When tasting coffee, we pay attention to the flavor, mouthfeel, and aftertaste, but when it comes to layering, few people understand what it means? This article from Front Street will take you to understand the layering in coffee! !
The rich layering of coffee means that when you take a sip of coffee, you can clearly feel a variety of flavors, which is what we usually call the complexity of flavors.You may think this word is a bit abstract. Maybe if Front Street shows you a set of pictures, you might be able to understand what layering is. Through the visual comparison (picture below), we feel that the picture on the right is more three-dimensional and has more layers. The green forest in front can clearly distinguish the layers, and the same is true for the sky. The left picture is a little less multi-layered. It is difficult to separate the layers in the green forest in front and merge them into one, while the sky is also gray and forms a background board.
From a visual point of view, rich layering means that more layers can be clearly distinguished in one picture. When it comes to tasting the layers of coffee, more flavors are clearly distinguished through taste buds and olfactory cells. The emphasis is on clarity and variety of flavor.
For example, when drinking a Gesha coffee, you take a sip of the coffee and it reverberates in your mouth. First, you feel the acidity of citrus, then a hint of jasmine, and you can distinguish the sweetness of honey and the light fragrance of green tea. These flavors all coexist clearly, which is a rich layering.
So what does coffee that lacks layering look like? The first type is a single and mediocre coffee. The flavor of this coffee can be clearly identified, but there is not too much flavor expressed, and the expression is very single. This type of coffee is generally not about its flavor, but other flavors. For example, Blue Mountain Coffee’s layering is not its advantage. Balance, cleanness, and mellowness are its favorite characteristics.
The second type has a lot of flavor, but the flavor is very vague and difficult to distinguish, resulting in a turbid feeling. Coffee in this situation is considered bad coffee and is usually the result of a brewing problem.
Therefore, Front Street shares a few methods that can help you create a layered coffee.
-Selection of coffee beansThe higher the altitude, the richer the layering of coffee beans. Because the higher the altitude, the higher the density of coffee beans and the richer the flavor substances.
The more substances involved in fermentation, the richer the levels of expression will be. Sun-dried coffee beans will have more advantages in layering than washed coffee beans. Note that the advantages mentioned here do not necessarily mean that sun-dried beans have a stronger layered feeling than washed beans. This layered expression comes from the richness of flavor, and the amplitude of flavor depends on the substances involved in fermentation and the time. Therefore, in terms of layering, coffee beans with a high degree of fermentation have a natural advantage.
-Keep an appropriate amount of fine powderGenerally, coffee powder with a particle size less than 0.3mm is called fine powder. Fine powder is like a double-edged sword. Excessive fine powder will make the coffee bitter. An appropriate amount of fine powder can add a lot of flavor and improve the layering of coffee.This is actually caused by uneven extraction. Imagine that the different particle values lead to different flavor release efficiencies. Smaller particles will release substances faster, while larger particles will release substances slower. This results in the different flavors of each particle being released, resulting in a variety of flavors.Many people will ask, "Isn't the coffee powder required to be as consistent as possible when brewing coffee? Why do we say that the thickness is inconsistent?" This sounds a bit like "discussing toxicity regardless of dosage." Even if you use the most expensive grinder to grind coffee, the coffee powder will not be absolutely uniform. There will naturally be coarse powder and fine powder, but the difference and proportion will be relatively smaller. The "appropriate amount" in the "appropriate amount of fine powder" is retained, and the data indicates that it accounts for about 5% of the total amount.
-Segmented water injectionInjecting water in sections can also effectively improve the layering of coffee. We can draw this conclusion from the comparative experiments of the "One-Knife Style" and "Three-Knife Style" punching methods.
The segmented water injection of the three-knife flow distributes the "stirring" action of the water column in three different time periods. In subsequent time periods, the powder layer can also tumble and release more substances. In this way, the overall coffee level expression will be richer.
-Increase the ratio of powder to waterFront Street mentioned this before when sharing knowledge about concentration, but when the coffee is too strong, the flavor will be blurred and difficult to distinguish, resulting in a turbidity. The solution is also very simple, which is to increase the ratio of powder to water. For example, when you use a powder to water ratio of 1:15, the coffee flavor will be blurred; next time you can try using a ratio of 1:16 or 1:17.
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
