Front Street noticed that many friends buy a pack of coffee beans and then make Pour over(V60) or cold brewed coffee at home. These two are indeed the most convenient and quickest brewing methods, and the equipment required does not need to be expensive. So a friend asked: Why are the flavors of cold brew coffee and Pour over(V60) coffee made with the same coffee beans different?
—The difference between hand brewing and cold brewing
First of all, the biggest difference between hand brewing and cold brewing is that hand brewing coffee is extracted at high temperature, while cold brewing coffee is extracted at low temperature.
Hand-brewed coffee, including hot Pour over(V60) and iced Pour over(V60) coffee, uses high-temperature hot water to contact coffee powder at room temperature to extract the soluble substances in the coffee. The extraction rate is fast at high temperature, and the flavor and taste change quickly, so you need to drink it as soon as possible.
Ice hand brewing will reduce a certain ratio of powder to water based on hot hand brewing, use less hot water to brew a cup of coffee with a higher concentration, and then cool it down with the help of ice cubes to form an icy taste.
Compared with hot hand brewing, ice hand brewing pursues a refreshing taste and sweet and sour taste, so it is best to give priority to light roasted to medium roasted flavored coffee beans. If you like bright and refreshing coffee, buy Front Street Guo Dingding, Front Street Butterfly, Front Street Rwanda Red Bourbon;
If you are looking for the type with obvious sweetness, Front Street Strawberry Candy, Front Street Xi Claw and Front Street Big Belly Button are your first choices.
Cold brew coffee, also called cold brew coffee, is an iced coffee obtained by soaking coffee powder in room temperature water or ice water, placing it in a refrigerator at a low temperature for 8 to 24 hours to extract slowly, and filtering the coffee grounds. Cold-brewed coffee reacted at low temperatures can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days, and the flavor develops a fermented taste as the storage days increase.
When making cold brew coffee, Front Street will give priority to beans with floral and fruity flavors. They are usually light to medium roasted and have floral aroma and fruity sweetness. It is recommended to buy Front Street Oiran Coffee and Front Street Red Cherry Coffee. If you prefer the obvious juice flavor, it is recommended to choose beans with rich fruit tones such as Front Street Little Tomato Coffee and Front Street Mozart Coffee. All of the above can be ordered at Front Street Tmall flagship store or Front Street Taobao store.
—Coffee tastes different depending on the brewing method
Front Street selected a lightly roasted washed Yirgacheffe diced coffee bean and compared the flavors in three different brewing methods: hot hand brewing, cold brewing and ice hand brewing.
The hot hand brew has a complete front, middle and back section. You can taste the sweet aroma of jasmine and honey, the bright acidity of lemon and citrus, and the lingering aroma of green tea in your mouth after drinking. As the temperature drops, you can feel the flavor change and the layers are rich.
Cold-brew fruit coffee is fermented after being stored in the refrigerator for one night. It has a thin layer of oil on the surface. It smells weak and has a sour aroma of berries and citrus in the mouth. It tastes sweet and has the taste of iced fruit tea, but the flavor level is relatively average.
Ice brew, which is also an ice drink, is ground finer and extracts a higher concentration of coffee liquid under high temperature hot water, so more substances are dissolved in the coffee than cold brew. Although the flavor is not as full and rich as hot hand brewing, the flavor and tone are not much worse. In addition, the cooling of the ice cubes makes the coffee in the cup more sour, sweet and refreshing.
—Flavor substances dissolve at different temperatures
Coffee contains quinic acid, amino acids, tannins, caffeine, oils and other substances. During the extraction process, a series of chemical reactions will occur between water and coffee. The temperature of the water directly affects the extraction rate of different components in the coffee.
During the coffee brewing stage, the small acid molecules come out first, followed by the sweet molecules, and finally the large bitter molecules. As the temperature rises, substances are extracted faster, and various changing factors may affect the taste of coffee. Therefore, the extraction rate needs to be carefully controlled when brewing by hand.
In a low-temperature environment, the bitter substances extracted are much less than those extracted at high temperatures. In order to improve the extraction rate, the time that the coffee powder is in contact with the water will be extended.
However, even if we increase the extraction rate of coffee to a certain extent, the rich flavor molecules brought about by the movement of water molecules at high temperatures often cannot be released at low temperatures. The mellowness and body of a cup of coffee largely come from bitter substances. Coffee lacking bitter substances tastes thin and not full enough.
Before each coffee bean is released, Front Street will first test it through cupping, use 94-degree hot water to stimulate various aroma substances in the coffee, and then describe the various flavors on the label. All flavor descriptions are based on high-temperature extraction, and only part of the flavor substances are extracted at low temperatures. This is why the flavor of cold-brew coffee is not as saturated as the aroma concentration of Pour over(V60) coffee.
—What coffee beans to choose?
Front Street has also mentioned in previous articles that medium-light roasted fruity coffee is more suitable for making cold brew than dark roasted coffee. Because if the grinding degree of dark roasted coffee is not adjusted appropriately, it will easily have a bitter taste under the influence of ice.
If you want to store a bag of coffee beans at home and use both hand brewing and cold brewing methods to enjoy a richer and more diverse taste, Front Street recommends choosing specially processed coffee beans with high flavor recognition, such as Honduran sherry, Costa Rican musician series, Colombian flower moon night, Ethiopian Dorothy...
In this way, you can not only drink the rich and full aroma of Pour over(V60) coffee, but also taste the cool and mellow taste of iced coffee.
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
