The birth of a good cup of coffee depends on proper grinding and extraction, and even more on the taster's keen senses. This article starts with the correspondence between grind size and extraction method, sorts out the core standards of good coffee—freshness, cleanliness, and a comfortable mouthfeel—and systematically explains the professional descriptive vocabulary across the three dimensions of olfaction, taste, and mouthfeel. Whether you are a beginner enthusiast or a taster seeking to advance, you can find practical reference here. Front Street Coffee has always been committed to promoting professional coffee tasting knowledge, and we hope this article helps you better understand the flavors in your cup.
The Decisive Round: The Key to Extracting the Essence
After proper picking, processing, and roasting, coffee beans reach the final two stages before they enter your mouth—grinding and extraction. These two steps depend on each other and work closely together. The coarseness of the grounds directly determines which extraction method should be used. Fine grounds most easily extract the essence, so they take the least time; they are usually quickly poured over with hot water at around 90 degrees Celsius and extracted immediately, making them suitable for espresso machines and moka pots. Medium grinding is mostly seen in home brewing; the coffee cup and coffee pot need to be preheated in advance so the aroma can be released more fully, and the water temperature is generally controlled between 85 and 90 degrees Celsius, mainly using pour-over kettles, drip pots, and siphon pots. Coarse grounds are best suited to the French press, with the longest extraction time, while the water temperature is likewise kept at 85 to 90 degrees Celsius.
The Standards for Measuring Good Coffee
There are as many professional terms for judging coffee as there are stars, almost rivaling wine, but all of these can actually be set aside—your own tongue is the first judge. Mr. Liang once said that truly good coffee is actually very simple: it tastes comfortable, is clean, has no off-flavors, and has a pure aroma, and the most crucial point is that the coffee beans must be fresh. If stored for a year or half a year, even the best beans lose all their brilliance. Freshly roasted coffee beans actually do not have a particularly rich aroma, but after being left for a day they become noticeably different. This is because intense changes are taking place inside freshly roasted coffee beans, continuously releasing carbon dioxide outward, and these gases interfere with the sense of smell, so for the time being no prominent fragrance can be detected. Therefore, freshly roasted coffee is best left to rest for a while first; when you smell it again, the experience is completely different. That primitive, rich flavor originating from the tropical rainforests of Africa will let you experience coffee's wildness and depth, an elusive taste that makes you unable to resist brewing a pot yourself to savor...
Standard Descriptions of Coffee Taste
1. Olfaction: Every coffee has a unique bouquet, and it is precisely this bouquet that allows coffees from different regions or varieties to be distinguished. A. Dry aroma/fragrance—the aroma of dry grounds after grinding and before brewing. B. Cup aroma/aroma—the aroma rising from the surface of the liquid after the coffee is brewed. C. Nose—the scent perceived in the nasal cavity after the coffee enters the mouth. D. Aftertaste—the lingering sweetness, referring to the flavor left on the taste buds after the coffee is swallowed.
Types of dry aroma: sweet floral notes, sweet fruity notes. Types of wet aroma: fruity notes, herbal notes. Nasal aroma after entering the mouth (nose): caramel notes, nutty notes, malty notes. Aftertaste after swallowing: carbon notes (similar to the smell of a photocopier in operation), chocolate notes, spice notes, turpentine-like or camphor-like notes.
Under each flavor, its intensity must also be further described—Rich, Full, Rounded, Flat—along with corresponding detailed descriptions. Complexity is different from off-flavors. Complexity refers to the combined degree of high-quality characteristics in coffee, while off-flavors are unpleasant tastes in coffee, such as charred notes, woody notes (old beans), grassy notes (new beans), and even rubbery or iodine-like notes.
2. Gestation: Taste evaluation targets the flavor of water-soluble substances in coffee, including organic components (such as carbohydrates, sugars, vegetable oils, fruit acids, etc., with flavors ranging from slightly sweet to extremely sour. Organic compounds also include alkaloids, such as caffeine and esters) as well as non-organic substances and other components that cause bitterness. Non-organic substances include mineral salts that bring saltiness and may also produce sensations ranging from sweet to astringent, as well as feelings from soapy to metallic. The basic taste sensations include: sour, sweet, bitter, and salty. During coffee cupping, when tasting light-to-medium roast coffee, bitterness functions only as an auxiliary or reinforcing description for the other three tastes; when evaluating dark roast coffee, bitterness becomes the main taste description. Bitterness is one of the repellent sensations, but it can sometimes add to the sensory appeal of food. Foods that are bitter yet delicious include dark chocolate, beer, and grapefruit. The disappearance of bitterness would instead lower the appreciation rating of food. Proper bitterness can create balance in the mouthfeel of dark roast coffee, but it is worth noting that when bitterness lingers at the base of the tongue—that is, when the bitterness cannot disappear with swallowing—this kind of bitterness usually causes extreme sensory aversion, so it can serve as an indicator for judging whether bitterness is appropriate. The value of sourness is evaluated in two polar opposite ways in the mass market and among specialty coffee enthusiasts. Acidity is inherently one of coffee's tastes; if handled well, it can increase the layering of taste and raise the value of tasting. Coffees famous for sourness include Antigua coffee (sharp as a razor), as well as Mocha-lineage coffees such as Yirgacheffe, which has lemon-like aroma and acidity.
3. Mouthfeel: Mouthfeel basically refers to the tactile sensation on the palate. Generally speaking, the sensory organs are located on the tongue, in the stomach, and on the soft and hard palates, and are a type of free ending nerve. After drinking coffee, these nerve endings sense the coffee's viscosity and oils, and the combined sensation constitutes a cup of coffee's "body." Viscosity is basically related to the amount of solid substances extracted from the coffee during brewing, including unfiltered fibrous material and so on. Oiliness refers to the lipids in coffee (liquid oils, solid fats, or waxes). These substances exist in green coffee beans in the form of oil, or as fats at room temperature; during roasting they transform into liquid, and finally they are extracted during brewing. Different brewing methods affect coffee's expression. Taking mouthfeel as an example, if pour-over extraction is done with a metal filter, the mouthfeel will be heavier/thicker than with a paper filter, because the proportion of suspended particles and oils in the coffee increases.
Source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
