Coffee Encyclopedia | What are these light brown crumbs in coffee powder?

Grinding coffee beans by yourself can ensure the freshness of coffee to the greatest extent, so a high-quality grinder is essential for every coffee lover. Each of us will encounter various problems when using a grinder, one of which is that during the grinding process, light brown powder always appears in the grinder. What are these powders? Is there something wrong with my beans? Don't worry, first of all, I assure you that these powders are absolutely harmless, they are the inevitable product of coffee grinding.

Most coffee lovers today like to buy fresh, lightly roasted coffee beans from a roasting studio near their homes. We usually call the light brown powder produced during the coffee grinding process "Chaff". Any high-quality, lightly roasted whole coffee beans will produce "chaff" during grinding, and these "chaffs" are actually the "silverskin" of coffee, that is, the thin film attached to the surface of the coffee beans. This film will dry and fall off during the roasting process, while a certain amount of "silverskin" will still remain inside the bean, especially in the midline.

Lightly roasted or harder coffee beans contain more "silver skin" residue.

The skin itself is flavorless and does not affect the quality of the coffee. Large commercial grinders usually have an electrostatic attraction function that can remove the dry skin from the coffee powder, so you will rarely find the skin in the ground coffee bag.

Generally speaking, lightly or medium roasted coffee, washed coffee, coffee grown at high altitudes and coffee beans with high bean hardness have more residual "silver skin". In addition, home-roasted coffee beans will also produce a large amount of "silver skin".

If you find that there is little to no silver skin in your coffee grounds, it is likely due to the following factors:

1. The coffee is roasted to a darker degree, and the color of the silver skin is very close to the coffee powder, making it difficult to distinguish;

2. The coffee processing technology is "natural processing" or "honey processing";

3. Coffee is grown at a lower altitude, so the beans are less hard;

4. You buy bagged coffee grounds that have been ground using a commercial grinder.

Deeply roasted, sun-dried coffee beans have less residual "silver skin", and the "silver skin" falls off more cleanly during the roasting process.

In short, "skin" is a natural product of coffee. Sometimes the more "skin" there is, the better the quality of the coffee!

English original address:

http://www.roastratings.com/2016/05/what-are-these-light-brown-flakes-when-i-grind-my-coffee/

Disclaimer: This article is translated, written or produced by the staff of "Feiyanshiyu". All rights reserved. Please do not reprint or quote in any other form without written permission. The views expressed in this article do not represent the views of this platform. If you provide any correction information, you do not need to bear the responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided.