Italian espresso and sugar - Page 3

Beginner and pro baristas share tips and tricks for making espresso.
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Eastsideloco
Posts: 1657
Joined: 13 years ago

#21: Post by Eastsideloco »

Ted Lingle, the Executive Director of the Coffee Quality Institute, prepared the following cupping notes on Robusta, as part of an effort to develop the value in this supply chain by improving quality. He lists a lot of pleasing qualities found in a fine robusta. Among the possible aroma and flavor taints, he lists harsh rubber and medicinal qualities:

Fragrance/Aroma:
 Enzymatic notes commonly found in Fine Robusta coffees include: Tea Rose, Lemon,
Coffee Blossom, and Honey; while those commonly found in Commercial Robusta
coffees include Potato and Garden Peas.
 Sugar Browning notes commonly found in Fine Robusta coffees include: Vanilla,
Butter, Caramel, Cocoa and Walnuts; while those commonly found in Commercial
Robusta coffees include Toasted Bread and Roasted Peanuts.
 Dry Distillation notes commonly found in Fine Robusta coffees include Malt; while
those commonly found in Commercial Robusta coffees include Pepper, Cedar, and
Pipe Tobacco.
Aromatic Taints commonly found in Fine Robusta coffees include Coffee Pulp; while
those commonly found in Commercial Robusta coffees include Earthy, Medicinal,
Smoke, Rubber,
and Straw.

Flavor:
 Flavor notes found in Fine Robusta coffees commonly include:
o Fruit-like: cherry, black currant, raisin, raspberry, berry, dry fig, lemon, and
prunes.
o Nut-like: walnut, almond, and malt
o Spice-like: clove, coriander and allspice
o Sweet-like: molasses, syrupy, caramel, honey, dark chocolate, cocoa, and
buttery
o Overall: rounded, complex, complete, mellow, deep and delicate.
Flavor notes found in Commercial Robusta coffees commonly include:
o Vegetable-like: grassy, hay, grain-like, barley-like, legume, potato, pea-like,
silage, jackfruit, popcorn, and biscuit-like
o Phenol-like: medicinal, metallic, rubbery, smoky, burnt, woody
o Astringent-like: uric, salty, briny, brackish
o Overall: dull, lifeless, flat, uneven, neutral, harsh, soapy

http://dev.ico.org/documents/pscb-123-e-robusta.pdf

Perhaps I'm overly sensitive to those compounds, but I have experienced them to greater and lesser degrees in typical Roman espressos, which I drank straight and without sugar by force of habit. If you are accustomed to drinking Italian espresso, I suspect that those bitter flavors just become the taste of victory in the morning, as it were. (Apologies to Apocalypse Now.)

Oliver Strand recently made an interesting comment about the power of imprinting:

"I've got a theory about coffee: Part of the reason why everyone's reaction to coffee is so strong is that it really is one of the defining passages into adulthood. It's a thing that you know about when you're a kid and you're not allowed to have for good health reasons; at some point you taste a little bit, either in high school or college because you need the chemical lift, but it's probably not that good. And then, at some point, you like it, and you decide that this is your order, this is the style you like-maybe it happened during your school year abroad in France or Italy or Mexico, and usually that moment is happening at a pretty volatile, exciting time in your life. You're drinking, having sex-a lot of other things are happening. So you decide that this is what you like, and it messes with a lot of people's heads to be told five, ten, twenty years later by some kid under the age of 50 in The New York Times, 'What you like could be improved upon.'"

aerojrp
Posts: 136
Joined: 11 years ago

#22: Post by aerojrp »

Interesting... although he says that the issue is mainly with commercial robustas... The trick must be to find the really good robustas.

We need to get you down to Napoli... It's a different taste than roman espresso, a lot thicker and flavorful, and more refined.

The imprinting thing is interesting... I do come at espresso a little differently... I never liked American coffee as a drink although I liked the smell of the ground beans. I only got into it while living in Italy and so I basically started with espresso. Still hate american coffee. As to espresso imprinting, I learned to drink it in Perugia, which is still considered the middle of Italy. It was good, and I liked it a lot, but when I got down to Southern Italy in Naples, I could really tell that the flavor and texture was much different and better than what I had further north. Pizza & Mozzarella are similar... the best come from Napoli or nearby!

Jim

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bmb
Posts: 343
Joined: 12 years ago

#23: Post by bmb »

The doser grinder was never meant as a repository of stale coffee.
IMHO it's the quickest and most efficient method for preparing espresso, in a very busy caffè bar, where it won't last enough as to loose its properties.
Of course, that in a place that only sells half a dozen or less espressos per hour, results will be poor and another, more individual method, will bring much better outcomes.

soundklinik
Posts: 41
Joined: 11 years ago

#24: Post by soundklinik »

bostonbuzz wrote:I just got back from France. The espresso that I had which was pulled well tasted like burnt tires. I had heard robusta tastes like this but MAN it really does. Sugar is necessary. Adding juuust enough is really difficult however, and I always added too much.
Welcome to France :lol:
I live here 10 years (South of France) and your experience is (I'd say) common. I stopped drinking espressos in bars long time ago, because they are expensive and taste like Michelin tires...I order pastis instead...No surprises there :wink:...
Some of the best espressos I had was in Italy, Portugal-(bika), Bostons' North end and in Coffee Connection, (when George owned it), but that was many years ago...

espressotime
Posts: 1751
Joined: 14 years ago

#25: Post by espressotime replying to soundklinik »

try a good Greek Ouzo.It's better than Pastis.Pastis is too bitter for me.

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