Flavor Profile Characteristics of Medium-Dark Roast Coffee Beans: How to Brew Mandheling and Blue Mountain Coffee for Best Taste

Acidic coffee offers the uplifting flavors of flowers, fruits, and various sugars. But what about bitter coffee? While elders often say "young people should endure more hardships and suffer fewer losses," surely no one except ascetics would actively seek bitterness. Bitter coffee is really about life...

Um... such poetic sentiments aren't really FrontStreet Coffee's style. Bitter coffee actually has its own flavors, mostly revolving around chocolate, caramel, and nuts, which pales in comparison to the complexity of acidic coffee. Of course, some people can't get used to acidic coffee and prefer the taste of bitter coffee. But in terms of flavor complexity, bitter coffee falls far short because the specialty coffee flavor knowledge we encounter today is tailored for acidic coffees.

The Relationship Between Roasting and Coffee Acidity

Coffee's acidity and bitterness are actually determined by roasting. In coffee roasting, there's a term called "first crack," when coffee beans can no longer store energy after absorbing heat to a certain point and release it through cracking. Simply put, this tells you the coffee beans are done.

If you remove them at this point, the coffee will be very acidic. If you continue roasting after the "first crack" begins and wait until the cracking sounds become dense before removing, the coffee will have both acidity and sweetness. If you still don't remove them and continue waiting until all sounds cease, coffee removed afterward will be bitter, with bitterness intensifying the later you remove them.

Acidity, meaning lightly roasted coffee beans, displays rich aroma and flavor profiles. Current roasting trends suggest that coffee beans showing excellent acidity should never be roasted dark. However, not all coffee beans are suitable for light roasting. Some beans develop acidity when lightly roasted, but this acidity isn't pleasant, or this level of roasting amplifies other defects, such as mouthfeel and sweetness. Therefore, these beans are roasted darker to eliminate unpleasant acidity and make coffee sweet (bitter) through caramelization reactions.

The Advantages of Bitter Coffee

Although bitter coffee doesn't have as many flavor dimensions as acidic coffee, it has its advantages: mouthfeel. Darker roasted coffee allows oils to seep from within the beans to the surface, making them easier to extract, and these oils enhance the coffee's mouthfeel.

Bitter coffee isn't necessarily bad-tasting coffee. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, properly roasted and brewed bitter coffee carries rich caramel aroma, dark chocolate, and nut flavors, with bitterness followed by sweetness, creating a mellow and smooth mouthfeel. This is why many people still enjoy drinking this type of coffee, savoring its gentle and rich sensation.

But if brewed poorly, that bitterness becomes unforgettable, like drinking traditional Chinese medicine, lingering long after. Therefore, brewing methods that preserve bitter coffee's flavor while showcasing its mouthfeel advantages are worth exploring.

Brewing Techniques for Bitter Coffee

If you want to avoid overwhelmingly bitter flavors, FrontStreet Coffee suggests not being too aggressive with parameters. Use water temperatures between 86-88°C to make the coffee gentler with less pronounced bitterness. The coffee grind should be slightly coarser than for acidic coffee. According to FrontStreet Coffee's calibration using a #20 sieve, this is the grind setting with 70% pass-through rate.

Regarding coffee-to-water ratios, if you want to highlight coffee flavors, you'll lean toward using more water to lower concentration, helping to appreciate richer flavors. For example, brewing floral and fruity acidic coffees typically uses a 1:16 ratio. For bitter coffees, you'll lean toward brewing more concentrated flavors, which prevents bitterness from spreading too widely while also enhancing mouthfeel to some extent. Of course, overly concentrated coffee can be unpleasant. Japanese-style coffee, known for its fragrant, rich, and pure bitterness, typically uses ratios around 1:12. FrontStreet Coffee believes ratios between 1:13 and 1:15 more easily showcase both flavor and mouthfeel of bitter coffee.

Regarding filter choice, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using slower-flowing drippers like the Kono dripper or wedge-shaped drippers. These drippers more easily produce thick mouthfeel and gentle flavors.

For pouring requirements, if you want orderly extraction without bitter, mixed flavors, slow down your pouring rhythm—pour slowly and gently. FrontStreet Coffee suggests dividing the pour into three stages: first stage uses double the coffee grounds amount for blooming, with the second and third stages evenly dividing the remaining water. For example, with 15g of grounds at a 1:15 ratio, for easy calculation, this can be divided into 30/100/95ml portions.

Here FrontStreet Coffee would like to add two details: during blooming, ensure full blooming. This can be judged in two ways: first, confirm all coffee grounds are moistened and some coffee liquid is released from the bottom; second, the coffee grounds expand, then stabilize without releasing more gas. After blooming, pour in smaller circles as much as possible. The spent coffee bed after brewing will be slightly thicker than that of lightly roasted coffee.

Important Notice :

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