14 Essential Coffee Terms Every Coffee Lover Must Know! What Do These Coffee Industry Acronyms Mean? What Does "Body" Mean?

Introduction to Coffee Terminology

Just like any other industry, the coffee world has its fair share of professional terminology. While these terms facilitate communication among coffee professionals, they also create barriers for newcomers. Without understanding their meanings, it becomes difficult to comprehend specific statements and even harder to integrate into the coffee community. That's why today, FrontStreet Coffee plans to share another installment of professional terminology, hoping to help everyone better enter the coffee world and communicate without obstacles!

Small, Medium, and Large Bean Varieties

We often hear people refer to coffee beans as small-bean, medium-bean, and large-bean varieties. These correspond to the three commercially valuable coffee species: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica. The reason for these alternative names is that people simplified communication by using abbreviations based on the appearance characteristics of the plants and fruits of these three species.

Peaberry/PB

Peaberry refers to a special type of coffee bean! Typically, coffee cherries contain two coffee beans, each with a flat side that fits together. However, some coffee fruits, due to insufficient nutrient supply in early development, can only produce one coffee bean. Without the pressure from another bean, this single bean develops into a complete elliptical shape. Because of its distinctive appearance, it's separated and sold at a premium price compared to regular-sized coffee beans! PB is the English abbreviation for Peaberry.

Grade Classifications: G1/G2/AA/AB

These four are common identifiers found on coffee bean packaging bags. As FrontStreet Coffee shared in detail a couple of days ago, they are grade classifications for coffee beans. G1 and G2 are grade classifications based on defect rates, while AA and AB are grade classifications based on size grading systems.

Hard Bean vs Soft Bean

When FrontStreet Coffee's coffee enthusiasts discuss coffee bean grinding or roasting, this pair of terms appears frequently. They primarily refer to the density of a coffee bean. For example, hard beans have higher density, making them more difficult to grind and roast; while soft beans have lower density, making them easier to grind and roast. Additionally, they correlate with coffee quality because the main determinant of coffee bean density is its substance content. When coffee beans have higher substance content, they become harder.

Blend/Blended Coffee

Friends often ask FrontStreet Coffee about these two terms, which actually both refer to "blended coffee." Different regions just have different expressions for the concept of blending, hence the different names. Blended coffee refers to the combination of two or more coffee beans to create a bean with high cost-effectiveness/high stability, or to achieve more outstanding flavor performance. In summary, the purpose of blending is to achieve a 1+1>2 effect. (Blended coffee refers both to blended coffee beans and to coffee extracted from blended beans)

Single Origin/SOE

In complete contrast to blends is single origin coffee. Single origin means coffee beans from a single origin, single batch. Usually, single origin beans are primarily used for making single origin coffee, though they can also be used for espresso. When we use single origin beans to make espresso, this espresso gets a new name--SOE. The full name of SOE is Single Origin Espresso, which translates to espresso made from single origin coffee beans. So everyone must remember to avoid mistakes like "SOE Espresso" or "Espresso SOE."

Shot/Double Shot

In coffee, shot can be used as a unit for espresso. 1 shot corresponds to one serving of espresso, and if we want the barista to add two servings of espresso, we can say Double shot, meaning double espresso.

Crema/Crema (Oil)

Crema means "cream" in Spanish. In the coffee world, Crema refers to that layer of golden foam floating on the surface of espresso. Because it resembles cream, people named it "Crema." "油脂" (oil) refers to the same substance, but it can cause people to misunderstand it as the common oils found in daily life. In reality, this golden substance is merely a group of bubbles filled with carbon dioxide~

Light, Medium, and Dark Roast Coffee

These three common terms primarily refer to coffee/coffee beans with different roast levels. The roast level of coffee beans is mainly affected by their development time in the roaster and the degree of heat applied. These three terms not only represent the roast level of coffee beans but also represent the flavor performance of coffee at these three different roast levels.

Brewing Ratio

Unless specifically stated otherwise, when people mention brewing ratio, they generally refer to the coffee-to-water ratio. The coffee-to-water ratio means the ratio of coffee grounds to hot water used for brewing coffee. Besides this, there's another common ratio, which is the coffee-to-liquid ratio. The coffee-to-liquid ratio refers to the ratio of coffee grounds used to the extracted coffee liquid.

Ristretto/Lungo

The terms Ristretto/Lungo (short extraction/long extraction) are mainly used to describe the extraction volume of espresso. Regular espresso extraction volume is approximately twice the liquid weight of the grounds. When our extraction volume is much lower than this amount, it's called short extraction, which we commonly know as Ristretto. When our extraction volume is much higher than this amount, it's called long extraction, which we commonly know as Lungo.

Combo

Combo means combination. In the coffee world, combo mainly refers to making several different types of coffee using one type of bean. Since it's different coffees combined together, it's named Combo.

Body

"This coffee has good body!" FrontStreet Coffee believes this is a phrase many friends often hear. Body means mouthfeel. When people say the above sentence, it means they're praising this coffee for having good mouthfeel. Coffee with good mouthfeel will have the following characteristics: thick, rich, smooth, and full-bodied. Coffee with poor mouthfeel mainly表现为: thin, rough, and watery.

By Pass

By pass means to bypass. In coffee, it mainly refers to bypass water, which is a rather alternative coffee adjustment method. The general idea is that this portion of water doesn't pass through the coffee grounds and doesn't cause extraction, but is directly added to the coffee liquid. We can understand it as adding water, with the main purpose being to adjust the coffee's concentration.

Conclusion

- END -

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473