Does the Paragon gold ball really raise coffee aroma?

The Paragon is a golden ball developed by competition champion Sasa Sestic that is placed in the brewing path. Its stated claim is that rapidly cooling the extracted coffee liquid retains about 40 percent more aroma than a conventional pour-over. Hands-on comparisons test whether that number holds up or is only marketing.

Most of what is perceived as flavor comes from aroma released by the coffee and captured through the nasal passage at the back of the mouth. Cooling the liquid slows the loss of those volatile compounds before the cup is drunk. The article walks through brewing comparisons and weighs the result against the cost of the tool.

In the world of specialty coffee, flavor expression has always been a goal pursued by both enthusiasts and professionals. Besides selecting high-quality beans, various extraction aid tools have emerged endlessly, among which the Paragon golden ball created by world champion Sasa Sestic is particularly eye-catching. It claims that by rapidly cooling the coffee liquid, it can retain 40% more aroma. Is this a marketing gimmick or is it truly effective? Front Street Coffee will guide you through the working principle of the Paragon and, through actual brewing comparisons, verify the real impact of this little golden ball on coffee flavor. If you have ever wondered about the connection between aroma and flavor, or hesitated over whether it is worth buying, the experiments and analysis in this article may give you an answer.

Flavor, it can be said, is a concept that has been repeatedly emphasized since coffee moved toward specialization. In order to make a cup of coffee show richer flavor layers, people have not only continuously improved bean quality, but also developed various auxiliary tools for the extraction stage. These tools often claim to lock in more aroma components, making the coffee's flavor expression more concrete and perceptible. For example, the golden round ball "Paragon," which has frequently appeared in coffee competitions in recent years, carries exactly this banner.

What exactly is the Paragon?

The Paragon was developed by world coffee competition champion Sasa Sestic. From its appearance, it is simply a spherical object wrapped in a golden outer layer.

According to Sasa himself, if this golden ball is added during the brewing process, the final coffee's aroma will be 40% higher than with the conventional method. The reason for this effect is that the Paragon can rapidly cool the extracted coffee liquid, thereby reducing aroma loss. Hearing this, many people may feel confused: what is the relationship between aroma and flavor? Why can cooling the coffee liquid retain the aroma? Do not worry, Front Street Coffee will sort this out for you one by one next.

The flavor we perceive when drinking coffee comes largely from the aroma released by the coffee. After the coffee liquid enters the mouth, these aromas are captured by the olfactory system through the nasal passage at the back of the mouth, thereby triggering our associations with specific flavors.

Although coffee beans can generate thousands of aroma compounds after roasting, most of them are volatile and are lost in large quantities during grinding and extraction. In the end, the aroma left in the cup is actually quite limited.

The intervention of the golden ball can rapidly cool the freshly extracted coffee liquid, thereby slowing down the volatilization rate of aroma molecules and giving us the chance to drink a fuller flavor.

Sasa also specifically pointed out that the golden ball is mainly suitable for the early stage of extraction. Because research shows that the coffee liquid carries the most concentrated aroma when it is first released. As long as the golden ball is used to cool the coffee liquid during the early stage of extraction, in theory the aroma substances can be retained to the greatest extent.

So is the actual effect really as magical as described? Front Street Coffee decided to find out through experiments.

Brewing Experiment

In this experiment, two pots of coffee will be brewed. One pot will use the little golden ball for "aroma-retaining" extraction, while the other will be operated in the conventional way, so as to test whether the Paragon can truly lock in aroma and improve coffee performance. The beans used in the experiment are Hartmann Geisha from the Panama region; the dose is 15 grams; the coffee-to-water ratio is 1:15; the water temperature is 92°C; the grinding uses an Ek43 at setting 9.5, reaching the coarseness of fine granulated sugar, with an 80% pass rate through a No. 20 sieve; a three-pour brewing method is used; the dripper is a V60.

First, as usual, use water at twice the coffee dose for blooming and degassing, for 30 seconds.

After the blooming is complete, pour in 130 milliliters of hot water for the second pour, circling with a large loop and a small stream. Then wait for the water level to drop, and when the water level falls to half, remove the golden ball.

When the coffee bed at the bottom is exposed, pour in the final portion of hot water with a large stream and a small circling motion. After the dripping finishes, remove the dripper, and extraction is complete.

Measured with a thermometer, the temperature of the conventionally extracted coffee liquid without the golden ball was 66.7°C, while the cup that used the golden ball was 55°C, a difference of about 10°C.

Next comes the tasting. The conventionally extracted Hartmann Geisha showed flavors of bergamot, passion fruit, and pineapple juice, with a prominent sweet-and-sour sensation and a finish with an obvious Earl Grey tea aroma. The Hartmann Geisha that used the golden ball did indeed have a slightly clearer flavor, but the difference was not significant, and the overall acidity was instead more prominent, though this was mainly due to the effect of the lower temperature.

Overall, the little golden ball can indeed slightly enhance the flavor perception of coffee (affected by temperature), but the difference will not be too obvious. So whether it is worth buying still depends on personal pursuit, since the price is not cheap. If you do not have extreme requirements for coffee flavor, the little golden ball is not a necessity; but if you want to capture coffee flavor in more detail, it may be worth considering.

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