Coffee aromas – Caffè Ernani

Tasting a coffee and recognizing all its aromatic notes, with Ernani

Martina Mazzoleni — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 09:16:30 +0000

We often drink coffee out of habit, because it tastes good and because it gives us an energy boost.

But have we ever tasted it carefully?

What flavors can a coffee have?

What aromatic notes can it express?

How do I recognize them?

With today’s article we will answer those very questions!

On what does the aroma of coffee depend?

Coffee is an intensely aromatic hot beverage that can develop and release up to 800 volatile substances during the roasting process, which contribute to the creation of the aroma we all know and appreciate.

The final aroma of a coffee can be influenced by multiple factors, just to name a few:

The species and botanical variety of the plant. Example: tomatoes are not all the same, there are datterini, pachino, oxheart, auburn, etc. Even for coffee there are different species (the best known and most commercialized are Arabica and Robusta), and hundreds of different varieties. Each produces beans with unique characteristics, from shape, to chemical components, to the organoleptic profile in the cup.
Terroir, then the environment in which the plant is grown, thus the composition of the soil, the amount of wind, water and sunshine felt throughout the year, the botanical and faunal biodiversity. Even if you took two identical plants, but planted in two different parts of the world, the final taste would therefore be different.
The quality of the grains themselves. From the same harvest there may be the most selected and best-processed grains, which will give the cup unprecedented, fine, fine aromas. Then there are the production rejects, full of defects and often tasting sour, stale, unripe, rotten or even musty.
Toasting. You can get the best coffee in the world, but if it is roasted badly, the final taste in the cup will be bitter and with empyreumatic (burnt) hints; if it is roasted properly, however, it will give the drink the most valuable aromatic notes;
The extraction follows the same argument as roasting: I have obtained up to this stage selected and quality coffee beans, however, then in the end I get the grind, the dose, the temperature or some other step in the preparation of the coffee wrong, making it become a poor quality product: either bitter or acetic and astringent.

These are just a few of the variables that create the flavor profile of a coffee, however, they already make us realize how varied and broad this can be, moving from aromas of fruit, citrus, flowers, chocolate, ripe fruit, nuts, caramel, honey, toast, sugar, etc.

Attention!

Everything we have mentioned so far indicates natural flavors and aromatic notes!

Yes because raw beans contain these flavors within themselves and there is no need to add flasks, drops or artificial food fragrances if the coffee is quality coffee!

The main flavors of a coffee

The main flavors you can find inside a coffee shop are:

Bitterness
Acidity
Sweetness

Bitterness

Coffee does not simply have to be bitter, on the contrary!

When coffee is really a lot of bitterness and little else, it is a symptom of poor and unselected beans.

On the contrary, when you can perceive a balance between acidity, sweetness and a delicate bitterness, then that is good coffee!

Learn more about bitterness in the video below:

Coffee results bitter under the following conditions:

If it is of Robusta species: robusta is in fact generally more bitter than Arabica, as it contains about twice as much caffeine and this substance if taken alone is really bitter!

Approfondimento sulle differenze tra arabica e robusta

Poor grains: if the grains are not of the best quality, they are often rotten, moldy or have negative hints of burnt wood, ash, tar, rubber, etc. All this makes the final beverage more bitter.

Approfondimento sui difetti del caffè verde

Roasting defects: if the beans are roasted poorly, creating defects such as scorching, facing, baking, etc., the bitterness gradually becomes more and more intense, persistent, and most of all annoying.

Approfondimento sui difetti di tostatura

Dark Toast: without going into too much detail…is a pizza cooked just right or a burnt pizza with a completely black base better? Here’s the same thing with coffee: hard roasting that burns the surface of the beans makes the drink uncomfortably bitter!

Approfondimento sui diversi livelli di tostatura

Over-extraction: that is, when we get the preparation of the drink wrong and literally go to extract too much from our mince. But like, the more substances I bring into the cup, the more intense the drink will be, right? No, unfortunately it doesn’t work that way! Everything must be balanced, because if too much is extracted the drink will not be more intense, but only more bitter, with hints of ash, rotten and burned!

If you want to find out how to best brew coffee with any extraction method, check out our column below!

Come preparare il caffè!

Acidity

Sourness is unfortunately often equated with a flaw, whereas it is one of the best qualities we can find in a coffee!

Of course, it should never be exaggerated and annoying-after all, we are drinking coffee not lemon juice.

But to sense it in a crisp and enveloping way-well, you can’t wish for anything better!

This is a typical characteristic of the finest and highest-quality highland Arabica coffees processed by the washed method.

To learn about each individual characteristic of acidity in detail, click below:

L’acidità del caffè: pregio o difetto?

In summary: without acidity we would not feel the aromatic complexity of a coffee and everything would become “flat,” without emotion. It succeeds in providing freshness, with which it is easier to perceive any other aroma.

Sweetness

Sweetness is perhaps the most difficult taste to recognize, perhaps because our brains are not used to thinking of a coffee as sweet, and therefore do not even pay much attention to it when tasting.

However, there are coffees that are extremely sweet, with hints of milk chocolate and/or ripe fruit, in which you can detect the sugary component.

This is a characteristic of Arabica coffees, grown between 1,000 and 1,350 meters above sea level and processed by the natural method.

So?

The art of balancing lies in the hands of the roaster, who tests and performs tests for each specific single-origin to arrive at the perfect roasting curve for those specific grains and be able to bring out all the flavors to the fullest.

However, this is only feasible with a medium roast, as a light roast brings out more of the sour notes, while a dark roast only makes the coffee bitter, going to hide all the positive aromas.

Coffee aromas

In part we have already talked about them above, so where they come from and what they are influenced by.

To help us identify and categorize them, we can use the “Coffee Aroma Wheel,” visible below:

In this one we can see first the central ring, which segments the different aromas by macro-groups, both positive and negative.

