Although people's joys and sorrows are not the same, people's preferences for taste are always similar. For example, most people prefer sweetness to sourness or bitterness. So you can see that many brewing methods in hand brewing are developed around how to sweeten coffee. For example, what Front Street wants to share today is the "high, fast, thin and large" method, which is one of the ideas that can sweeten coffee.
Like many friends, Front Street was puzzled when he first saw this strange name. After all, the name has “no preface and no follow-up words” and it is difficult to think of a specific idea. And when I clicked on the introduction, I discovered that the reason why this name is so unique is because it is too direct.
What does it mean? That is, every word in Gao Kuai Xi Da Zhong needs to be broken down and explained. Because high, fast, fine, and large actually correspond to the four extreme parameters used in brewing: extremely high water temperature, extremely fine grinding, extremely fast brewing (shorter extraction time), and extremely large water flow. By using these four extreme parameters for brewing, we can quickly get a cup of highly sweet coffee. Maybe at this time, some friends will ask: With these four parameters, how to make coffee sweet?
First of all, we need to know that the sweetness in coffee does not refer to pure sweetness, because there are not many sugar substances in coffee that can show sweetness. Therefore, the sweetness we feel from coffee comes more from the sweet aroma and the sweetness induced by sourness and bitterness (the specific reasons can be explained in detail in this article "Why Coffee Can Have "Sweetness" Without Adding Sugar").
If we want coffee to have a more prominent sweetness, in addition to choosing coffee beans with a richer aroma that is weak in bitterness, weak in sourness and sweetness (such as medium or medium-light roasted coffee beans), we can also adjust parameters to increase the proportion of sweetness in a cup of coffee to prevent excessive acidity and bitterness from masking the sweetness.
The idea of high, fast, fine and large can allow coffee to be extracted in a short time while reducing the presence of bitter substances.
Because the three flavors of sour, sweet and bitter in coffee have different dissolution rates due to different molecular sizes, acid has the fastest dissolution rate, followed by sweet, and finally bitter. Therefore, as long as the extraction is completed in a short time, the process of dissolving a large amount of bitterness can be avoided. At the same time, the extreme water temperature and grinding can ensure that the coffee is fully extracted in a short time, and there will be no under-extraction.
However, it should be noted that because the parameters are too extreme, this brewing idea is not suitable for dark roasted coffee with a lot of bitter substances. Because the bitter substances are dissolving throughout the process, not only in the later stages.
If we use this idea to brew dark roasted coffee, the coffee will be very prone to overextraction. In other words, this brewing idea is more suitable for brewing medium-light roasted and light-roasted coffee beans. Highly sweet coffee beans mainly appear in the medium-light roasted Arabica category. For home production, the cost-effective Front Street Oiran, Front Street Strawberry Candy, Front Street Blackberry, Front Street Cicada, Front Street Mozart... Most of them are processed with honey or sun-dried, so they can well highlight the rich fruity aroma and sweetness and sourness.
Okay, without further ado, Front Street will share with you what kind of brewing idea is this high, fast, thin and large!
Tall fast thin big!
Since it is an idea, we need to formulate the specific parameters according to the coffee beans we use. But it won’t be difficult since we just have to make slight adjustments to the original brew.
The coffee beans used in this brewing of Front Street are Front Street Oiran. The medium-light roast gives it a higher fault tolerance rate and is more suitable for this extreme brewing idea. At the same time, it also has a very high tropical fruit sweetness. Because of this, it can stand out among the Ethiopian beans of the past two years. The parameters are as follows:
Brewing water temperature: 94°C
Grinding degree: Ek43’s 9 scale (a little finer than conventional hand grinding)
Pink to water ratio: 1:16
Brewing method: one knife flow
Use filter cup: V60
Because nearly 85% of the water will be injected in the second stage in one breath, in order to ensure that the coffee powder can be fully extracted, we can use a small spoon or stirring rod to dig a small hole in the middle of the powder bed before steaming, so that the coffee powder can be moistened and exhausted more evenly during steaming.
Then for brewing, we still use twice the amount of water to wet the coffee powder and steam it for 30 seconds.
After the steaming is completed, we use large water flow and additional circles to inject all the remaining target water volume. You can make the circle any way you like, big or small, or you can go back and forth around the "mosquito coil" and fill it with water.
Next, we only need to wait for all the coffee liquid to drip into the lower pot, and then we can remove the filter cup and end the extraction.
The total time is 1 minute and 25 seconds. The time is somewhat close to the previous one-pitch brewing, but the extraction will be more complete. Because calculated through the concentration meter, the extraction rate of this cup of allo is 19.35%, and the concentration is 1.31%.
Mango, pineapple, and citrus are the outstanding flavors that Front Street experienced from this cup of Alori through tasting. The taste is indeed as described in the introduction, with outstanding sweetness. Then the taste is light, with the aftertaste of oolong tea~
It is worth mentioning that if we reverse this idea, it will transform into another completely opposite brewing idea. Low water temperature, slow brewing, coarse grinding, small water flow. This is also an idea that can sweeten coffee, but the difference is that it can also enhance the taste of coffee. At the same time, its "tolerance" will be higher, and dark roasted coffee beans are also suitable for use. But I won’t introduce too much about Front Street here. Let’s study it slowly based on the above explanation~
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
