Yesterday, when a friend was buying coffee beans, he reported to Front Street that the coffee he brewed occasionally had a slight salty taste and asked if this was a normal phenomenon.
To be honest, although we usually only focus on sour, sweet and bitter when talking about the taste of coffee, in fact, there is also salty taste in coffee. Because coffee beans themselves contain a lot of minerals, such as chloride, nitrate, sodium, magnesium, potassium, etc. These substances will dissolve into the coffee liquid during brewing, giving the coffee a light salty taste. So we can know that salty taste in coffee is normal.
only! Under normal circumstances, as long as there is no problem with the quality of the coffee beans and the extraction of the coffee is normal, it is difficult for us to get salty taste from the coffee. The reason is also very simple. The salty taste in coffee is usually very weak and can easily be masked by other flavors, especially sweetness and bitterness.
Therefore, it is normal for coffee to have a salty taste, but if you drink a clear salty taste from your coffee, it means there is something wrong with the beans, water, or brewing method and parameters you are using! Because these are key factors that affect the saltiness threshold of coffee.
What affects the saltiness of coffee beans?
At the bean level, there are still a few pieces of equipment that can affect the saltiness of coffee: planting, processing, and roasting. The environment in which the coffee beans are grown, the maturity of the coffee cherries during harvesting, the degree and state of fermentation of the coffee beans during processing, whether the development of the coffee beans is sufficient/deep enough during roasting, etc. These series of factors will affect whether the salty taste in the coffee we finally get is strong or light.
But because many factors affect not only the saltiness, but also the content of other substances, there are good and bad aspects. And because most of us are the final consumers, that is, they buy cooked beans and brew them at home, Front Street will not introduce them. As long as everyone chooses high-quality coffee beans to buy, it is enough. Then some friends may ask: "How can I buy good quality coffee beans?"
As Front Street has always shared, as long as we find a reliable coffee bean supplier, we basically don’t have to worry about quality problems with the beans. Front Street Coffee is a very reliable coffee bean supplier. It has flagship stores on Taobao, Tmall and other online platforms where you can purchase coffee beans.
The method of choosing cold brew coffee beans is very simple. If you like refreshing and sour coffee, buy Front Street Oiran, Front Street cherry tomatoes, and Front Street fruit diced dices, which can highlight the tea taste and fruit acid; if you are looking for fermentation and tropical fruit flavor, the first choice is Front Street strawberry candy and Front Street blackberry. These beans are processed with honey, which not only has a high sweetness, but also highlights the characteristics of preserved fruits and fruit wine when used in cold brew.
When it comes to extraction, there are only two reasons for the obvious saltiness of coffee: one is insufficient extraction. Because there is not enough sourness, sweetness, and bitterness in the coffee to cover up the saltiness, we can only drink obvious saltiness from the coffee;
Another is that the concentration is too high. When the concentration of coffee is too high, the taste will be too concentrated and the taste buds will not be able to quickly identify each flavor in a short period of time. Then it will be easy to "integrate" the overly strong flavor into a salty taste and package it to the brain, making us feel that the coffee tastes obviously salty.
Such cases are particularly common in espresso and cold brew coffee, because they are coffees with a higher initial concentration; or high-concentration coffee extracted with darker roasted coffee beans is also prone to this situation.
How to tell whether the saltiness of coffee is caused by under-extraction or over-concentration?
In fact, it is very simple. When we taste salty taste in a cup of coffee, we can try to dilute it with water to see if the coffee still has an obvious salty taste after the concentration is reduced. If not, it means it's a concentration issue. But if it still persists, it may be an extraction problem;
If it is an extraction problem, then we need to make appropriate adjustments to our extraction parameters, such as finer grinding, increasing water temperature, extending extraction time, etc. to increase coffee extraction efficiency.
So, the above is all the content shared by Front Street this time. It is worth mentioning that the coffee bean event at Front Street Coffee is still going on until 12 o'clock tonight, so friends who haven't caught up need to pay attention! !
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