Let’s read it together, the positive ones are:

Citrus – lemon, lime, pink grapefruit, orange, etc.
Fruity-apple, pineapple, banana, red fruits, cherry, coconut, plum, etc.
Florals – rose, jasmine, tea, etc.
Sweets – vanilla, sugar, honey, etc.
Chocolate or nuts – walnut, hazelnut, almond, milk or dark chocolate, etc.
Spicy – pepper, cinnamon, anise, etc.
Toasted – toast, malt, pipe tobacco, etc.

The negative ones are instead:

Vegetables – olive, grass, wet meadow, peas, etc.
Other-chemicals, mold, wood, soil, ash, tar, garbage, oil, rubber, medicinal, etc.

Recognizing them is not always easy, because very often they are very delicate and light. Moreover, if our brains are not used to analyzing smells and tastes in a timely manner, the work is complicated and often tiring.

But all you have to do is practice!

When you cook, eat, drink or smell any food, scent, drink try to concentrate, savor it slowly, smell it and try to remember what you felt, what emotions you felt and what memory you associated it with.

How do you taste a coffee?

Have you ever wondered how to taste coffee as a real expert?

N.B. We will now discuss coffee tasting in a general way, while if specifically you want to know how to taste an espresso, then click below:

Degustazione dell’espresso: tutto quello che devi sapere

But back to us.

Start by buying quality coffee and brewing it to perfection, if you want to for this step just rely on experts like us or at your local coffee shop. So ask for coffee and let them tell you what it is all about.
Then drink a glass of water, so that your mouth is well cleansed and better prepared to welcome the coffee with its aromatic explosion!
Bring the cup to your nose and take a sniff: do you detect bad smells, which immediately make you wince and turn up your nose? Or would you like that scent to last forever? Even if you don’t recognize the exact scent that’s okay, the important thing is that what you smell is positive!
Now taste it. You drink in small sips and possibly with a suck, the same as it makes you rude if you do it with soup. So: what tastes do you hear? Do you feel some acidity, sweetness and bitterness? Or does one completely override the other? What aromatic notes do you detect? Can you identify any specifically? Overall, is the drink pleasant or would you like to have a glass of water immediately afterwards and make that bad aftertaste go away?
Finally, the aftertaste: do you feel it pleasant or unpleasant? How persistent is it over time? Does it continue to be pleasant even after 10 to 15 minutes?

These are precisely the questions you need to ask yourself while drinking coffee carefully!

In time everything will become automatic and simple! You no longer have to stand there concentrating on recognizing the flavors, from the very first sip you will immediately know what you are drinking, how it was processed, how it was roasted, and most importantly whether it is quality or not!

And if you want to learn even more, we are waiting for you at the “Espresso Tasting” course at Ernani Academy!

Scopri di più qui!

We are waiting for you!

L'articolo Tasting a coffee and recognizing all its aromatic notes, with Ernani proviene da Caffè Ernani.

Cosa significa intensità nel caffè? | CAFFÈ ERNANI

Martina Mazzoleni — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 10:48:19 +0000

L'articolo Cosa significa intensità nel caffè? | CAFFÈ ERNANI proviene da Caffè Ernani.

Burnt coffee or “dirty water”: how to avoid these two mistakes?

Martina Mazzoleni — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 08:59:59 +0000

The coffees that I generally find in bars or buy at the supermarket have a very strong and unpleasant taste : they taste burnt and are very bitter.

Other times, however, the drink is not extracted correctly from the ground and it really looks like “dirty water”.

What do these two errors depend on and how to avoid them?

Let’s find out together in this article!

What causes the strong bitterness of coffee?

Now I’ll surprise you: coffee is not bitter! Don’t you believe it? I’ll show you!

Ok, fine, coffee is bitter by its nature, due to the roasting process and the presence of caffeine.

This substance in fact if taken alone is really very bitter. This is why Robusta is more bitter than Arabica, precisely because it contains twice as much caffeine.

But a quality coffee should never be excessively bitter! On the contrary, it must leave room for the fresher and more acidic notes of citrus or red fruits, as well as sweet hints of chocolate and ripe fruit.

The bitterness must be soft and delicate and never preponderant over the other tastes.

So why is the coffee I usually find around so bitter?

Because most Italian roasters dark roast, i.e. they cook the bean a lot, until it turns black and then burns.

A bit like pizza or bread in the oven: when they turn black they are burnt.

When we get to toast the coffee too much, it becomes unpleasantly bitter in the cup.

This is why we at Caffè Ernani have chosen the Medium Roasting, perfect for giving cream and body to an espresso, capable of maximizing all the natural aromas contained in the carefully selected and flawless raw beans, without ever making the drink too bitter.

Scopri di più, clicca qui!

Other reasons why coffee becomes bitter, with an empyreumatic aftertaste, i.e. burnt, are:

A water or instrument temperature that is too high. If this exceeds 100°C, the ground burns, bringing bitterness to the cup;
Unclean tools. This is because the residues of exhausted coffee, rich in oils and fats, once they come into contact with oxygen begin to oxidize, giving the drink hints of mould, tar, ash, stale, rancid, etc.;
The presence of chlorine in the water, for this reason it is advisable to always use filtered or bottled water;
The type of tool chosen for the extraction. For example, coffee in a moka is more bitter than coffee extracted with paper filter methods, but these are in turn less intense and concentrated than an espresso;
Finally, an over-extracted drink is more bitter than one prepared correctly. By over-extraction we mean that we extracted more than we needed from our ground brick. It happens when the coffee is ground too fine, consequently the water has difficulty passing through the grains and therefore remains in contact with the ground for a long time. Being the liquid at high temperatures and continuing to extract other substances from the ground itself, it burns it, bringing bitterness to the cup.

Grinding is in fact essential to obtain a good coffee. It is useless to buy a quality one if you don’t then adjust the size of the ad hoc for that instrument in that given period of time. A good coffee cannot come out, despite the quality of the raw material. Read all about grinding here!

