How does coffee get its taste, smell and color?
Do you love coffee and drink enough of it every day?? Do you ever wonder how coffee gets its taste, smell and color?? Also curious about this?
Then be sure to read on.
The color of coffee
We know no better than that coffee is brown in color, has a fairly bitter taste and a characteristic, warm smell. But how does our favorite drink actually get here? Anyone who has ever seen what a coffee bean looks like when it has just been picked can hardly imagine that it is going to end up providing the drink we know so well.
From coffee plant to coffee bean
To understand how our favorite drink gets its properties, let’s go back to the basics. To the coffee plant, because that’s where it all starts. Fruits grow on this plant, which only grows well in warm areas around the equator.
It is important that these are harvested at just the right time, namely, exactly when they are ripe. Harvesting too early makes for bitter coffee, while overripe fruit is not at its best either.
Coffee beans, the way they’re supposed to be
These fruits are then largely discarded. Because coffee is not about the fruit, about the pulp, but about what’s in it. The seed, which is shaped like a bean, is what the coffee is made from.
Because of its shape we call it the coffee bean, but what emerges from the fruit is nothing like the coffee beans as we know them. A green seed it is, that will have to be roasted first. Is this behind you, then we are going to recognize it as coffee beans.
It has acquired its brown color and become hard. This is the coffee bean as we know it, and what we are used to brewing coffee with.
From coffee bean to cup of coffee
In order for the coffee bean to do its job properly, and turn hot water into coffee, you will first have to grind it. Ground coffee is much better at imparting its color, aroma and taste to hot water. These are pulled out of the coffee, so to speak, just as is done with tea. The coffee bean, the solid substance, that remains, but some of the color, smell and taste that are imparted to the coffee.
When preparing filter coffee, watch this happen before your eyes. The filter holds the solid coffee particles in place while the hot water runs slowly through it. Along the way, all the goodness from the coffee is absorbed by the water, after which you see the brown liquid, the coffee, as a result.
Although it requires only a few steps, it is wondrous to consider that this hot drink is the result of the fruit that grew on the plant, which is nothing like the coffee we drink.
A nice cup of coffee
Do you ever think about this when you drink another cup of coffee?? I can get really happy with the smell of coffee. The first cup in the morning is a real wake-up call for me.