How Does the Black Coffee Definition Explain Huigan, or Returning Sweetness
Huigan, or returning sweetness, is the sweet sensation that rises in the mouth after swallowing black coffee. It is not direct sweetness from sugar but a flavor released as bitterness fades, driven by aromatic compounds. In cupping, this lingering impression is called the finish or aftertaste, and it is regarded as a sign of higher quality.
The pattern is often described as bitter first, sweet after, and it shows up in drinks like herbal tea as well. Coffee with a good finish leaves returning sweetness after swallowing, while a poor finish stays burnt, bitter, astringent, or muddy, most visibly in espresso. The black coffee definition here matters because direct sweetness and returning sweetness are not the same thing, unlike the sweetness felt when choosing how to eat coffee beans.
When drinking black coffee, many people experience a sweetness rising in the mouth after swallowing—this is huigan, or returning sweetness. Returning sweetness differs from direct sweetness; it is often built upon the fading of bitterness and brought out by the sweetness presented by aromatic compounds. This article starts from the definition of returning sweetness, analyzes its causes, explains the difference between returning sweetness and the sweetness felt after drinking water, and finally recommends hand-brewed coffee beans with excellent returning sweetness, including relevant product information from the Front Street brand, to help coffee lovers more accurately understand finish and returning sweetness.
What returning sweetness is should be familiar to everyone: it is the sweet sensation that rises back in the mouth after eating or drinking something.
In coffee evaluation systems, finish or aftertaste is usually used to describe coffee's lingering impression. Returning sweetness is often regarded as a relatively high-quality flavor experience. Generally speaking, coffees with stronger bitterness are more likely to show returning sweetness—what is often called "bitter first, sweet after." When the bitterness gradually fades in the mouth, the sweet aroma emerges. In fact, many drinks show a similar phenomenon; herbal tea, for example, has a bitter note on entry, but after drinking, the bitterness quickly dissipates and the sweet taste becomes more noticeable instead.
Why does coffee have returning sweetness? Returning sweetness usually indicates a better finish, while another undesirable case is a finish that presents as burnt, bitter, astringent, or muddy. This is especially evident in espresso. An espresso with a poor finish is burnt and bitter on entry, with a concentrated, pungent taste; after swallowing, bitter substances still remain in the mouth and linger, bringing a dry, uncomfortable feeling.
An espresso with a good finish will have returning sweetness after swallowing. Note that this is returning sweetness, not direct sweetness; the two are different. The direct sweetness we feel when eating sugar is sweetness; the sweet sensation produced after eating or drinking something is returning sweetness. Its essence is not directly caused by sugars, but is brought out after bitterness fades.
Of course, the premise of this bringing-out is that there are first substances capable of providing returning sweetness. This is actually the sweetness expressed by aroma compounds, consistent with the principle that coffee flavor comes from aroma. In most cases, we do not need to taste it; by smell alone we can identify fruits such as lemon, durian, jackfruit, passion fruit, mandarin, and orange, and we can also identify honey, brown sugar, and caramel by smell. These aromas that make people feel sweetness are the main source of the returning sweetness we perceive.
There is also a very common situation: after drinking coffee, you take a sip of water and then feel sweetness. This is not returning sweetness, but rather the substances remaining in the mouth after drinking coffee being washed and diluted by clear water, so that strong bitterness turns into slight bitterness, making slight sweetness easier to notice.
Overall, high-quality coffee is more likely to produce returning sweetness or a tea-like finish, and will not show undesirable aftertastes such as astringency or burnt bitterness. If you want to choose hand-brewed coffee beans with prominent returning sweetness, you can pay attention to related products from the Front Street brand, whose roasting and selection direction places more emphasis on the cleanliness of the finish and the presentation of sweetness.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
