Good coffee = fresh coffee? How to identify and select coffee beans? See here

The Italians once said: "Coffee that makes you wait is often good coffee, while coffee that waits for you is not desirable." This sentence is quite insightful, and only Italians who love coffee can make such an evaluation standard for coffee.

In the past, "fresh coffee" simply meant coffee that had just been brewed. Today, the term " freshly roasted " should be the key to specialty coffee consumers.

Freshly roasted coffee beans are coffee that has been roasted for 1–14 days . However, once the coffee is ground, it loses its freshness in 1–4 hours. The fresh feeling of pre-ground coffee disappears quickly.

Good coffee beans: neat in shape, bright in color, single-roasted and roasted, mellow in flavor and strong in aftertaste after brewing .

Bad coffee beans: Different shapes, broken and incomplete. After brewing, the aroma is weak and not sweet enough.

◆Tips for distinguishing the freshness of coffee beans

Smell: Fresh coffee beans have a strong aroma, otherwise they have no taste or a bad smell.

Look: Good coffee beans are complete in shape and full in size. Otherwise, they are incomplete in shape.

Hand-pressed: Fresh coffee beans are crispy when pressed, and a fragrant aroma wafts out when they crack.

Color: Dark black coffee beans will produce bitter coffee; yellower coffee beans will produce sour coffee.

◆When purchasing coffee beans , how should you judge the quality of the beans by their appearance?

You can look at its color - whether it has good gloss, uniform color and no spots;

Smell its fragrance - whether it is fragrant and rich;

Test the crispness of the coffee beans: Put it in your mouth and take a bite to see if it is crisp and has a good taste. Finally, check if the beans are full and have a good texture. You cannot brew a good coffee without good coffee beans or powder.

Secondly, pay attention to whether the packaging of the coffee beans is intact. If air can penetrate the packaging bag, the coffee beans will easily absorb moisture due to contact with air, affecting the quality of the coffee beans.

1. Appearance judgment

Delicious coffee can be judged from the shape of the coffee beans after roasting. Of course, bad coffee beans cannot be mixed in. What is more important is that normal beans can also be mixed into high-quality coffee beans and cause problems. The roasted beans for brewing delicious coffee must first be large and plump, and uniform, and secondly, they must be of the same size and without color spots. These are the key points of visual judgment. If you look carefully, it should not be difficult to distinguish.

Fermented beans: Coffee beans that fall into the soil and ferment before being harvested. The sour smell will have a great impact on the deliciousness of coffee.

Dead beans: also known as unripe beans, or due to the influence of climate and other factors, they are not fully developed. After roasting, they will produce roasting spots, making the coffee have a green and astringent taste.

Black beans: Fermented beans that have become corrupted and blackened. Because of their black color, they can be distinguished from normal coffee beans at a glance.

Insect-infested coffee beans

Damaged beans: Damaged coffee beans may be caused by jamming during operation or careless handling during transportation. This will cause roasting spots and produce bitter and astringent tastes.

Others: beans with thin skins remaining, underdeveloped beans, beans that are not completely dried and taste sour, shell beans with only shells, etc.

2 Judgment during grinding

Delicious coffee can only be brewed after the coffee beans are fully roasted and the moisture is extracted. This can be judged when grinding the coffee beans. Good quality coffee beans will make a rustling sound when grinding, and the original flavor of coffee will overflow when the hand is gently shaken. Poor quality coffee beans will make a creaking sound. There is a feeling of being stuck when grinding.

3. Judgment during extraction

The simplest way to brew delicious coffee is to filter it with filter paper. When brewing, there is also a way to judge whether the coffee is delicious, that is, whether the powder swells up when added to hot water. When the coffee is fully roasted and the water is extracted, beautiful and delicate foam will swell up when brewed.