Is the sweetness more obvious after the coffee is brewed?

Generally, consumers always mention bitterness when describing the taste of black coffee, and associate the sweetness of coffee with added sugar. On the contrary, professional coffee lovers believe that other sensory attributes besides bitterness are the focus of coffee flavor. In fact, coffee professionals pay more attention to the natural sweetness of coffee. Does commercial coffee grinder and hand coffee grinder have a difference in coffee flavors?

Experimental study on the sweetness of coffee after brewing

Researchers MACKENZIE BATALI, Professor CARLITO LEBRILLA, Professor JEAN-XAVIER GUINARD, and Professor WILLIAM D. RISTENPART from the University of California, Davis conducted experiments with SCA and Breville companies. The goal is to understand how different brewing parameters affect the sensory properties of drip coffee , To explore the perception of natural sweetness in drip filter black coffee.

The basic idea of the experiment is that in a 4-minute drip coffee making process, a cup of coffee is received every 30 seconds to produce a total of 8 different coffees. The coffee used in the experiment is Colombian Cymbidium, roasting color Agtron/54, brewing temperature 91.5°C, and drinking temperature 55°C to 60°C. The strength of each coffee is determined by TDS. A panel of 12 experts made sensory descriptions of each coffee. A total of 9×3×12 = 324 coffees were tasted, and 7452 personal sensory data points were collected.

Some trends shown by experimental data

The coffee strength/TDS in the first stage of brewing is higher, and the TDS is reduced by nearly 10 times with the brewing process. The perception of bitterness also decreases, and the later coffee tastes less bitter. Several other sensory attributes, such as sourness, astringency, and smoky flavor, also decrease with decreasing coffee strength. Some sensory attributes begin to "increase" after brewing, including sweetness, floral, honey and fruity aromas. It can be understood that the fewer coffee molecules, the more obvious the sweetness.

The relative concentration of natural sugar in the later coffee is higher. About 10% of raw Arabica coffee beans are sucrose. Sucrose generally cannot survive the roasting process: Sucrose undergoes various complex chemical reactions, all of which combine to give coffee a wonderful flavor.

The human brain associates certain taste attributes with sweetness, so the brain will "wrongly" think that the existence of these attributes means that there must be sweetness. This phenomenon has been confirmed in other beverages and foods. This hypothesis is consistent with the increase in sweetness observed in experiments with floral, honey and fruit flavors.

Another possibility is that the higher concentration of bitter and sour compounds in the first coffee will inhibit or "mask" the sweetness, but only in the later coffee, the sweetness will appear when the bitter and sour compounds are less. Simply put, the natural sweetness in coffee is more pronounced in the later stages of brewing. The fractionation method described in this experiment can provide another way for coffee lovers to find the perfect coffee.

You are welcome to use hand crank coffee grinder, small household coffee grinder, manual coffee grinder, burr coffee grinder and other coffee making machines to do it yourself and enjoy the fun of making coffee. Welcome to visit our official website to buy all kinds of coffee bean grinder, electric coffee grinder and antique coffee grinder. If you encounter any problems when purchasing, please contact us in time.