Description of the characteristics and Flavor of High-altitude Coffee beans

Description of the characteristics and Flavor of High-altitude Coffee beans

Coffee beans grown at high elevations are hard, dense and have the potential to give full play to their special flavor. The really amazing coffee growing areas are between 4000 and 6000 feet above sea level, and these beans are picked carefully only during the mature season. Coffee in Central America is rated according to the altitude at which it grows. For example, SHB (Strictly Hard Bean) is the term for Guatemalan coffee beans, indicating that coffee grows above 4500 feet. Mexico is called Altura, which means "high" in Spanish, indicating that it is high-altitude coffee; Papua New Guinea adds the name "Mile High" to mark coffee beans grown in the highlands and mountains.

1. The importance of altitude

Altitude, that is, the altitude at which coffee grows, will directly affect the size, appearance and taste of coffee beans. Of course, you can't just walk into the coffee shop and tell the barista how much altitude you want to drink, but understanding altitude can help you understand coffee better.

In another article about how growers choose coffee varieties, I once said that altitude and climate affect coffee growers' choice of coffee beans. To put it simply, Arabica coffee likes to grow in the plateau with cool climate between 1800 and 6300 meters above sea level, while Robusta coffee likes to grow in lowland areas with warm climate between 600 and 2400 meters above sea level. From this we can see that altitude will greatly affect the quality and taste of coffee.

two。 How to judge the altitude at which coffee grows?

Altitude will directly affect the appearance of coffee beans. When you take a closer look at raw coffee beans, you will find that the size and density of each kind of coffee are different. Are the coffee beans in your hand small and dense? Is the gap in the middle of the bean tightly closed or open? Is the gap straight or curved? Is the color of coffee beans close to jade, light green or blue? The shape characteristics of the bean body can directly reflect the growth altitude of coffee beans.

The best quality coffee beans are usually strong and grow at an altitude of more than 4500 meters. The growth of these coffee beans is very slow, so the density of the beans is very high, and the gap in the middle of the beans should be curved. In contrast, coffee beans grown at low elevations usually have a lower density and slightly open gaps in the middle. As for the color of the bean, the growing environment of the coffee bean and the processing technology of the raw bean will affect the color of the coffee bean. If the same kind of coffee beans produced on the same plantation are treated differently, for example, one batch is washed with water and the other batch is treated with honey, then the colors of the two batches of beans will be very different. Generally speaking, the density of bean body is the most powerful basis to judge the altitude of coffee bean growth.