Leggi tutto sulla macinatura qui!

This is why we at Ernani have given so many grinding options for our products:

Turkish
Expressed Extracted
Mocha pot
Neapolitan
Aeropress and Syphon
V60, Chemex and Clever
Cold Brew and French Press

So choose the perfect coffee taste for you and then the format that suits your instrument!

Se hai qualche dubbio su quale caffè scegliere, fai il test per “La tua miscela”!

If you have any doubts about which coffee to choose, take the test for “Your blend”!

When is a coffee defined as “dirty water”? Contrary to what we have seen so far, coffee can also be flat, tasteless, sour, acrid and astringent. In this case we call it “dirty water”.

* Astringent = occurs when we eat an unripe banana, raw artichokes or unripe persimmons. It is a dry sensation of the palate along with an unpleasant grit when the tongue is swiped over the palate.

What causes the failure and low intensity of a coffee?

From the wrong roasting: if the roasting lasts too long and with low temperatures, one stumbles over a defect called Baking, i.e. boiled coffee, precisely because the incorrect roasting has made it flat, without aromas and with an unlovable taste;
From under-extraction of the beverage, i.e. when less is extracted than what should be extracted. Unlike over-extraction, the ground coffee is too large and therefore the water escapes without having time to infuse with the ground coffee and bring oils, lipids and aromatic notes into the cup.

Check for example at the bar: if the barista serves you coffee in 6/10 seconds, the drink will certainly be under-extracted and therefore unpleasant and flat.

But let’s get one thing straight!

AMERICAN COFFEE IS NOT DIRTY WATER!

Very often when we talk about watered down coffees we immediately think of the classic American “drinks”, rather than a badly extracted drink.

But is not so!

Real American coffee, not our espresso diluted with hot water, should actually be called filter coffee, precisely because a paper or metal filter is used, which supports a certain amount of ground coffee, passed through by a certain amount of percolation water.

These are all complicated words to actually describe a simple preparation.

See how to make it in the video below!

The resulting drink is certainly less concentrated and creamy than an espresso, but at the same time it has no bitterness, resulting in a very aromatic, sweet, sour and really tasty coffee.

We won’t see the cream in the cup, but we will feel an explosion of perfumes on our palate!

So no, filter coffee isn’t dirty water, it’s just a method of preparing the drink other than espresso!

L'articolo Burnt coffee or “dirty water”: how to avoid these two mistakes? proviene da Caffè Ernani.

Coffee aromas: where do they come from?

Martina Mazzoleni — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 13:51:54 +0000

We often drink coffee out of habit, because it tastes good and because it gives us an energy boost, but we underestimate fully appreciating its aroma and enjoying it carefully.

Coffee is an intensely aromatic hot beverage that can develop up to 800 volatiles during the roasting process.

Take a moment to pause and smell your cup of coffee.

Floral or spicy notes of chocolate, tobacco, hazelnuts and fruit will rise on the nose.

But all these natural flavors, where do they come from?

First of all, I want to emphasize the term “ natural “: they are in fact delicate aromatic nuances, naturally developed within our beverage, throughout the entire production process, from the plant to roasting to extraction.

As you well know, coffee travels a long journey between different continents and passing through different hands. All steps must be performed to the best of their ability, as they contribute to the creation of a quality coffee or not, and therefore aromatic or not.

Aromas develop according to:

The variety of the coffee plant
The environment and soil in which it grew up
The technique of harvesting and processing the drupe, containing the grains
Roasting
The extraction method

Depends on the variety of the plant and the growing environment

There are two macro families in coffee: arabica and robusta. The former is the more fragrant and delicate, the latter is more intense and bitter.

Leggi l'articolo sulle differenze tra Arabica e Robusta

How come they have such distinct characteristics?

Arabica grows at higher altitudes than the robusta plant and this directly affects the aromas.

Try a coffee firsthand:

100% Arabica, the Blue Diamond;

Scopri il Blue Diamond

100% sturdy, the Tight.

Scopri lo Stretto

And you immediately sense the taste differences!

In general, coffees growing up to 700 meters above sea level are more earthy and woody, while around 1200 meters or so they start to become sweeter. We then reach 1600 meters, a range in which fresher fruit and citrus aromas also take over, until we reach 2000 meters altitude, with very fragrant, delicate, fresh, fruity and floral coffees.

This is all due to the terroir : as the altitude increases, the soil changes composition and becomes increasingly rocky from time to time and rich in minerals and other substances that affect the taste of the cup. Other changes such as air composition and maximum and minimum temperatures then occur.

Here’s an example: if a coffee plant grows in volcanic soil, such as Hawaii may be, it will consequently produce a more savory and very flavorful coffee, compared to a Brazilian coffee, which grows around 1,000 meters above sea level and surrounded by numerous other fruit and cocoa plantations. The result? A sweeter, softer coffee.

Another example? African highland coffee, such as Ethiopian coffee can be, which grows at very high altitudes, is generally very fine, delicate, and has a wide range of aromas.

It depends on the technique of harvesting and processing the drupe.

La raccolta del caffè, vai all'articolo!

In summary, there are two main methods of harvesting drupes:

Manual , with which only drupes ripe at the right point are manually selected one by one. It can be guessed that the quality of raw coffee will be higher, but the cost will also be higher;
Mechanical , by which machines shake the plant and drop all berries, both ripe and unripe. It will be a more economical method, but will bring less quality to the cup, as some unripe grains are also harvested, which will contribute herbaceous aromas, or overripe grains, which will attribute hints of fermented and alcoholic flavors.

The same is also true for the processing methods, among which we mention the two main methods:

Natural , which gives the cup more body and sweetness;
Washed , which gives greater aromatic finesse and acidity.

