Are coffee aroma bottles worth thousands of dollars? How much do 36-flavor coffee noses cost? What are their uses?

Research has shown that coffee contains as many as a thousand aromatic compounds. However, precisely because of their variety and complexity, it's difficult to reach a unified consensus through linguistic descriptions! For example, when a cup of coffee has sweet and sour fruit flavors, Mr. A might feel these sweet and sour flavors are closer to lemon, while Mr. B might think the flavor is more like orange! Such situations can easily lead to communication barriers.

Moreover, just like the drawbacks of the flavor wheel, not all aromas are common items in daily life. We cannot taste and experience corresponding items one by one to remember their flavors. Therefore, people have categorized coffee aromas and reproduced them using chemical oils, creating independent, distinct aroma-experiencing objects known as "aroma bottles."

However, the earliest aroma bottles were not made from chemical oils! The initial method of making aroma bottles was very simple: plants and foods corresponding to the aromas were placed in glass bottles for storage, and sensory training was conducted through the aromas they emitted. This was direct and simple, but the drawbacks were also obvious. Untreated food ingredients and plants cannot remain immortal like specimens. They quickly oxidize with air intrusion, then rot, emitting a foul stench of decay. Therefore, people chose to use chemical substances to reproduce them, allowing for long-term storage!

The purpose of aroma bottles is simple: to help beginners systematically train their senses and correct their taste and smell. In SCA-related coffee courses, aroma bottles are also used for training. Currently, the most common aroma bottle sets on the market are two types: one is "Le Nez du Café" (Coffee Nose) produced by France's "Edition Jean Lenoir," which has 36 bottles, meaning 36 aromas; the other is "Coffee Flavor Map" produced by Korea's "Scentone," which has 100 bottles, meaning 100 aromas. The aroma bottle set owned by FrontStreet Coffee is the former, Coffee Nose, which is classified based on flavors that appear during different coffee roasting processes, with four major categories and 36 aromas. The latter refines coffee flavors into 100 aromas, and although it's not used in SCA courses, it is still an SCA-certified aroma bottle. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will briefly explain the differences between these four categories of Coffee Nose!

1. Enzymatic Category

Enzymatic refers to the chemical reactions that occur first during the roasting process of coffee beans! Their appearance brings very rich floral and fruity aromas to coffee beans, as well as varied surface colors. "Maillard reaction" are all aliases for this reaction. Coffee Nose selected nine most representative flavors: Apple, Lemon, Apricot, Cucumber, Garden Peas, Potato, Coffee Blossom, Tea-Rose, and Honeyed.

2. Sugar Browning Category

Sugar Browning refers to the caramelization reaction that occurs when the melting point of sugar substances is reached during the roasting process! The appearance of the caramelization reaction gives the beans deeper colors and food-like roasted aromas. Therefore, Coffee Nose selected the following nine flavors as representatives of the Sugar Browning category: Roasted Almonds, Roasted Peanuts, Roasted Hazelnuts, Walnuts, Caramel, Black Chocolate, Vanilla, Toast, and Fresh Butter.

3. Dry Distillation Category

In summary, the Dry Distillation category naturally refers to the dry distillation reaction! The dry distillation reaction appears at the end of the second crack of coffee beans, when the coffee beans are nearly carbonized. At this time, due to excessively high temperatures, coffee fibers begin to consume and gradually carbonize, so bitterness and aroma become more intense. The representative flavors of this category include: Pepper, Coriander Seed, Clove-like, Black Currant-like, Maple Syrup, Malt, Roasted Coffee, Pipe Tobacco, and Cedar.

4. Aromatic Taint Category

Attention! The Aromatic Taint category does not refer to taint reactions, but to possible taint flavors that may appear in coffee! Earthy, Straw, Medicinal, Rubber, Leather, Smoke, Coffee Pulp, Basmati Rice, and Cooked Beef.

How to Use Aroma Bottles?

The use of aroma bottles is actually the same process as memorizing vocabulary! We can first form preliminary memory points in our minds by smelling them one by one. FrontStreet Coffee suggests smelling and recording directly according to their classification, because as you progress further, the roasting becomes deeper, and deeper roasting results in more muted flavors! If you smell them in a disordered manner, your memory points can easily be disrupted by the coverage of different aromas.

When we remember them about seven or eight out of ten, we can begin advanced exercises: shuffle them! Blind testing! First separate them by category, shuffle, and conduct blind testing group by group. The purpose of doing this can greatly strengthen our memory of these flavors and further enhance our perception abilities. When we can accurately remember all four groups, we then mix them all together, shuffle, and conduct blind testing! When you can accurately perceive their aromas, it means you've graduated!

At the end of this article, FrontStreet Coffee wants to say that this article only shares the purpose and usage of aroma bottles, and is not intended to encourage friends to purchase aroma bottles to enhance their perception. First, their price is too expensive (several thousand yuan!!), and second, because their aromas are artificially reproduced flavors, they won't be completely consistent with those emitted by coffee! Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee still recommends smelling more, tasting more, and experiencing more!

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

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