Khi mà cà phê chất lượng được tiêu thụ thì đời sống của người nông dân, người rang, người pha chế sẽ tốt hơn. Từ đó có động lực, điều kiện để càng ngày tập trung vào cải thiện chất lượng cà phê hơn.
Vậy bạn cần biết những tiêu chí gì khi đánh giá chất lượng cà phê?
Ở mức độ chuyên nghiệp, các chuyên gia của Hiệp Hội Cà Phê Đặc Sản Quốc Tế (SCA) hoặc Viện Cà Phê Chất Lượng (CQI) sẽ sử dụng một bảng hồ sơ (cupping form) để phân tích từng yếu tố của cà phê khi muốn đánh giá hạt thông qua quy trình thử nếm cà phê (Cupping). Đây là phương pháp đánh giá chất lượng hạt cà phê, hồ sơ rang một chính xác, hiệu quả nhất. Bài viết này dựa vào các tiêu chí đó để tìm hiểu cách đánh giá cà phê.
Classify
From an expert perspective, we can discuss coffee on a similar level. But from the perspective of consumers or coffee lovers in general, it is simpler. They just need to know which branch of coffee we are evaluating, whether it is Arabica coffee, Robusta coffee, or even Liberica coffee...
Classifying coffee is an important criterion before evaluating coffee. Coffee types have quite large differences in characteristics. Therefore, it is lame to use the characteristics of one breed to compare the other breed. Arabica coffee tends to be less bitter, more sour and has a thicker mouthfeel than Robusta beans.
Aroma/ Fragrance shows the quality of coffee
will reassess the scent of coffee again after adding water. At this point there will be many interesting differences between dry and wet scents.
Quality is coffee expressed through Flavor.
Flavor is the overall impression that can be felt from the sense of smell and taste after tasting coffee. Most of our sensations are due to flavor molecules released in the palate combined with taste. So although there are only 5 basic tastes: salty, sour, bitter sweet, brackish, we can distinguish caramel from chocolate, or orange and lemon thanks to the combination of scent groups.
The intrinsic flavor is created by chemical reactions that occur during the preparation and roasting stages. When evaluating the flavor of coffee, you will look at different temperature stages. Some types have very good flavor when hot, but gradually decrease or disappear completely, or even change into a different flavor when the temperature cools down.
Positive scent group:
- Tropical/succulent/large-seeded fruit
- Citrus group
- Flowers and herbs.
- Cereals and nuts,
- Caramel and chocolate
- Vegetable
- Spice
Bad scent group:
- The smell of fermentation/ medicine/ raw (green grass)/ salty foods
Acidity
The sour taste is considered the highlight and creates an impressive flavor for coffee. There are five types of acidity to refer to when evaluating coffee quality: lemon acid, apple acid, grape acid, vinegar acid, lactic acid. There are also some other special acids such as phosphoric acid and tomato acid that only appear in certain types of coffee. When evaluating acidity, it will be based on two criteria: intensity and quality.
Body/ Mouthfeel
The overall feeling of the palate is composed of the feeling of weight on the tongue and the texture of the solution. To make it simpler and easier to understand, you can imagine the mouth feeling similar to fresh milk, full-fat milk and whole milk for easy comparison.
Balance is the right standard when evaluating coffee quality
Normally when analyzing and evaluating a cup of coffee, we will comment on the intensity and harmony of sour, sweet and bitter flavors. In order for coffee to create a delicious feeling, the balance of flavors is important. A cup of coffee that is too sour or too bitter gives us a feeling of being overwhelmed when drinking and rarely creates enjoyment or pleasure.
Sweetness and bitterness in coffee
Usually these two will appear together. The reason sweetness is fully developed during roasting is also when bitterness appears. Specifically, coffee always has bitterness due to its inherent chlorogenic acid and caffeine acid content. It is only released through roasting metabolism. The natural sweetness in coffee is formed through the caramelization reaction during the roasting stage. The deeper it grows, the sweetness will be lost and replaced by increased bitterness. So determining the "roundness" of these two flavors at the same time will be quite a plus point when talking about coffee quality.
“Cleanness” of coffee (Clean cup /Uniformity)
Through the process of carefully screening defective beans in the preliminary processing and roasting stages, coffee will not be contaminated with defective beans. Quality coffee gives a pleasant feeling when drinking. It won't leave you with a sticky, harsh or raw green smell. What's more is the stability of quality in each cup (uniformity)... You know, to ensure premium quality, SCA has its own standard system to evaluate and classify coffee bean defects to score for green coffee beans.
Once you understand the basic criteria to evaluate coffee flavor. You will have the basis and more initiative in analyzing the quality of coffee. In addition, understanding the causes that affect coffee flavor will help you find the reasons behind better coffee taste.
In the coffee industry, we often encounter the concept of positive flavor groups and negative flavor groups, also known as undesirable flavor groups in coffee.