Already at this point we have seen how much a coffee can change, depending on whether it is arabica or robusta and where it grows, whether it is harvested manually or mechanically, and whether it is washed or natural.

It depends on the roasting of the raw coffee

Scopri tutto sulle diverse Tostature!

To fully develop all the aromas, coffee needs time, which is why roasting must adhere to precise timing and maximum temperatures.

In fact, if you raise the temperature too high, in order to be able to cook everything in less time, you will simply get a very dark-colored, almost burnt coffee with an undeveloped flavor profile, covered by the strong bitter taste.

This is why we at Caffè Ernani have opted for a medium roast. , which allows us to maximize all the aromas of our carefully selected raw coffee.

In order to do this roasting, however, it is essential to start with high quality raw coffees, free of defects , otherwise, as the positive aromas are enhanced so are the negative ones, making the final cup unpleasant.

Finally, the aromas also depend on the extraction method

There are dozens and dozens of different extraction methods, each enhancing the drink we so love in a different way.

To mention the ones best known to us we talk about mocha, espresso and filter coffee:

The mocha uses a higher water temperature than the other two methods, having to come to a boil, this results in a greater bitterness in the cup ;
Espresso, on the other hand, presents a good aromatic range , filtering through the coffee panel for about 25 seconds. Although its main merit is to create cream and body in the cup due to the strong pressure attributed by the machine;
The filter coffee instead is the method that manages to bring greater aromas to the beverage obtained, having a very slow extraction, of several minutes, with water at 94°C, thus lower than mocha, thus slowly extracting each fragrance from the ground coffee.

However, let us not underestimate the importance of the skill of the person who is performing the extraction.

If you get the temperature, the time, or the coffee grind wrong, you risk compromising all the work done so far.

For other advice or curiosities I am always available via email at shop@caffeernani.com !

L'articolo Coffee aromas: where do they come from? proviene da Caffè Ernani.

What does the bitterness in coffee depend on?

Martina Mazzoleni — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:42:20 +0000

Have you ever wondered why coffee is bitter? Do you know what the bitterness depends on? In your opinion, is this a virtue or a flaw of coffee?

We are all familiar with the taste of our beloved drink, and we almost always connect it with a feeling of bitterness, but that we promptly sweeten with a little sugar.

What if there is another solution?

Let’s start with the factors that influence bitterness:

concentration of caffeine in the bean
toasting level
type of extraction and required coffee grind
temperature and extraction time
cleaning of used instrumentation

The first key figure is the concentration of caffeine: generally . Robusta quality coffees have about twice the caffeine of arabica coffees . From here it can be understood very simply that a blend with a higher percentage of robusta will be more bitter than a blend with a higher percentage of Arabica.

The second data point, however, that we need to be very careful about is the level of roasting.

There are 3 macro categories of roasting:

clear
medium (used for all Ernani cafes)
dark

Exactly as with any food: the more you roast the coffee, the more bitter it will become.

From this we understand that a light roast will have less bitterness, in favor of acidity; a medium roast will have a good balance between acidity, sweetness, and bitterness; while a dark roast will have a very pungent bitterness, which will cover the other flavors.

In Italy, most roasters use dark roasting; when it is very dark, it tends to black and is also called Italian roast. This is why most of the coffees we taste at home or at the coffee shop are excessively bitter and require a little help from sugar.

In contrast, medium roasting maximizes all the natural characteristics and aromas of the raw beans, making the drink less bitter and with a wide range of flavors.

The light roast also brings out the flavors to the fullest. However, it is little used in Italy because it does not produce cream and body in the cup, which we so love in espresso.

If you want to know more about roasting click the link below and read.

Scopri tutto sulla Tostatura Media!

At this point we come to extraction, which depends on: type, size of mince, timing and temperature.

Each type of extraction, such as may be mocha, espresso, filter coffee, Neapolitan, French press, and many others, have different ways, grindings, times, and temperatures, which affect the final bitterness in the cup.

For example, if we take the exact same coffee and use it in different equipment we will get a different drink every time.

In fact, the higher the temperature of the water, the more it will reach the burn point of the mince. Same goes for the extraction time as well. If water at 100°C passes through a panel of very fine ground coffee for a prolonged time, the risk of burning will definitely be high. In contrast, if you try filtering water at 80°C through a panel of very coarse ground coffee for a short time, you will extract fresher, sweeter notes and less bitterness.

From this we can therefore guess that the extracted coffee will definitely be more bitter with mocha or Neapolitan, medium in espresso and minimal in filtered coffees.

Finally, there is one last and crucial parameter to consider: the cleanliness of the equipment. This is also very simple.

Just think of a pot with frying oil: would you use it for a month without changing the oil and cleaning it every time it was used? No, and the same goes for coffee.

If the equipment is not properly cleaned after each use, spent coffee will build up over time, which, as it continues to cook, will also transfer burnt smells to the cup.

As trivial as this concept is, I still go to coffee shops and see that they do not purge the machine after each espresso and clean the group.

You know that little arm that the ground coffee goes into and gets stuck in the machine?

That’s what’s called an “assembly,” and it should be cleaned with a rag after each use, and so should the surface of the machine in contact with the grind, from which the water comes out.

Let’s say the case of a coffee shop that makes an average of 500 coffees a day and never purges it after each espresso, by the end of the day a crust of burnt coffee will have formed. Imagine how bitter an espresso prepared that way can come out!

Here, then, is what the bitterness of coffee depends on: it is partly natural and varies depending on the concentration of caffeine, and then it is accentuated or not depending on how you cook and how you process the ground coffee.

A delicate and pleasant dose of bitterness is a virtue, but when it becomes excessive, it becomes unpleasant and annoying and is a flaw. And that’s where sugar comes in.

We have become accustomed to the fact that coffee is a very bitter drink, so bitter that without a softener it is almost undrinkable.

