10 Things You Must Know About Coffee Bean Crema & Recommendations for High-Crema Coffee Beans

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10 Things You Should Know About Crema

1. What is crema?

The oily substance on top of espresso extracted by an espresso machine (the topmost layer in Figure 1)

2. What is the principle behind crema?

Simply put, in the high-pressure, high-temperature extraction environment, carbon dioxide within the beans is forced into coffee oils, forming crema (as shown in Figure 2, where crema envelops carbon dioxide)

However, this is a simplified explanation. Let's see what Scientific American says more precisely:

A film formed by surfactants surrounds tiny carbon dioxide and water vapor bubbles. Crema also contains emulsified oils, which include the main aromatic components

3. Can I make crema at home?

Only espresso machines can produce relatively full crema. Other equipment including pour-over, siphon, French press, and other home equipment cannot produce crema.

However, a few devices with pressure valves, such as moka pots and Aeropress, can produce small amounts of crema, but when compared to espresso machine crema standards, it's significantly thinner.

4. Does crema greatly affect the quality of espresso?

Moderate crema is definitely one of the important standards for good-tasting espresso. First, crema can envelop aromatic gases, thus affecting the complexity of aroma. Second, crema brings a thick, rich mouthfeel, which can be said to be a unique characteristic of espresso.

5. Does espresso with lots of crema necessarily taste good?

Crema will appear when operating an espresso machine correctly, but bad beans can also produce crema, so having crema doesn't absolutely guarantee good taste. Don't be superstitious about crema.

Moreover, during the espresso extraction process, extraction time greatly affects the taste quality. Extracting for 2 seconds longer might completely ruin it. It's very possible that extracting more crema might lead to miscellaneous bitter flavors, so having excessive crema doesn't necessarily mean better taste.

6. Must crema be reddish-brown? Do other colors indicate bad taste?

Some people believe that crema in colors other than reddish-brown indicates poor preparation, mainly because traditional espresso beans are typically dark roast or darker, resulting in darker crema color.

However, currently many coffee shops use espresso beans with varying roast degrees. Medium roast and even light roast beans are quite common. It's normal for crema to appear lighter golden yellow and doesn't indicate poor or badly made espresso.

7. Do only very fresh beans produce lots of crema?

In the case of traditionally super-dark roasted espresso beans, the degassing amount is enormous, so crema production will weaken after about 10 days of storage.

However, for the medium-dark roast degrees currently favored by many coffee shops, espresso beans can still produce plenty of crema even after 20-30 days, and the extraction quality might even be better.

8. Is crema the source of aroma? Should moka pots and Aeropress pursue crema?

Crema does preserve complex aromas, but this is under espresso machine conditions.

Because moka pots and Aeropress have insufficient pressure, the extracted crema is very thin and fragile. Even if it appears, it dissipates quickly, and aroma still drifts in the air, making crema's value relatively small. Moreover, sometimes to extract crema by adjusting dose or grind size, the resulting cup might be overly bitter or unbalanced, which is putting the cart before the horse. It's better to trust your own tongue than pursue crema.

9. Is crema related to latte art?

Crema is an absolutely necessary condition for latte art, especially for complex patterns which require structurally complete, thick crema. But don't forget what was mentioned above: too much crema doesn't mean better taste.

Therefore, having delicious crema paired with beautiful latte art is definitely the mark of an expert. However, choosing beans with lots of crema but poor taste just for latte art, or over-extracting excessive crema causing bitter miscellaneous flavors, is not a good thing.

10. Does long-lasting crema indicate better coffee quality?

Crema can be described as a layer of coffee oil bubbles, which naturally dissipates very easily, so forcing it not to dissipate seems meaningless. As long as it doesn't disappear within the few minutes from serving to your first two sips, it's considered normal service.

Moreover, espresso is generally meant to be consumed quickly anyway. First, the small portion size means temperature drops rapidly; second, aromatic gases also dissipate quickly, so it's recommended to drink it promptly.

Recommended High-Crema Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee, a coffee roasting brand located at Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, offers freshly roasted espresso blend coffee beans with full guarantees in both brand and quality. The crema content is good, suitable for making specialty coffees and latte art coffees with beautiful patterns. More importantly, the value is extremely high. Taking their commercial recommendation - the commercial blend coffee beans - as an example, one 454-gram (1-pound) bag costs only about 60 yuan. Calculating based on 10 grams of coffee powder per single espresso shot, one bag can make 45 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 1.5 yuan. Even using double shots (20 grams of powder per espresso), the price of a double espresso doesn't exceed 3 yuan. Compared to certain well-known brands that sell bags for hundreds of yuan, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online shop services: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473