If we want to add some extra aroma or taste to the coffee, we will add some other ingredients to the coffee to let the coffee obtain their aroma/flavor. This is a very common practice. For example, if we want coffee to have a certain floral aroma, then we can soak some dried flowers in coffee; if we want to add some sweetness to coffee, then we will add sugar or syrup to coffee...But this approach is often cumbersome and time-consuming(relatively speaking), the soaking time and the stirring action will add a lot of work to the coffee making. Therefore, many smart friends will think: If we add ingredients to the coffee extraction process, can the aroma and taste of these ingredients be directly brought out by hot water together with the coffee substances? This not only saves time and trouble, but also makes the flavor blend more complete and natural.For most coffee making, this approach can indeed effectively reduce the production process. However, it is not recommended to do this only in the Italian coffee front street! Why? Because the coffee produced in this way is very difficult to drink.Why is it not recommended to add something to the espresso powder for extraction?Such high pressure will allow the substances in the coffee powder to be extracted in a short time, but it will also make the extraction more difficult to control. If the extraction time is two seconds longer or two seconds shorter, if the amount of coffee powder is more or less, the quality of the extracted material will be very different.In addition, such efficient extraction can easily cause water to "take" sideways, preventing coffee from being extracted evenly. As we all know, water is inert and will preferentially flow where it flows easily. Especially for espresso extraction environments, this phenomenon will be amplified. Because of this, we need to flatten the coffee powder.The reason why espresso requires pressure-assisted extraction is because you want to quickly extract the substances in the coffee to make a cup of coffee in a short time. According to Fick's law,The rate of substance release is positively related to the contact area. Therefore, we need to expand the contact area of coffee by finer grinding of coffee beans, thereby increasing the rate of material release.The finer grinding will reduce the gaps between the powders, and after filling, a watertight powder cake will be formed. Therefore, pressure assistance is needed to allow hot water to pass through the coffee powder layer to quickly bring out the coffee substances.But if a piece of "airtight" powder cake suddenly has several easy-to-flow channels, then during extraction, hot water will flow concentratedly into these channels. Ultimately, the coffee powder within the channel range is over-extracted, while the coffee powder outside the channel range is under-extracted. This is the so-called "channel effect." This is a very common phenomenon for espresso coffee that uses pressure-assisted extraction.So why does Front Street have to take such a big detour to introduce the channel effect? Doesn't it seem to have much to do with the theme?(Please rule out hydrology first)But in fact, the relationship between the two is closely linked! The reason why the powder cake will have channels is simply that the distribution of coffee powder is not even enough. Some places have more coffee powder, and some places have less coffee powder. Or, some places have high density and some places have low density. There are many reasons for these situations, such as uneven powder distribution, uneven filling, or the addition of foreign objects that damage the structure of the powder cake. Then the content mentioned at the beginning of Front Street belongs to the third point!Whether you add crushed flowers, sugar, salt and other condiments to the coffee powder, no matter how uniform the powder is and how smooth the filling is, the structure of the powder cake will be destroyed due to the presence and dissolution of these materials during the extraction process, and channels will be formed.Front Street did a related experiment last year, adding 5g of sugar to the powder cake and extracting it. As a result, not only did the concentration frequently sputter during the extraction process, but the taste of the coffee was also indescribable due to uneven extraction. These are all consequences of the channel. The most important thing isThe sugar and coffee didn't blend well together in the end, and the taste was very abrupt.Not only that, if you put in some greasy or other difficult-to-clean ingredients, such as butter, congratulations, you may have a lot to do after the preparation is completed.Last year it became very popular to put a piece of butter at the bottom of the powder bowl to make "butter coffee brushed waterfall". After a friend tried it, he not only failed to drink the delicious butter coffee, but also spent a long time cleaning the coffee machine. It can be said that the gain outweighs the loss.To sum up, everyone can understand why it is best not to add other ingredients to the extraction of espresso. This is because this will not allow the ingredients to blend perfectly with the coffee, but will also interrupt the even extraction of the coffee and make the coffee taste unpleasant. It will also easily add a lot of extra work.Therefore, if you want to add other flavors to the espresso, it is best to mix it after the coffee extraction is completed, so that there will not be too many unstable factors~
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