But if you try a “different” coffee from the usual, never too bitter medium-roast coffee, it only takes a week to get used to drinking sugar-free coffee and discover a whole new way to drink the cup and appreciate it even more.

Want to try drinking sugar-free coffee for the first time? I recommend the two most suitable Ernani coffees:

Santos Cerrado bom chocolate, natural arabica.

Vai al prodotto!

Harmony, balanced blend of bitterness sweetness and acidity.

Vai al prodotto!

L'articolo What does the bitterness in coffee depend on? proviene da Caffè Ernani.

How to recognize aromas in coffee

Martina Mazzoleni — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:00:00 +0000

L'articolo How to recognize aromas in coffee proviene da Caffè Ernani.

The acidity of coffee: virtue or flaw?

Martina Mazzoleni — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 14:18:34 +0000

We often hear about acidity in coffee and just as often associate it with a negative feeling. But is acidity a plus or a minus? What do I need to know about acidity?

In this article, I would like to clarify what coffee acidity is, where it comes from, and what it depends on, in order to taste more consciously and more pleasantly every coffee you drink.

So let’s start with the definition: sourness is one of the five tastes, along with sweet, salty, bitter and umami. It is perceived by our body through the taste buds of the tongue.

Then looking at the scale of pH levels ranging from 0 to 14, in which 7 is the neutral value, coffee takes a value of 5, thus acidic. Just like coffee, all foods have a particular and specific chemical composition and degree of acidity.

In our case, coffee beans have dozens of acids, the main one being chlorogenic acid.

I will anticipate that most of these acids, reduce as temperature increases.

These acids are essential in our cup!

In fact, in addition to making our coffee more complex, as we will find out in a moment, they also have important antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which have positive effects on our bodies.

After introducing the term and explaining it chemically: what does the acidity we find in coffee depend on?

Acidity depends on several factors:

the species/variety
the altitude
the terroir
the processing method
the degree of roasting
the extraction

In general, it can be said that the Arabica species is more acidic than the Canephora (Robusta) species.

In addition to the macro differences between Arabica and Robusta, there are other micro differences between different varieties of the same species.

The above can also be applied to mixtures.

So if you buy a blend with a higher percentage of Arabica, you will get a fresh, pleasant acidity in the cup, just as happens in our Allegro blend.

Vai al prodotto!

Whereas if you buy a blend with a higher percentage of robusta, it will tend to make your cup taste more pushed toward bitterness, for example like our Stretto blend

Vai al prodotto!

o Lively.

Vai al prodotto!

This also depends on the altitude at which the coffee was grown. Again, in general, coffees grown at higher altitudes are more acidic, compared to those harvested at lower altitudes. This is because it tends to be because the higher you go, the more rocky and/or richer the soil becomes in minerals, some of which have an acidic taste.

This also explains the previous statement, since Arabica quality coffees are grown from 900 m above sea level, up to 2000-2200 m; while robusta quality coffees are found in the lowlands, up to about 900m.

So we can say that acidity depends on the terroir in which our coffee plant grows, just as it does with grapes for wine.

To give a concrete example, an Ethiopian or Kenyan coffee will definitely be more acidic than a Brazilian or Vietnamese coffee.

In addition, acidity also depends on the processing method that takes place in the plantation.

In fact, two main types of processing are adopted once the drupes are harvested from the plants: natural and washed.

Leaving out, at least in this context, an in-depth discussion of the further types of processing as well, with the first, dry, the grains extracted from the drupes are allowed to dry in the sun. This imparts greater sweetness in the cup.

In the second, the washed one, on the other hand, the grains are allowed to ferment in water and then go to be washed and only then dried in the sun. This imparts more acidity in the final result.

But not only that!

As we had already anticipated, acidity also depends on the level of roasting that the roaster applies to the grains.

The concentration of acids in coffee beans decreases with increasing temperatures. The lighter the coffee is roasted, the more acidic it will be when extracted in the cup, and conversely, the more it will be roasted, the less acidic it will be, preferring hints of bitterness and even burnt, if the roasting is really very strong.

(The leftmost bean is raw, followed by a light roast coffee, the middle one is medium roast, right after that you can see a dark roast bean, and to the right the very dark or Italian-style roast.)

Finally, if we consider an espresso coffee, acidity also depends on the correctness of the extraction.

Let me explain: an under-extracted coffee will be more acidic than one extracted in the correct ways and times and also than one over-extracted. This is because when coffee is under-extracted, it means that the water has “passed” through our ground coffee too quickly and thus failed to extract all the substances contained in the coffee, such as fats, sugars, and so on. It extracted almost only the acids, the first ones to go down into our cup.

Now it’s time for the question you’re surely asking yourself: is acidity in coffee a plus or a minus?

Sourness in coffee is a virtue!

It is one of the most representative parameters for understanding the difference between a complex coffee and a flat, characterless one.

A right level of acidity, and I emphasize right, in fact manages to give the drink that freshness typical of citrus.

At the same time, however, like everything: too much is too much! It should never be excessive or too pungent, in which case it would be considered a defect, as much as excessively bitter coffee with an empyreumatic aftertaste, i.e., ashy and burnt.

In addition, the acidity can also be balanced by sweeter notes, such as those of ripe pulp fruit, or the typical sweetness of berries. Or from more toasty notes of chocolate, toast, caramel, etc.

The art of balancing resides in the hands of the roaster, who for each specific single-origin tries and tests, to arrive at the perfect roasting curve for those specific beans, to be able to bring out all the positive flavor notes to the fullest.

However, this is only feasible with a medium roast, as a light roast brings out more of the sour notes, while a dark roast makes the coffee only bitter, going to hide all other flavors.

That is why we at Caffè Ernani opted for the Medium Roast.

However, sourness is often considered a negative sensation, partly out of habit, because too often simply bitter coffees are served, and partly because it is confused with astringency or sourness.

