The unfortunate reality is that the majority of people think that coffee is just a push of the button. Any effort that goes into coffee making is jus lost time. I recall another conversation with a fellow barista who said to me he thought making espresso just implied pressing a button, before he began working in the industry.
However, I was grateful to my girlfriend as I realised how essential it was to publish this piece on coffee extraction. So keep reading to find what actually goes into coffee making and what other skills are required to make scrumptious coffee, apart from excellent button pushing abilities!
What Is Coffee Extraction?
The evolution of coffee extraction
Coffee extraction is the procedure of dissolving tastes from coffee grains into water. It sounds exceptionally simple in theory, I grant you. Regrettably, if we put raw, green coffee beans, (which are technically berries), into water, not much takes place. In time we have found that there are numerous elements which increase the level of extraction, which means more coffee properties or Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in the final cup of coffee.
The first of these factors is heat. Our ancestors extremely rapidly recognized that putting raw coffee beans in hot water developed more of a reaction compared to soaking raw beans in cold water. They found that, if they didn’t heat the water, they needed to leave the coffee beans soaking for a lot longer in order to get any sort of flavor at all in their beverage. This highlights the second aspect that affects coffee extraction: time. The longer the amount of time the coffee touches the water, the more properties it extracts.
However, this initial coffee beverage was still exceptionally disappointing and tasted essentially like the bitter plant that it was. Those ancient baristas required to find a way to increase the level of extraction from the coffee. Then one genius probably believed: if warm water draws more properties from the bean, then certainly it stands to reason that heating the beans over fire prior to putting them in hot water might release more of the coffee bean properties?
Eureka! Cooking or roasting the coffee beans before boiling them in water was the crucial to coffee brewing as we understand it today. This unlocked a whole world of coffee for those innovators. When we roast coffee we soften the internal cell structure of the coffee bean which permits us to extract far more properties and tastes from the coffee bean.
This was the way coffee was likely extracted for several years and years. Ultimately, some bright spark had the idea of squashing the roasted beans and making this ground coffee. Grinding coffee is the last primary element which significantly increases the extraction of TDS from coffee beans. Grinding coffee increases the area of the coffee that touches with the water, thus increasing extraction.
So there you have the three main factors that affect coffee extraction:
- Grind size
- Heat
- Time
We can break these elements down much further but for now let’s stick to these three headings. All aspects in coffee brewing are interlinked. If we change one aspect, it affects the others and we have to change them as well. I’ll discuss this in more detail a bit later on.
Under extraction and over extraction
Primal coffee drinkers ended up being so proficient at drawing out the coffee properties that they started going too far. They realized that it was possible to have too many dissolved solids in the beverage, changing it from a delicious drink to something bitter, terrible and undrinkable. There is in fact a sweet spot for extracting coffee. In the early days of brewing coffee with raw green beans, the coffee was under extracted. Ultimately, when all of the coffee making elements were identified and included to the procedure, coffee started to be over extracted.
Clive coffee highlights how different coffee solids and flavors are extracted in a specific order when making. Fats and acids are extracted first, then sugars, and finally plant fibers. The goal is to brew the coffee for enough time to get a perfect balance of these substances in the cup, however not long enough to extract the unwanted, bitter tastes.
Therefore, various levels of extraction lead to different tastes in our coffee
. Under extraction If we don & rsquo; t apply enough of one or more of the extraction factors, we will get a coffee that is under extracted. For instance, if the ground coffee isn & rsquo; t in contact with boiling water for enough time, the coffee will be under extracted. Under extracted coffee tastes sour, and does not have sweetness, as the sugars have not yet been drawn out to balance the oils and acidity.
Over extraction
If coffee is over extracted, however, it will taste bitter, due to too much of the bitter plant fibers being extracted from the coffee. Counter-intuitively, these plant fibers are the only properties that can be extracted from raw coffee beans without the addition of heat, which is why green coffee beans taste extremely bitter and unpalatable.
The extraction sweet spot
That best extraction point that we are going for will yield a drink that is sweet, with proper level of acidity and a long finish ; the finish being the instant experience that we experience after taking a sip of the coffee.
