peel, pulp and its appendages and removing the seed.

Generally speaking, if the pulp layer is effectively and properly removed, the coffee seeds will be clean. The beans will taste clear when roasted, but if they cannot be removed quickly, there may be some coffee berry flavor on the beans. If the treatment is good, this will bring a trace of fruit flavor to the roasted coffee. However, if they cannot be treated in time, even the pulp will be over-fermented or even moldy, then the beans will have a very bad miscellaneous flavor. Not even a cup of coffee anymore.

Traditional treatment methods, due to geographical differences, have two kinds of washing (wet-process) and sun (dry-process). The washing method generally makes the coffee taste fresh and sour, but it requires a lot of water resources and many steps, so it is more expensive. Many African and South American countries use this treatment method. The sun method, which is easier to handle, leaves beans with a dull taste and sometimes leaves some earthy or miscellaneous taste, and is used in some South American and Asian countries, such as Brazil and Indonesia. (In the following articles, we will discuss the process of washing and solarization in depth.)

Since washing and sun exposure have their own advantages and disadvantages in the processing process, people later combined the two traditional methods and invented a semi-sun or semi-washed treatment method. In Costa Rica it is called honey process or Miel process, in Indonesia it is called Giling Basah.

Finally, the source of a cup of coffee-coffee fruit, it grows in the environment determines the flavor of coffee. The soil, altitude, climate and microclimate in which coffee trees grow determine the flavor of coffee. Just like the rice around us, the rice in the northeast, the soil is fertile, due to climatic conditions, can only be harvested once a year, but the rice is more delicious and fragrant. The rice in the south, although twice a year, or even more, but the taste of rice is flat, and the texture is not so tight. The same is true for coffee beans. Coffee trees growing at high altitudes mature slowly due to temperature differences, but they can absorb more nutrients to form flavor, while coffee growing on the plains, although more mature in a year, can be planted in large areas, but the taste is greatly reduced.

In the whole process of coffee formation, the first two steps, the growth and processing of coffee berries determine the flavor of coffee, the tone of this coffee is low and complex, or melodious, basically in this link has been doomed. The roasting of coffee determines the taste of coffee, whether the coffee is bitter, sour, or long, which is basically interpreted by the roaster on the basis of the quality of the beans, and finally the barista will adjust the variables in the production through the understanding of the coffee beans themselves (including green beans and roasting), properly presenting the coffee, and controlling the concentration.

Therefore, from the whole process above, we can see that the taste of a cup of coffee can never be determined by a certain link alone. Only when all the links are properly handled can a cup of delicious, smooth and fragrant coffee be presented in front of coffee drinkers. On the other hand, if there is any serious impropriety in any link, it will completely ruin a cup of coffee ~~.

Finally, a cup of sweet and memorable coffee will be cooked for you by coffee growers, roasters and baristas. Although they may never meet, they work together to bring you a cup of heavenly ganqiong ~~