Dark roast coffee hand brewing tutorial | Why are Japanese dark roast coffee beans bitter? How to bring out the sweetness of dark roasted pwn golden mandheling?_Brewing Guides_FrontStreet Coffee

If you were born before the turn of the millennium, your first impression of black coffee is probably the same bitter taste. The only non-bitter coffee is Nestlé 2-in-1.

This uniformly bitter coffee is actually caused by the dark roasted coffee beans that were popular in the last century. It is completely different from the light-roasted coffee beans with floral and fruity aromas that are currently respected. Why do people still like such bitter coffee?

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If you are lucky enough to meet an uncle who likes to drink this kind of bitter coffee, try to get the answer from him.

"Is this coffee bitter?"

"Bitter!"

"Why do you like this bitter coffee?"

"I don't know, maybe I'm used to drinking."

"I remember the first time, I was attracted by the aroma. It felt very bitter when I drank it, but the bitterness was very comfortable and indescribable... I got used to it over time."

What the uncle said actually explains why a group of people like to drink strong and bitter black coffee. It is a memory of the times. At that time, the taste of coffee was originally defined as "coffee flavor", which was bitter, smooth, and fragrant. People who like this taste will naturally become fans of coffee. Those who don't like coffee will naturally not have anything to do with coffee.

Another reason is that coffee is regarded as a refreshing functional drink. We need it and rely on it many times. In order to have a refreshing effect, it is not a bad idea to pay a little burden on the taste.

In addition to historical reasons, the next thing Front Street wants to talk about is what appeals to dark roast coffee.

-coffee aroma-

The alluring aroma of coffee originally refers to the aroma exuded by this cup of strong, bitter, dark roasted black coffee. These aromas are complex aromas of nuts, caramel, roasted chestnuts, cream, and spices. It is difficult to resist the temptation of this fragrance. Many friends slowly fall in love with coffee starting from the aroma.

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-Mellow taste-

Dark roasted coffee has a taste experience that light roasted coffee cannot match. Nowadays, many friends still love Blue Mountain and Mandheling coffee. A big reason is that it can provide a richness and volume that other coffees do not have. Let your mouth and tongue feel the extremely smooth and full coffee.

-sweet-

Yes, even dark roasted coffee has that unique sweetness, which is bitter yet sweet. Taking dark roasted Mandheling coffee as an example, many people can easily perceive the nutty bitterness and cocoa bitterness in the coffee. If you taste it carefully, you can feel the sweetness of caramel and maltose. This is what the uncle calls "comfortable bitterness".

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After swallowing the coffee, the bitter taste dissipates and the bitterness is replaced by sweetness. "Back to sweetness" is another important reason why people like to drink bitter coffee, and it is also a characteristic of light roasted coffee that is difficult to replicate.

Sweetening ideas for dark roasted coffee beans

Friends who don't like sour taste usually give priority to the darker roasted types when buying coffee beans, because they generally show roasted aromas such as nuts, dark chocolate, almonds, melon seeds, etc., with very little sourness, and prominent sweetness such as cocoa, caramel, maple syrup and other charms.

However, because medium-dark roasted beans are heated for longer and to a higher degree, the texture is very loose, and there is more caramelization reaction than light-roasted coffee, so the bitterness in the tail section is easier to release under the same parameters. Once the parameters are not grasped well, the bitter flavor of roasting will easily gain the upper hand, causing the sweetness to be masked. The coffee in your mouth may be extremely bitter, and the astringent feeling that remains in your throat will not dissipate for a long time. Therefore, sweetening dark roasted coffee is not only one of the main practices for many newcomers to improve their brewing skills, but it is also the key for veterans to grasp the balance of coffee.

In order to avoid extracting too many foreign flavors without losing the sweetness, Front Street will use a slow-flow kono filter cup + coarse sugar grinding + low water temperature (88°C). At the same time, it will use gentle circles in small circles, and use a powder-to-water ratio of 1:15 to rinse the coffee powder layer, and the time will be controlled at about 2 minutes. Below, Front Street uses the store’s dark roasted golden Mandheling coffee beans as the extraction object to demonstrate the specific operation.

Bring out the sweetness of dark roasted golden mandheling

Golden Mandheling coffee has a complex aroma. To get the best flavor, Front Street recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing. Coffee beans will have their best tasting period 4 to 7 days after roasting. After this period (about one and a half months), the aroma will gradually fade and produce a woody flavor. Front Street believes that the freshness of coffee beans is particularly important, so the coffee beans shipped are freshly roasted within 5 days, plus the logistics delivery and transportation time, and you can start tasting them as soon as you receive them.

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Front Street’s brewing ideas for each coffee bean are based on the characteristics of the coffee during cupping. For example, the flavors of golden Mandheling coffee include herbs, dark chocolate, caramel, nuts, pine, etc. For this type of mellow-toned beans, FrontStreet Coffee baristas use kono filter cups. The ribs of kono are less than half the height of the filter cup. This design is actually to ensure that the filter cup sticks to the wall of the filter cup after it is wet with water, limiting the air flow. This will increase the time for the coffee powder particles to absorb water, so that the extracted coffee will be more uniform overall and improve the mellow taste. The grooved frame under the Kono filter cup is a key design to create a siphon effect for subsequent brewing.

Because darkly roasted coffee beans are relatively loose and highly absorbent, it is easy to absorb too much water and become over-extracted, making the brewed Mandheling coffee bitter and astringent. Therefore, Front Street will adjust the grinding degree to be coarser and use water with a lower temperature for brewing.

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Recommended brewing parameters: Water temperature: 87~88°C Coffee powder: 15 grams Powder to water ratio 1:15 Grinding degree: medium grinding (Chinese standard No. 20 sieve pass rate 70%)

The brewing method uses a three-stage water injection method. The three-stage water injection can better express the mellow taste of golden Mandheling coffee and the sweetness of caramel. In the first stage of steaming, 30ml of water is injected. This stage of water injection fully wets the coffee powder and exhausts it. In order to better extract the flavor of the coffee later, 100ml is injected in the second stage. This stage mainly flushes out the golden foam of Mandheling and raises the powder layer. In the last section, gently pour 95ml of water into the center. When all the coffee liquid has passed through, remove the filter cup and gently shake the coffee in the pot.

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The Pour over(V60) PWN Golden Mandheling coffee tastes very rich, exuding the aroma of spices and herbs. The overall taste is solid and mellow, with the sweetness of caramel and the flavor of chocolate and nuts.

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

Dark roast coffee hand brewing tutorial | Why are Japanese dark roast coffee beans bitter? How to bring out the sweetness of dark roasted pwn golden mandheling?

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