Now, in order to make coffee at home, many small partners need to buy coffee beans themselves, but there is no uniform provision for coffee bean packaging text, so how to quickly understand the content on the package of coffee beans and find the beans they want? The following small series provides some references for everyone~
1.Product name
After excluding the brand logo and net content information, the largest font size is usually the product name. Most of the names of single-product coffees (i.e., single-origin coffee) are named after well-known varieties of origin (such as Yega Sheffield or Gemsha), and a few will also see a cute but unrelated name.
2. Place of origin
For a single coffee, the most important information is the place of origin, so the place of origin will generally be close to the name of the product (before or after). The place of origin is marked to the country of origin and the specific region, even the manor or treatment plant.
3. Altitude
That is, the growth height of coffee. Altitude directly affects the taste of the coffee, especially the acidity and hardness of the coffee. Above 1500 meters is "high altitude", 1000-1400 meters is "medium or low altitude". The higher the altitude, the brighter the taste of the coffee, the higher the acidity, and the richer the taste; the lower the altitude, the more balanced the taste of the coffee, the stronger the nutty flavor, and the more uniform the taste.
4. Bean seeds
Not necessarily labeled. Some beans are produced in the same place of origin, but they are also mixed with different bean species.
Common coffee bean species are mainly divided into three categories: Arabica species, Robusta species, and Liberian species. Arabica coffee is often used when promoting specialty coffee, but Arabica coffee can also be divided into multiple bean varieties, such as bourbon, which usually tastes sweet and balanced; Katula, usually with bright acidity and light taste; Ethiopian heirloom, delicate floral aroma, with citrus aromas.
5. Handling
Coffee is a seed that grows on the fruit of a coffee tree. After picking, the pulp and seeds are separated in a specific way. Each processing method will bring different taste characteristics to coffee, and there are three common ones:
Sunning: The coffee cherries are placed in a sun trellis for drying and fermentation, and then the pulp is separated from the seeds using a machine.
Dense treatment: Part of the peel is removed, leaving the pulp and peel for sun treatment, and then the pulp is separated from the seeds using a machine.
Wash: The coffee cherries are poured into the wash tank for fermentation. The pulp is then separated from the seeds using a machine.
6. Baking date
The roasting date is a very important element indicator, and each brewing method of coffee beans corresponds to a different optimal time period. For example, to use slow brewing, the best is about 5 days after roasting, if it is used to make espresso, at least after a week of roasting, the best time is about half a month.
7. Degree of baking
The roasting of coffee beans can be divided into eight stages from shallow to deep. The taste of coffee mainly depends on the degree of roasting, the deeper the degree of roasting, the stronger the bitterness; the shallower the degree of roasting, the stronger the acidity.
8. Flavor
Refers to the overall sensation of coffee in the mouth. Acidity, aroma and thickness are all components of flavor, and it is their balance and homogeneity that form a person's overall sense of flavor.
9. One-way exhaust valve
Vacuum-packed coffee beans are generally imported and need to be stored for a long time, in fact, the taste will lose a lot, and the roasted coffee beans will continue to release carbon dioxide, so vacuum packaging will soon become non-vacuum. Now more packaging is with a one-way exhaust valve, the outside air can not go in, but the gas inside can be discharged, so it can greatly reduce the oxidation of coffee beans and retain the flavor.
Having said all this, I hope to help everyone identify the right coffee for themselves ~ it is easier to drink a cup of high-quality coffee!