Many times, when we come to a strange coffee shop, we will not directly choose a certain type of coffee or beans. Instead, we will tell the barista our preferences and hope to help recommend it. Many people will say that they want to drink something "sweeter", but unexpectedly the barista brings a cup of strong black "bitter coffee" and emphasizes that it is very sweet.
Wait... how sweet is this? Didn't you drink it at all? Did the barista make a mistake?
What baristas call "sweet"
Normally, when a barista takes a sip of black coffee and says, wow, that coffee is so sweet! The word "sweet" here contains two meanings, one is the high sweetness of coffee, and the other is its good sweetness.
In the same way as the sweetness value of fruits, the sweetness of coffee fruits is mainly affected by factors such as variety, planting management, altitude, and maturity at the time of picking. For example, the sweetness of whole red fruits is higher than that of raw fruits. The post-processing method and roasting degree (time) determine the amount of sweet substances retained in the coffee beans and the degree of sugar conversion. For example, honey-processed and sun-dried coffee is more likely to have a sweet flavor.
The sweetness of a bag of roasted coffee beans can be said to be an objective fixed value, while sweetness is a flavor description that includes taste and smell when everyone tastes it. At this time, the level of sweetness is related to the extraction method, technique, and the sensory sensitivity of the taster. For example, when I drink the sun-dried red label Geisha from Front Street, I feel the obvious fruity sweetness like cantaloupe, when I drink Yirgacheffe water, it has a honey-like sweetness that is almost floral, and when I drink Bird of Paradise, it is as sweet as sugar cane.
The bitterness is low, so the sweetness is high
Many friends have just started to get into contact with specialty coffee. The reason why they cannot get the sweetness described by baristas is largely because the description of "sweet" is too different from the "bitter coffee" they drink every day. If you also think that coffee is bitter, you might as well find a coffee bean with low bitterness and high sweetness to get you started.
The sweetness of coffee does not exist independently. Our perception of sweetness mainly depends on the coordination of bitterness and sourness. For example, medium-light roasted beans themselves have less bitter substances. After proper extraction of fruit acids, the coffee will show a sweet and sour taste with high acidity and low bitterness, which is reminiscent of some fruit-like tastes. It is recommended to buy Front Street Xija, Front Street Blackberry, Front Street Strawberry Candy and Gesha Blend. You can feel the low bitterness, medium acidity, and high sweetness from them.
The sweetness that comes after all the hardships
Bitterness is the most sensitive of the tastes. Many people understand it as an unacceptable feeling and is the easiest taste to be perceived. Sweetness, which most people flock to, refers to the pleasant feeling caused by sugar, which is more difficult to perceive than other tastes. Simply put, the degree of our perception of the four tastes is bitter>sour>salty>sweet.
When bitterness and sweetness coexist in a pot of coffee, the first thing we feel is often the bitterness. After swallowing, a sweet feeling will remain on the back of the tongue. The pleasant sweetness of this bitter coffee is what people often describe as "sweetness", which is the so-called sweetness after bitterness. It is most common in medium-dark roasted coffee. Front Street Blue Mountain No. 1 and Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling exhibit caramel, dark chocolate aftertaste, and long-lasting aftertaste.
The aroma creates an “illusion of sweetness” on the tongue
In addition to taste, we can also feel the sweetness of coffee through smell. The sense of smell is divided into two stages, one is the prenasal sense of smell and the other is the retronasal sense of smell. Prenasal sense of smell refers to the smell felt by directly inhaling. When we feel the dry and wet aroma of coffee, we smell it directly.
After the coffee enters the mouth, the taste buds first judge the strength of the sour, sweet, bitter and salty, and then the aroma substances slip into the nasal cavity during the swallowing process. At this time, our brain combines the taste with the aroma in the nasal cavity, thus presenting the flavor of a specific food in memory. This is the retronasal sense of smell.
When the specific aroma brought by the retronasal sense of smell reminds us of very sweet food, then we will subconsciously feel that this cup of coffee is very sweet. When Front Street tasted Dorothy, she thought of the taste of biting into the flesh of ripe apricots, and subconsciously thought that the coffee had the sweetness of peaches.
If it's not sweet enough, then you can only add sugar.
From Front Street’s point of view, everyone’s eating habits are different, and the degree of recognition of sour, sweet, bitter and salty will naturally be different. Even if they drink the same pot of coffee, some people may think it is very bitter, while others think it is very sweet. If you don’t want the barista to serve what you think is “bitter coffee”, you might as well add one more sentence when ordering, whether the coffee you want is sweet and sour with fruit, sweet with dark roast, sweet with flavor, or sweet with extra sugar...
If we really want to improve our judgment on the sweetness of coffee and discuss "the same sweetness" with the barista, we need to continue to taste various styles of beans, so that our brains can accumulate more memories of various sweet flavors, and discuss with friends who often drink coffee to compare how sweet the coffee will be.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
