To evaluate whether a cup of coffee tastes good, Front Street believes that in addition to its flavor evaluation, we should also pay attention to its mouthfeel. Flavor mainly "serves" our sense of taste and smell, while mouthfeel "serves" our sense of touch.

This texture actually refers to the coffee's Body. When evaluating whether a cup of coffee's Body is good, it is basically about feeling whether the touch when drinking the coffee is comfortable. For example, if we like a smooth mouthfeel, a full mouthfeel, or a rich mouthfeel, then when these sensations appear while drinking the coffee, we can consider the Body of this cup of coffee to be very good. If when drinking the coffee we feel a sandy, rough texture, a watery feel (a weak mouthfeel), or a dry astringency, then the Body of this cup of coffee is not so good.

What gives us the impression of a relatively good coffee Body is mainly thanks to oils and fibers. In other words, the finer and richer the coffee's oils and fibers, the better the Body of the whole cup of coffee will be. This is also why Italians like their espresso, and why Japanese people like to brew coffee with flannel. Essentially, this is to retain more oils and improve the coffee's Body, making it taste richer and more full-bodied.

So what are some rich, full-bodied coffee beans with good body? Because the sense of body is inseparable from flavor type and flavor intensity, we can look for this kind of coffee bean from two aspects: acidic and bitter.Representative recommendation for full-bodied coffee: Front Street Kenya Little Tomato, with complex aromas of cherry tomatoes, smoked plum, snow pear, and caramel, full fruit acidity, and therefore a rounded body and excellent richness;

Representative recommendation for full-bodied coffee: Front Street Queen's Estate, with flavors of roasted nuts, cocoa, baked bread, and caramel, so it smells richly of coffee, has a thick body in the mouth, a deep and mellow mouthfeel, and a clear sweet aftertaste.

So in terms of pour-over, how should we brew out the coffee's Body? Let us take a look at how the Kono style pour-over is done.

The Kono style is a relatively famous brewing method in Japan, and coffee brewed with this method has a very rich mouthfeel.

-Use dark-roasted coffee beans. Dark-roasted coffee has relatively rich oils, so it is also easy to extract more oils.

-Use a Kono dripper. Different drippers show different flavor and mouthfeel in coffee. For example, immersion-type drippers such as the Kono dripper and trapezoid dripper can better brew a rich mouthfeel. Rinsing-type drippers such as the V60 dripper and the star-shaped dripper can better brew flavor.

-In the first stage, pour water in drops until the coffee bed is completely wet. In fact, this can be seen as a blooming process, for example slowly pouring water for a relatively long time so that the gas inside the coffee grounds is fully released. In this way, it will not affect the subsequent extraction of substances (including the oils and fibers that are beneficial to mouthfeel).

-The second stage is the main extraction stage, using a large stream of water and pouring in stages. Because the dripping in the first stage has already released all the gas in the coffee, pouring water in this stage will not be disturbed, making it easier to dissolve the coffee substances. Pouring in multiple stages can also increase the coffee's layering.

-The entire pouring process is relatively gentle and slow, because this method takes a relatively long time, about 3-4 minutes. To counter the risk of over-extraction, the grind will be coarser, the coffee-to-water ratio will be reduced (1:12), and the water temperature will also be lowered.

Here Front Street introduces the Kono style brewing method not to say that it is the optimal solution for brewing out a coffee's Body. In fact, this method is only suitable for dark-roasted coffee beans. Therefore, what matters is the principle behind this approach.

-In the choice of equipment, in addition to choosing an immersion-type dripper, filtering devices with relatively large gaps such as flannel and metal mesh filters can allow more oils to blend into the coffee liquid and improve the coffee's Body.

-In the pouring method, staged pouring can better express the coffee's Body compared with a single pour.

-In the pouring technique, using a gentle pouring method makes it easier to brew a smooth mouthfeel. When the agitation is too strong, causing the coffee bed to churn and dissolve excessive polyphenolic substances, the coffee's mouthfeel will become rough and astringent.

Finally, the flavor and mouthfeel of a cup of coffee are equally important, so the above improvement methods are technique constraints based on parameters that can brew a cup of coffee with good flavor, that is, making the coffee's Body better without affecting the flavor.

If you use the method of changing the brewing approach, besides affecting the coffee's mouthfeel, it will also affect the coffee's flavor, and the factors that need to be balanced will increase.

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