What Gives Full Body Coffee Its Weight in the Mouth?

Body in coffee is the volume and richness felt on the tongue, a tactile quality rather than an aroma or taste. It comes mainly from oils and fibrous matter that do not dissolve in water. Coffee with more of those compounds feels heavier and fuller; thinner coffee feels light and can turn rough or astringent.

Body differs from mouthfeel and smoothness, which describe the drinker's subjective perception, while body is an objective property of the liquid. In what is hand brew coffee, lowering water temperature, reducing agitation, and extending steeping time help retain more oils, so a pour-over can still deliver a smooth, full texture.

Have you ever heard the word "Body" from a barista or a coffee friend? It refers to the volume and richness that coffee presents in the mouth, belonging to the tactile level of experience. Many people confuse Body with concentration, but what truly determines the rich mouthfeel is the oils and fibrous matter in coffee that do not dissolve in water. This article will start from the definition of Body, clarify the difference between it and mouthfeel and smoothness, and share a brewing method recommended by Front Street Coffee—by lowering the water temperature, reducing agitation, and extending the steeping time, pour-over coffee can also present a smooth and full texture.

Body? Perhaps the first time you heard about "coffee Body" was when chatting with a barista, flipping through a coffee book, or accidentally learning it from a coffee friend. Translated into Chinese, it roughly means the volume of coffee, also called richness. If you happen to have a cup of coffee at hand, you might gently take a sip and use the touch of your tongue to feel the thickness of the coffee. Or shake the cup and observe how the coffee liquid clings to the wall of the cup—that is Body.

Many times, Body is used interchangeably with terms like mouthfeel and smoothness, and in fact they refer to the same thing. But if we must split hairs, the main subject of Body is the coffee liquid itself, representing the thickness of the coffee, an objective existence—whether we taste it or not, it is there. The main subject of mouthfeel and smoothness, on the other hand, is human sensory perception. It is you who think this cup of coffee is smooth, which leans subjective. You can say it has a smooth mouthfeel, or you can say it has a strong astringency, all based on personal feeling. (A bit off track.) Back to the point: Body reflects not smell or taste, but the smooth, full, and rich feeling brought by the volume of the coffee, and of course it may also bring unpleasant experiences, such as roughness, astringency, and thinness.

The main contributors that let us feel a good Body are oils and fibrous matter. In other words, the richer the oils and fibrous matter in coffee, the better the Body of the whole cup. This is also why Italians love espresso and Japanese people prefer flannel brewing—essentially to retain more oils and thereby enhance the Body of the coffee.

How to brew smooth and rich coffee In the realm of pour-over coffee, although Body is not as heavy as that of espresso, the sensory difference between good Body and poor Body is obvious. We can adjust brewing parameters to bring out the ideal coffee Body. First, Front Street Coffee wants to clarify a misconception: many people think coffee Body is equivalent to coffee concentration, and the stronger it is, the better the mouthfeel. This is actually a mistaken understanding. Coffee Body is not directly related to the amount of substances dissolved in the liquid; that smooth and heavy mouthfeel comes from the coffee oils and fibrous matter that do not dissolve in water.

Therefore, simply raising the water temperature to extract more substances, or narrowing the coffee-to-water ratio to increase concentration, cannot present coffee Body well. Front Street Coffee recommends a brewing method for everyone's reference: "lower the water temperature, stabilize the ratio, agitate less, steep more, and extend the time." Some coffees brewed with conventional parameters are smooth and medium in thickness when hot, but once the temperature drops, a rough feeling emerges. This situation may be due to too much agitation from the water stream, causing the coffee bed to tumble and release more polyphenolic substances. Coffee kept in a steeping state, however, will have a smoother mouthfeel.

Coffee brewed at high temperature usually has rich, clear, and intense flavors, but the mouthfeel is relatively thin. If the water temperature is lowered (by 2-3 degrees), won't the extraction yield decrease and become even thinner? So in order to maintain the extraction yield, Front Street Coffee will choose a dripper with a slower flow rate (such as Kono or cake filter), try to maintain a steeping state, and pour with a small, gentle stream. In this way, the brewing time will be 30-40 seconds longer than conventional brewing.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.