This is because we have memorized that when we eat a lemon, an acidic food par excellence, we also feel astringency, that is, that feeling of a watery palate, we feel like a sandy sensation, and saliva is reduced, drying out the mouth.

This feeling, however, in coffee is considered a flaw.

So a coffee can be acidic, but never astringent!

I conclude by saying that everything I have said so far applies on an objective level. After that, subjectivity comes into play: each of us can appreciate different coffees, coffees that are more pushed on acidity or coffees that are more balanced. For example, I prefer very acidic coffees with very intense citrus aromatic notes.

What type of coffee do you prefer? Email me at shop@caffeernani.com and tell me your opinion!

L'articolo The acidity of coffee: virtue or flaw? proviene da Caffè Ernani.

The aromas of the grain

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 14:00:00 +0000

L'articolo The aromas of the grain proviene da Caffè Ernani.

The acidity in coffee

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:00:00 +0000

L'articolo The acidity in coffee proviene da Caffè Ernani.

How to taste an espresso: a lesson with Paolo

Martina Mazzoleni — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 13:01:38 +0000

Have you ever wondered how to taste a real expert espresso?

Of course we all know how to recognize a coffee that we like best from one that we like least, in fact we all have a coffee of the heart, which we just can’t give up and which makes our day better every time we sip it.

But do you know how an expert recognizes a quality espresso from a mediocre or even bad one?

With this article you will find out!

Tasting should always be done in a neutral environment, that is, with little noise, no direct bright lights, and no particular odors in the air that might influence your judgment. In the absence of such an environment, however, try to concentrate as best you can on what you are about to taste, perhaps even closing your eyes.

We start by drinking a glass of water, which helps to clean our mouths.

After that make your espresso.

The first sense to be used is that of sight, which is essential for initial judgment.

Look carefully at your espresso and check that the crema is hazelnut in color, no lighter and no darker. Possibly with darker, warm brown, almost reddish streaks.

In case the cream is lighter, it means the coffee is under-extracted; in case it is darker, the coffee is over-extracted.

In the first case, the coffee will therefore be less aromatically intense and less full-bodied, while in the second case, the coffee may even be burnt, giving off notes that are too bitter and therefore unpleasant.

Here is a photo to understand the right color of espresso cream.

On the left, an under-extracted coffee; in the center, a corrected espresso; on the right, an over-extracted coffee.

In addition, the crema should be free of bubbles that are too large or spots that are too light compared to the rest of the cup, such as in the upper right corner in over-extracted coffee.

Last characteristic of the cream: it must be persistent, that is, it must not flake off and thus show through the drink underneath in a few minutes, but it must endure.

This is important because the cream is a plug for the flavors in our incredible drink; if it flakes off too soon, the flavors will come out much more easily.

At this point it is time to use the sense of smell.

Then break the cream with a teaspoon and bring the cup under the nose and perceive not the quality of the aromas, but the quantity. Ask yourself this question, “Do I sense a strong aromatic intensity or do I sense almost nothing?”

Bring the cup close to your nose and, with the help of a teaspoon that you keep moving inside, try to pick up the specific aromas of your coffee and especially try to figure out whether they are pleasant or unpleasant aromas.

Take long sighs and possibly with your eyes closed.

Positive notes could be scents of flowers, fruit, citrus, chocolate, cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla, honey, malt, toast, caramel, nuts, and many others.

In contrast, negative aromas can be notes of rubber, jute, wet grass, earth, hay, damp wood, moss, mold, fungus, and even ash and tar. They are usually related to the use of a defective or contaminated raw material, or even incorrect and excessive roasting or poor cleaning of the machine used for extraction.

It is certainly not easy to identify scents specifically, as it takes a lot of training, but trust that it will be easier to recognize unpleasant aromas, as they make your nose twitch and make tasting unpleasant.

Finally it’s time to taste your espresso.

Drink in small sips and possibly with a suck, to better understand, the same suck that makes you rude if you do it while eating soup.

In this case it is really required!

At this stage of the tasting we will use taste and touch.

In fact, by swirling the coffee around on your tongue and palate, try to focus on understanding its full-bodiedness.

To understand it, the body of coffee is comparable to the viscosity of a liquid. For example, water has zero body, oil has medium body, while a nice hot chocolate has a lot of body, being very dense.

To set points of comparison, the coffee body should position itself somewhere between water and oil.

The body can be called velvety if it is softer, round if it is more full-bodied, and firm if it is very full-bodied.

Let’s take a second sip and focus on the aromatic and balancing part of your espresso.

In this case we need to confirm, modify or reverse the judgment given at the olfactory level in the previous stage. We can then add new scents than those listed above, not warn some of them, or change our overall judgment in case more negative than positive aromas are warned.

In addition, at this stage of tasting, we will also feel: acidity, sweetness, bitterness and astringency.

We explain these 4 characteristics below:

Sweet : can be felt on the tip of the tongue. Roasting is an important and delicate process to achieve sweetness. In fact, too aggressive roasting nullifies this property. A sweet Ernani coffee can be the Santos Cerrado Bom Chocolate;

Apri la scheda prodotto!

Acid : is felt on the side of the tongue. Acidity is one of the main properties of high-quality coffees, although an excess is always considered a defect. This organoleptic property depends mainly on the type of roasting and the method of infusion. Moreover, it is a characteristic mainly belonging to Arabica coffees. A sour Ernani coffee can be Ethiopian Sidamo;

Apri la scheda prodotto!

Bitter : can be felt on the back of the tongue. A moderate level of bitterness is considered an expression of quality. The process of roasting is essential, as over-roasting, reduces to the point of nullifying the sweet notes, highlighting the bitter ones far too much. Generally, the robusta variety is more bitter than the arabica variety. A bitter Ernani coffee can be the Straits;

Apri la scheda prodotto!

