How Should Beginners Choose Pour-Over Single-Origin Coffee Beans? Does Coffee Silver Skin Affect the Flavor?

"There's so much silver skin after grinding coffee beans. If you brew without cleaning it... won't that affect the coffee's flavor?" FrontStreet Coffee has noticed that many enthusiasts struggle with silver skin in their coffee grounds when making pour-over coffee, believing that silver skin can introduce astringency and affect the coffee's flavor. Is this really true?

The Coffee Silver Skin Experiment

So! FrontStreet Coffee's barista meticulously picked out coffee silver skin...

The left side shows coffee grounds before removing silver skin, while the right side shows coffee grounds after removing silver skin. Don't the coffee particles on the right look much more appealing! However, FrontStreet Coffee's barista didn't actually pick out the silver skin, so why is there such a difference? Let's see what they looked like before grinding.

Have you noticed that most coffee beans on the left have a white center line, while the beans on the right don't show this white line? This center line is what we commonly call coffee silver skin, and the amount of residual silver skin depends on the processing method of the raw coffee beans.

The left side shows washed-processed Yirgacheffe coffee beans. For washed-processed coffee beans, the silver skin on the surface of raw beans is not completely retained. During roasting, the silver skin sheds in fragments, and some silver skin in the middle crevice of roasted coffee beans is difficult to remove, thus forming a white center line. The right side shows natural-processed Yirgacheffe coffee beans. For natural-processed coffee beans, the silver skin on the surface of raw beans is relatively intact. During roasting, the silver skin sheds more completely as entire pieces, so most natural-processed roasted coffee beans don't form white lines in their middle crevices.

Does Silver Skin Really Affect Coffee Flavor?

To verify whether coffee silver skin affects coffee flavor, FrontStreet Coffee seriously brewed coffee silver skin. For this brewing, FrontStreet Coffee used 1g of coffee silver skin, brewed with a V60 dripper at 92°C water temperature using a three-stage pour-over method to simulate pour-over coffee brewing, to see how the flavor profile would turn out.

The flavor of coffee silver skin: FrontStreet Coffee brewed 1g of coffee silver skin to create a silver skin broth that appeared golden yellow and clear, emitting sweet aromas of sweet corn and wheat. It tasted like light sugarcane sweetness, without any bitter/astringent or sour/astringent flavors. To be honest, it was quite delicious... (Hey! That's missing the point!)

Therefore, it's evident that even this much coffee silver skin only produced a slight corn and wheat flavor when brewed. In daily coffee grinding and brewing, the impact of coffee silver skin on coffee flavor can be considered negligible/insignificant!

Still Don't Believe That Coffee Silver Skin Doesn't Significantly Affect Coffee Flavor?

This time, FrontStreet Coffee actually picked out the silver skin from washed Yirgacheffe...

For this brewing, FrontStreet Coffee used Yirgacheffe Geddin Cooperative washed-processed coffee beans, comparing a batch with silver skin retained against one with silver skin removed. Brewing parameters were: V60 dripper, 15g coffee grounds, grind size at 80% pass-through rate through a #20 standard sieve (medium-fine grind), coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, water temperature at 91°C. FrontStreet Coffee used a three-stage brewing method: first stage with 30g water for 30-second bloom, second stage with 95g water, and final stage with 100g water, with a total time of 2'10".

Coffee flavor with silver skin retained: Bright citrus-like acidity, white floral aromas, honey sweetness, overall bright and clean, with a green tea-like aftertaste.

Coffee flavor with silver skin removed: Bright citrus-like acidity, white floral aromas, honey sweetness, overall bright and clean, with a light tea-like aftertaste.

Through this brewing comparison, it's clear that coffee silver skin really doesn't have a significant negative impact on coffee flavor. On the contrary, FrontStreet Coffee noticed that retaining coffee silver skin actually enhances the tea-like quality, which can bring about a lingering sweetness and make the coffee exhibit more sweet notes. Therefore, retaining coffee silver skin is beneficial as it can add complexity to the coffee.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473