Summer Cold Brew Coffee Making Method! Super Simple Iced Coffee Recipe Tutorial with Illustrations

Here's what happened: Last time, a customer who came to the shop tasted the coffee made by FrontStreet Coffee and raised a question: "Boss, is your cup not clean? Otherwise, why is this coffee so sweet?" This startled FrontStreet Coffee so much that they immediately jumped up and made another cup for the customer. It turned out that it was precisely because the coffee had such a high sweetness that it caused the misunderstanding that the cup wasn't clean and the coffee had mixed with residual sugar to become so sweet!

It sounds absurd, but it actually happened!! However, I believe many beginners still can't quite understand the sweetness in coffee. After all, every time they order what baristas call a "high-sweetness coffee," they're served a black coffee that's either bitter or sour. Not only can they not taste any sweetness, but they also show discomfort because of these two flavors! Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee is here today to share where exactly the sweetness in coffee comes from!

Is It Related to the Sugar Substances in Coffee Beans?

When it comes to sweetness, everyone naturally thinks of sugar. The sugars in green coffee beans include monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides, accounting for about 50% of the bean's weight. However, not all types of sugar are sweet!

For example, polysaccharides have no sweetness and are insoluble in water, yet they make up the largest proportion of coffee beans! This is because they are the cellulose of the coffee bean (what we know as coffee grounds). Monosaccharides, on the other hand, are both water-soluble and sweet; glucose and fructose belong to this category. Disaccharides are formed by the dehydration of two monosaccharide molecules, are also water-soluble, and have sweetness. Sucrose, maltose, and lactose all belong to the disaccharide category.

But the sweetness in coffee doesn't come from these sugars. During the roasting process, substances in coffee beans continuously undergo chemical reactions, decomposing and combining to create more diverse flavor compounds. Sweet monosaccharides and polysaccharides are no exception—they undergo various reactions continuously during roasting until they emerge from the roaster, leaving only trace amounts of sugar that can be perceived by taste buds. Although some remain, their quantity is so small that the sweetness cannot be detected by our taste buds! Therefore, we cannot directly perceive sweetness through these two types of sugars.

So, Where Does the Sweetness Actually Come From?

Since these flavor substances are too few or nonexistent, and taste buds can barely detect their presence, our perception of sweetness doesn't rely solely on taste buds but requires assistance from other senses—for example, our sense of smell.

Olfaction is divided into orthonasal and retronasal olfaction! Orthonasal olfaction is when we directly capture aromas by inhaling—for example, when we experience the dry and wet aromas of coffee, we're using orthonasal olfaction, smelling directly. Retronasal olfaction occurs during drinking, when coffee aromas travel up to the nasal passages during swallowing. The aromas we perceive at this moment come from retronasal olfaction. Therefore, as long as we capture the tastes in our mouth and the aromas perceived by our sense of smell during drinking, our brain will automatically combine them, ultimately presenting the flavor of a specific food from our memory.

If this specific aroma reminds us of relatively sweet foods, we will subconsciously think that this cup of coffee has very high sweetness! For example, if substances in coffee eventually develop aromas similar to toffee or brown sugar after undergoing numerous reactions during roasting, then after perceiving these aromas and combining them with the taste of coffee in our mouth, we'll form the corresponding perception of sweetness! The sweetness that baristas talk about comes from this!

How Should We Train Our Ability to Perceive Sweetness?

Drinking more is always the method most recommended by FrontStreet Coffee, but simply drinking a lot won't bring significant improvement, so we still need some little tricks~ For example, before tasting, we can form a preliminary impression of this coffee through its dry and wet aromas, because the aromas at this time will be relatively strong, so let's feel them first! Then, when tasting and swallowing, keep your mouth closed and exhale through your nose to judge with retronasal olfaction. If they align, the sweetness will easily emerge!

However, a person can easily be constrained by their imagination, after all, coffee aromas are always similar and not exactly the same as the food aromas we usually encounter. So why not bring a friend to analyze together when tasting! Even if you don't smell anything specific, your friend might be able to perceive something. With their sharing, you'll quickly be able to associate with that food's aroma, thereby perceiving the sweetness of the coffee!

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FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473