I often hear people say, "To judge whether the espresso tastes good, you can tell by looking at the fat. The fat of the best espresso is fine, rich and golden." Can it be said that whether the espresso tastes good can be judged by the state of the fat?
If you want to know whether this method is feasible, Front Street only needs to ask you two questions.
Question 1: There is only one cup of delicious espresso in the picture below. Please find the cup of delicious coffee based on the state of the oil.
Second question, the picture below also shows only one cup of delicious espresso. Please find the cup of delicious coffee based on the state of the oil.
The correct answer is that the first question corresponds to the third cup, and the second question corresponds to the second cup. I believe that many friends can choose the first question correctly, while some friends may choose the correct question by guessing.
Looking at the oil state of espresso is like looking at the dust pit of Pour over(V60) coffee. You can't tell whether a cup of coffee tastes good or not. The delicate, rich and golden fat does not necessarily mean it tastes good. However, some possible problems can be judged from the state of the grease.
First, let’s talk about what this golden coffee creme is. The oil of espresso is essentially the insoluble oil in coffee beans wrapped with carbon dioxide, both of which are derived from coffee beans. In fact, the golden foam on the surface of the powder layer in Pour over(V60) coffee is also oil and a small amount of carbon dioxide.
Due to the 9 Bar extraction pressure of the espresso machine, the oil and carbon dioxide are directly pressed into the coffee, and because the oil is insoluble in water, it will slowly layer into golden coffee oil.
Therefore, the quality of coffee oil mainly depends on the carbon dioxide content in the beans, the grinding degree, and the degree of roasting of the coffee beans.
Therefore, sometimes the state of the oil will reflect some problems. For example, the most common coffee oil is rich in oil, but its texture is rough, decomposes quickly, and causes clumping. Espresso coffee in this oily state often has a less pronounced flavor.
This is because the coffee beans have not been grown well, they are too fresh, and the carbon dioxide in the body is too strong. As mentioned before, the richness of coffee’s oil is related to carbon dioxide. Coffee beans are very rich in carbon dioxide, so the oil extracted will naturally be very rich. However, too much carbon dioxide will also make the structure of coffee oil unstable, easy to decompose, and large bubbles will appear. When there are too many bubbles, they will pile up and have poor fluidity. Its state is very similar to milk foam.
Carbon dioxide is the protector of flavor, whether it is natural volatilization or artificial extraction. Therefore, coffee beans that are too fresh will affect the extraction of coffee, leaving the extracted coffee with no obvious flavor.
The other extreme is that the coffee beans are stale, and naturally the carbon dioxide content in their bodies will be low, so the pressed oil will be very thin. If the coffee beans are not fresh, the espresso extracted will naturally not taste good.
The second is the impact of grinding degree on the state of grease. For example, because the coffee powder is ground too coarsely and cannot effectively block the water pressure, the coffee liquid will flow out quickly, the color of the oil will be lighter, and the texture will be thin and watery. If this is the case, the espresso will taste sharp and watery.On the contrary, if the coffee is ground too finely and the coffee powder has a strong ability to block water pressure, the oil that comes out will be very rich, sticky, and dark in color. If this is the case, the espresso will taste burnt and bitter.
Now that we have talked about the factors that can determine the quality of coffee from the oil state, let’s talk about the examples that cannot determine whether the coffee tastes good or bad based on the oil state.
The first example is to extract a cup of espresso with a dark roasted coffee bean and a light roasted coffee bean respectively. The espresso oil quality of the dark roasted bean will inevitably be richer, darker in color and better in body than that of the light roasted bean. But the two cups of espresso have their own characteristics and both fall into the category of delicious.
The second example is the second question Front Street asked at the beginning. Those three cups of fat all look fine, rich, and golden. But only one cup performed well. Because these three cups of espresso from Front Street were extracted using pressures of 6 Bar, 9 Bar, and 11 Bar respectively, the coffee creme extracted with this range of pressure changes will not change much, but there is a clear difference in the taste. 6Bar will be more boring, and the various flavors are not expressed. 11 Bar has a pungent, burnt and bitter taste.
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
