The standard of the ideally extracted coffee

Hello everyone, this is Catch Mind, who always want to “play” with coffee. Today I am going to talk about the ideal extraction of coffee.

 

 

In the previous posting, I discussed about the over extracted and under extracted coffee but, today we are going to talk about how to extract the perfect coffee. As usual, please read it casually.

 

Let’s first touch on the a few facts about the under and over extracted coffee.

When I’m judging the quality of the coffee, I do that by the taste and texture of the coffee, especially by the texture. It’s not like I have super sense but, everyone would easily differentiate between the badly extracted coffee from the good ones.

 

If the coffee is under extracted, there is little or no sweetness, and it disappears quickly because of bad texture and short after taste. Also, the acidity tends to be stronger. (Despite the different characteristics of specific species).

 

 

 

On the other hand, when the coffee is over extracted it is rough, and dry in the mouth, even bitter like medicine.

 

The reason why I am talking about over and under extraction is because I want to emphasize on the importance of “balance”. When the extraction goes wrong, the balance of the taste breaks down and possibly makes the texture bad.

 

The taste and texture of coffee depend on the coffee making process. One thing clear is that the taste and texture become bad when the ‘balance’ breaks down.

 

 

When we think about the ‘standard’ of extraction

It is very likely that a cup of coffee contains a mixture of coffee that has been extracted normally and coffee that is not. And even a cup of well extracted coffee is not an exception.

 

As the river with the depth of average 1m consist of parts as deep as 10m or shallow as 1m, a cup of coffee is composed of the over extracted, under extracted and the normally extracted coffee. Usually the well extracted coffee covers the taste of badly extracted coffee.

 

 

 

Relying on the refractometer

Perhaps some of you are relying on refractometer. Of course refractometer is often a big help, and sometimes you need to base your judgment on it But. Sometimes the technology does not solve the problem.

 

But, if you rely solely on the refractometer to judge the taste and texture, there is a possibility that you may fall into error. As you know, the refractometer displays the average value of the components extracted from individual coffee particles, so it can fall into the trap of "average". It is obviously helpful, but it does not tell you taste and texture.

 

 

 

My opinion on the ideal extraction is,

From now on, I will share with you my very personal thoughts.

I think it is impossible to well extract the 100% of coffee grains. The extracted components of each individual particle are gathered and make the average taste and texture of the coffee.

 

And I think it's hard to extract 100% the same coffee by making the exact same identical environment every time, because the extraction variables are really more than what we think of, and it's hard to control them to 100% each time.

 

So I think of the average and balance first,

This implies a personal thought that ‘the coffee is never extracted uniformly’. Therefore, I think that the average of the coffee taste covers the unpleasant tastes, and the bad texture in the mouth.

 

And that is my idea of the normal extraction.

 

 

 

That is why I think balance is the most important thing

When we think about acidity, sweetness, and bitterness as a basic taste category, balancing the coffee is about balancing these basic factors.

 

When these three taste are balanced, you can now take consideration of coffee’s characteristics, detailed taste, strength and after-taste of coffee, assuming that there is no bad texture.

 

I want to know what your definition of the well extracted coffee is. What kind of coffee do you make?

 

 

In conclusion,,,

I always think that coffee really has no answer to it. There are so much to learn about coffee.

 

But I think that the answer is always with the one who drinks the coffee.

If the person who drinks the coffee is happy even though the balance is broken, taste too bitter or sour, that is a good cup of coffee.

 

But people tend to get a more negative feeling from bad texture of coffee, but such texture is the result of bad extraction.

 

(We discussed this topic under the premise that the pre-extraction stages of cultivation, processing, distribution and storage proceed normally and the beans free from defects.)

 

Thank you.

 

 

2019/03/13 - [행복한 커피] - The taste of over extracted, under extracted and the well extracted coffee

2019/01/09 - [행복한 커피] - How to extract a perfect cup of coffee with your child.

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