Astringency : is felt on the walls of the mouth and tongue. It is the allappant perception that is picked up over about 15 seconds, caused by the tannic part of the drink. To mean it is the same feeling you get when you eat a banana that is still too unripe, with which you feel like a “rougher” or viscous layer on the walls of your mouth. It must never be present, considered in fact as a defect. Astringency, on the other hand, cannot be felt from an Ernani Café.

Generally in the Italian tradition to achieve the purpose in all bars a blend is always used, in this way the percentage of robusta gives bitterness and body to the drink, while the percentage of arabica gives it acidity and fragrance.

In the case of going to taste in single-origin, the cup will in most cases be a little more unbalanced on acidity or bitterness, depending on the variety of coffee you select. Even then, however, none must annoyingly overpower the other.

Now one last step remains: retronasal sensations.

Wait 10-15 minutes from when you have tasted and do not drink or eat anything else.

Focus on the sensations left on your palate and the scents that come up retronasally as you exhale from the nose.

Even at this last stage you must perceive only positive notes.

What actually happens in most cases is to feel a persistent and unpleasant bitterness. If this happens it is considered a defect. After a tasting, if the espresso is good, you should never need to drink a glass of water to rinse your mouth. In fact, you never want that incredible taste to go away!

Many of the smells described here depend on the level of roast adopted: the darker it is, the more it goes to burn the beans selected for your espresso, the more positive aromas will be cancelled out to make room for bitterness and smells of ash and burnt.

In contrast, with a medium roast the bitterness remains softer and the sweetness and all the aromas of the coffee are brought out to the fullest.

Now all you have to do is try!

Let me know how it went, and if you want more clarification on the matter, write to shop@caffeernani.com and we will be so happy to help you!

L'articolo How to taste an espresso: a lesson with Paolo proviene da Caffè Ernani.

Intensity in coffee: meaning and how to recognize it

Martina Mazzoleni — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 12:37:39 +0000

By now, “intensity” is used to define good coffee. The more intense a coffee is, the more valuable it is perceived to be.

Is this association correct? Is it true that quality coffee is necessarily intense? Is it a good method to define whether a coffee is fine or not?

But before you delve into explaining the meaning of coffee intensity, discover the perfect blend for you: answer 3 simple questions and you’ll get the result right away!

Fai il test!

First, let’s define the term!

The intensity of a coffee depends on the body consistency and aromatic richness of the drink.

Already from this definition 2 concepts can be guessed:

The fact that you have to consider 2 variables: body and aroma;
Consequently, in this sense, it is a suitable method for defining only espresso-extracted coffees, as they are the only ones with greater body.

For example, a filter coffee or mocha coffee presents significantly less body. These will be evaluated for other characteristics of their own that we will evaluate in future articles.

At this point it seems fair to clarify the concepts of body and aromatic intensity as well:

Coffee body: you using the human sense of touch, evaluating the texture and structure of the liquid. To mean hot chocolate is very full-bodied, oil has a medium consistency, and water has no body;
Aroma intensity: consists of the amount of scents that are perceived by the sense of smell after bringing a cup of coffee toward the nose. And note that I dwelt only on the “quantity” of flavors contained, not the quality, which we will discuss in a moment.

Generally, a scale is used ranging from 1 (coffee with little aroma and almost no body) to 10 (coffee with very consistent body and high aroma).

That said, let’s go on to create general categories, which subdivide espresso coffees by body and aroma. You can then use them as reference points within which to place your favorite coffee:

Intensity 1 to 4: Light-bodied coffee with delicate aromas;
Intensity 5 to 7: Balanced coffee with a round body and rich flavors;
Intensity 8 to 10: Coffee with a consistent body and rich aromas.

Once these theoretical concepts are fixed, how can you understand the intensity of your coffee objectively?

Start by bringing the cup toward your chest and under your nose, about six inches away from it.

Once in position, inhale deeply and try to grasp whether you are getting a large amount of aroma or, on the contrary, you are getting almost no aroma at all. Please note: I am talking about aromatic quantity, so if you smell strong, or light, not quality This will be evaluated later.

Now it is time to taste the coffee: take a sip and move the drink around the tongue and across the palate and try to understand the viscosity of the liquid.

However, it is difficult to understand the flavor and body of my coffee, how can I do it?

The key word is always this: experiment!

The best way to fully understand these characteristics and to become an expert is to try!

Change coffees, taste different types, different blends with more or less arabica and robusta and compare them with each other.

I recommend that you try three opposite Ernani blends to really understand the difference there can be between different coffees:

Blue Diamond, a 100% Arabica blend that is fresher and more fragrant, velvety and finely acidic;

Scopri il Blue Diamond

Harmony, a blend with a higher percentage of Arabica, with a chocolatey aftertaste, full-bodied and balanced between sweetness, bitterness and acidity;

Scopri Armonia

Stretto, a 100% robusta blend that is fuller bodied, more caffeinated, and has more bitterness.

Scopri lo Stretto

So the more intense a coffee is, the more valuable it is?This is not entirely true.

Of course no one should be feeding you dirty water that tastes like nothing, absolutely not!

But for example, the most full-bodied coffees are generally those of robusta quality, which are considered less valuable than arabica coffees. In fact, you will hardly find an Arabica that will receive a top score on the “body” item in the evaluation grid.

In addition, one must also consider the aromatic quality along with the aromatic charge.

In fact, very often actually intense coffees are passed off as fine because they have a very strong aroma. But if the aroma has a profile of ash, burnt, rubber, mold and so on, does it still remain a positive note?

No! The fragrance in addition to being intense must also be of quality!

In this sense, the aromas perceived in a cup of coffee are vast.

The main positive scents, among all possible varieties, have been somewhat codified, such as: hints of caramel, toast, chocolate, cocoa, fruity effluvia, citrus notes, dried fruit aromas, and many others.

In contrast, negative ones can be definitive such as burned, mold, ash, rubber, jute, wet wood, soil, concrete, etc.

