Often friends will ask Huahua, how to choose coffee beans, how to distinguish between good and bad, how to see the new is not fresh? Or is there a good coffee bean to recommend...
After so many years of popularization, coffee has spread throughout the streets and alleys of various cities, and the dazzling coffee packaging is either written with obscure professional vocabulary from ordinary consumers or piled with various flowery rhetoric.
How to choose coffee beans quickly and correctly has become a problem for coffee beginners, and when the choice is difficult, simply do not buy! The following content will give you a detailed understanding of how to choose the right coffee beans for you.
In fact, there are many professional coffee bean selection guides on the Internet, I think these articles are very good, but too professional, are aimed at professional coffee lovers for many years. I think this time through a perspective that just likes to drink a cup of coffee every day, but is not satisfied with going to the coffee shop to buy ready-made, hoping to roll up their sleeves and try it at home, the so-called coffee "little whites" vernacular text, in fact, it is quite simple.
We often hear or read that freshly roasted and freshly ground coffee is the best, is this true? There's no doubt about that. The prototype of coffee is actually a fruit, growing like a cherry, and the fruit hides seeds that can be made into coffee, and after the seeds are roasted, they are the dark brown and aromatic coffee beans we usually see.
Many beginner coffee lovers say, why is coffee sour? Have you ever seen a fruit that is not sour? So why is it bitter? If the melon seeds are fried a little, will there be a burnt aroma?
When we choose a coffee bean, we first look at its roasting date, the week or so after the coffee roasting will reach the peak of flavor, and after a month, its flavor will begin to decline... Over time, the bitter taste of the coffee will become heavier, and the other flavors will slowly disappear. Nitrogen and sealed packaging in the market can only play a role in delaying the loss of flavor, and cannot guarantee that the flavor of coffee will not be lost.
The second is the specifications that should be paid attention to when buying coffee beans, generally it is best to buy more than 200 grams of packaged coffee beans, up to not more than 500 grams, more than one kilogram of packaged coffee beans are basically prepared for coffee shops, even if the high-quality, expensive coffee beans, after 3 months of baptism, will not be good.
The coffee produced by different coffee trees will have different flavors. It's like different vines can make red wine with different tastes. The first element of choosing a good coffee bean is the variety of coffee beans. At present, there are two major varieties of coffee in the world: Arabica and Robusta.
Arabica: The coffee has a better flavor.
Robusta: Resistant to pests and diseases and high yields, but with poor flavor and a strong bitter taste, it is mainly used in commercial blended beans and instant coffee. Here you just have to remember a little bit, see if the ingredient label on the back of the coffee package is not 100% Arabica coffee beans.
Look at the label on the back of the package and select 100% Arabica beans
Now many merchants, manufacturers in order to reflect their own professionalism, will be on the packaging hype of professional terms, such as Colombia, Kenya aa, Yega shephine, Ethiopia, Mocha ...
But as little white, we don't know what this is, even if you tell me that this is a place name, indicating the quality of coffee beans, but I still don't know, what is good about this! In fact, I just want to find a coffee that is a little stronger, less sour, not too bitter. The farthest distance in the world is that you don't know what I want!
So let's briefly talk about some people who can understand everyone: Don't mention the place name to me, tell me what these coffees taste like!
In the end, it is the origin of the coffee beans that determine the flavor of the coffee, just like red wine, why the red wine in Porto, France is good, because the grapes are good there, this is not difficult to understand. The coffee belt is mainly in the alpine and highland areas of more than 70 countries near the Tropic of Cancer.
But there are so many coffee producing areas, the average person will be dizzy, in fact, you remember the following simple places, you can not only choose your own handy, but also in front of your friends to force the instant surge:
Brazil: Full-bodied taste reminiscent of chocolate, dried fruit, hazelnuts or almonds. In principle, Brazilian coffee is less sour, with a long and sweet tail.
Colombia: Balanced in flavor, want to juice generally and has a thick texture, with peach and plum, red berries of tonality, such as black cherry, blackberry.
Guatemala: Soft with hints of cream, chocolate and fruit
Kenya: Strong fruit acid, often with the taste of passion fruit, citrus. , Kenyan coffee is lively and acidic, making it perfect to accompany chocolate cakes and pastries.
Ethiopia: The home of coffee, wild in flavor, full of floral and fruity tones.
Indonesia: Full-bodied, low acidity and high sweetness. Reminiscent of the smell of wet soil, leather, fairy grass
4 The effect of coffee roasting degree on flavor
The roasting degree of coffee also has a great influence on the flavor of coffee, which is simply shallow roasting, medium roasting and deep roasting. In general:
Shallow roasting: The coffee is highly acidic, the taste is smooth, the tree species and regional flavor of the coffee itself are high, and it tastes more like fruit tea.
Medium roasting: sweet and sour balance, while retaining the coffee fruit flavor while also with caramel, nut and cocoa flavor, is the most people like the taste.
Deep baking: Like a glass of mellow whiskey, it is rich in layers and is suitable for drinking alone or with milk.
The most famous deep roaster in the history of specialty coffee is Starbucks's grandfather (the three original founders of Starbucks studied coffee roasting here) the American peet's coffee, which has a history of fifty years, and the founder is a Dutchman named alfred peet. Peet's deep roasting has completely changed the American understanding of coffee, and the biggest feature of their deep roasted beans is that they have a deep taste, a special number of layers, although they are deeply roasted but not bitter.
Recently, there have been some misunderstandings that shallow roasting is the third wave of specialty coffee, and deep roasting is outdated and bad. The concept is completely wrong, there is no good or bad degree of baking, flavor is everything, and the flavor you like is the best for you.
The above is all a single coffee bean, that is, a single origin of coffee beans. The other is a blend of coffee beans, where coffee beans from different origins are mixed together. When we drink coffee, we generally pay attention to the balance of flavor and try to meet everyone's taste as much as possible, and blending coffee beans is the best choice at this time. For example, the Italian coffee we often drink, that is, lattes, mocha, cappuccinos, etc. in cafes, these coffees are all made of blended coffee beans.
summary
1. Best drinking period for coffee beans: It is best to roast coffee beans within 1 month and up to 3 months.
2. Degree of roasting: Shallow roasting tastes like tea, and the fruit acid is obvious. Medium baking is the most balanced. The deep-baked taste is thicker and the bitterness is more pronounced. None of this is absolute, e.g. good sweetness is what all good baking should have.
3. Origin: The origin of coffee beans corresponds to different flavors, see the flavors corresponding to the above representative origins. For example, if you like cocoa, nutty flavor, you can try Brazilian, and if you want more intense and exciting, you may wish to try Indonesian coffee.
Whether you're buying coffee in the supermarket, buying coffee at a coffee shop, or buying coffee online, don't be afraid, look at the label on the back of the package, and ask the online store shop xiao two. Every time you try a new coffee, like a roll of film that comes out every time you rinse it before, there may be times of regret, but more often it is the joy of the unknown that gives you a surprise.
It is happy to get up in the morning and make a cup of coffee for your loved one, there are many beautiful things in life that are worth pursuing, and making a good cup of coffee by yourself is one of them.