The latter hints, which we would never want to find inside our cup, come from 2 different steps:

Some have a natural origin-for example, if a coffee plantation grows next to a rubber plantation and they share soil, the beans will assimilate the scent. This problem is solved when the roaster selects the raw material he or she wants to purchase, eliminating all those grains that have these olfactory defects;
Others, however, result from the processing: in fact, with dark roasting, so when you almost burn the coffee bean to hide some defects, it does, however, create that burnt and ashy smell we mentioned earlier. It will also make the coffee decidedly more bitter sometimes even excessively bitter, so much so that it will be unpleasant to taste. In contrast, medium roasting does not cover up the natural flavors of raw grains, in fact it enhances them to the fullest!

This explains why an intense coffee is not necessarily fine.

One must consider all the different factors: body, aromatic charge, and aromatic quality.

When these are in balance with each other, as if to create a perfect and proportionate recipe, and make tasting enjoyable on all fronts, then yes, coffee is quality!

L'articolo Intensity in coffee: meaning and how to recognize it proviene da Caffè Ernani.

Let’s have some clarity: is arabica better than robusta?

Martina Mazzoleni — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 14:35:18 +0000

By now we hear more and more phrases such as “the best coffee is 100 percent Arabica,” “give me an Arabica espresso please,” or even “I only drink coffee at the bar if it has at least 70 percent Arabica,” and finally “we only make quality blends with at least 80 percent Arabica.”

These statements are not entirely false, but said in isolation and out of context, they do not mean much.

Let’s find out together why…

But before you delve into explaining the difference between arabica and robusta, discover the perfect blend for you: answer 3 simple questions and you’ll get the result right away !

Fai il test qui!

The real thing is that in general, arabica quality coffee is considered more valuable than robusta quality coffee.

That said, I emphasize the term “in general,” because there are also bad arabica coffees and incredible and aromatic robusta coffees.

The difference between arabica and robusta

The major differences between arabica and robusta are 3:

SHAPE:
the arabica bean is usually more elongated and coarse, with a more sinuous central cut; in contrast, the robusta bean is smaller and rounder, with a straight central groove;
ALTITUDE OF GROWTH
: robusta grows from 0 m above sea level up to about 800 m; while arabica grows higher, that is, from 600 m up to 2400 m. This makes arabica more difficult to grow. In addition, higher altitudes tend to make the coffee more acidic;
OTHER
: arabica has about half as much caffeine as robusta, but has twice as many chromosomes, making it a more aromatically complex coffee. In contrast, robusta has about twice as much caffeine and half as many chromosomes, thus a less aromatic and more bitter coffee.

What do these differences imply in the cup?
In general, Arabica gives your cup of coffee aroma, delicacy, sweetness, pleasant acidity and a velvety, firm crema.
The robust one, on the other hand, attributes more body.
Keeping in mind that in Italy we consume coffee in most cases in espresso, we seek short, full-bodied and creamy coffee. Therefore, the optimal solution turns out to be to create a blend of robusta and arabica. In this way the merits can be obtained from both plants.
In fact, the arabica part will give us delicious and inviting aromas and flavor notes, while the robusta part allows us to extract a coffee with enveloping body and velvety crema.
Is a roaster who writes on the label of his 100% Arabica coffee selling quality coffee?
The roaster has perhaps one of the most difficult tasks compared to all the roles it takes to get the coffee you enjoy at your local coffee shop.
In fact, it can get a really excellent coffee as completely ruin the raw material with even a few extra seconds of cooking the beans.
The roaster’s talents are multiple and lie in selecting high quality and defect-free raw material, processing and roasting it to perfection, and finally creating the perfect recipe to create an intense and balanced cup of coffee.
That said, let’s give some examples: if a roaster packages a 100% Arabica coffee blend or even a 100% Arabica single-origin, but at the base has purchased raw beans with defects, such as unpleasant odors, the coffee will not be classified as quality coffee.
Or even, if a roaster has, yes, selected an excellent raw material, but then gone and hyper-roasted it, he has completely ruined the raw beans. In fact, in this way it hid any natural aroma present in the bean, covering it with a strong bitterness and an almost burnt taste. The coffee in the cup will therefore be unpleasant to the palate, even if it is a 100% Arabica.
And so on…
Can personal tastes affect quality?
The quality of a coffee is established objectively with internationally valid tests, which result in certificates, a kind of coffee quality card.
The most widely used and popular test is “cupping,” performed with ground coffee left to steep.
However, “the highest quality coffee” does not necessarily mean that it is the one that suits you as a taste.
In fact, arabica usually has more sour notes, compared to robusta. If acidity in coffee bothers YOU, a 100% Arabica will not be for you.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a creamy coffee with a more bitter note, you should opt for a blend with a higher percentage of robusta.
And finally, if you want a velvety, sweet, mild and aromatic coffee instead, you should opt for a blend with a higher percentage of Arabica.
Always being careful about roasting, however. In fact, to be sure that the coffees have the characteristics described above you will need to read “medium roast” on the label.
So how can I tell if a blend is quality or not if I don’t just look at the percentage of arabica?
The best action would be to ask the professionals you need for information.
In fact, at Ernani’s, we have a trained and professional team at our roastery who will be able to advise and guide you to the blend that is most akin to your personal tastes and what you want to enjoy in your cup of coffee.
And not only that, we also offer the same service online, just contact us at shop@caffeernani.com and we will help you find the perfect blend or single origin for you.
Finally, the best advice I can give you is to try….
Experiment, try new coffees and ever-changing flavors, and slowly you will discover what is right for you.
Also, if you try to taste your espresso without sugar you will be able to pick up every aromatic nuance better, and it will be even easier to immediately distinguish a quality coffee from one that is not good and palatable.

L'articolo Let’s have some clarity: is arabica better than robusta? proviene da Caffè Ernani.