Extraction
So, for all modern types of coffee brewing, heat, time and grind size are all factors that require to be thought about when preparing each cup of coffee. Sometimes one aspect can’t be adjusted for a particular reason for a specific brewing method. Therefore, the other factors have to be adjusted to harmonize with the set aspect. Let & rsquo; s evaluate each one individually. Grind At a fundamental level, the finer the coffee is ground the more coffee is extracted. This is due to the increased surface area that touches with the water.
With every coffee brewing technique, the grind size is selected based on a variety of components.
These all need to be thought about when analyzing the grind for a brew.
With drip coffee, the grind can’t be too fine otherwise the water would take too long to pass through the filter.
With French press, the filter screen is much larger than a paper coffee filter in standard French pots. This means that the grind normally needs to be coarser for French press than for filter coffee.
On the other hand, espresso has the additional aspect of pressure during preparation, which further accelerates the preparation time. The grind for that reason requires to be much finer for espresso due to the added force of the pressure forcing the water through a smaller sized space in between the coffee grounds, at a quicker speed.
Finally, cold brew coffee is ground coarse to assist the water drip faster through the coffee grinds. Due to the much longer extraction time, fine ground coffee also tends to be over drawn out when cold making.
Grind size can be changed minutely for all preparing approaches in order to find that ideal extraction. Nevertheless, all coffee making techniques have a standard grind size to follow. The grind size that allows for best extraction for each approach has been meticulously experienced over the period of many years.
Grind sizes for basic making techniques are as follows:
- Cold brew - Coarse
- French press - Coarse
- Drip - Medium grind size
- AeroPress - Fine
- Espresso - Extra fine
- Turkish coffee - Powder
Contact Time
Just like finer grind, longer brewing time equates to higher extraction. Several brewing methods have actually a particular steeping time.
For instance, Drip coffee machines have a basic configured time to brew coffee. This indicates that the grind size and heat have to fit with the set extraction time in a drip coffee maker. In drip coffee this equates to a medium grind size and water that is nearly at boiling point.
The perfect time for basic espresso extraction is of 20 and 30 seconds. The grind size and the temperature level are therefore minutely aligned in espresso preparation so that an espresso is extracted within this time frame.
Cold brew doesn’t apply heat in the brewing procedure at all. For this reason, cold brew requires a much longer time duration for extraction compared to heated coffee extraction. The longest time for many hot making methods is around five minutes. Cold brew takes between 12 and 24 hours to draw out properly, which is a significant variation.
Temperature
Temperature level (heat) is the last element that increases the rate of extraction. The hotter the water, the quicker and higher the extraction. For that reason, if there is currently a higher level of extraction from a particular brewing technique due to other formerly pointed out variables, the water temperature level doesn’t need to be as hot.
Espresso coffee has a fine grind and a fast extraction time due to the addition of pressure. For that reason the water temperature level needs to be a little cooler than for other preparing techniques in order not to over extract it.
Filter coffee water needs to be hotter to encourage more of a response with the coffee, due to the lack of pressure.
Pour over coffee and French press coffee require to be hotter once again. This nevertheless is mainly due to the direct exposure of the water to the air. The open air nature of these making methods causes the water to cool rapidly, which is counteracted by making with water at a higher temperature.
Roast
Although I didn’t include roasting as an element that affects extraction, it is very much something that requires to be talked about here; so much so that it gets its own section. A coffee extraction recipe will usually have to be adjusted for the kind of coffee roast you are using.
Just like the actual extraction procedure, coffee beans can be roasted in a different ways in order to promote greater or less extraction. The main element that we are discussing when it concerns roast, is time.
The longer the coffee bean is roasted, the more soluble solids are released from the bean and are for that reason extracted easier throughout coffee brewing.
This is the reason that dark roasted coffee is normally believed to be stronger than light roasted coffee. This belief was developed by people who utilize the same making recipe, regardless of roasting time. Coffee that is roasted for longer is extracted quicker, for that reason it stands to reason that dark roasted coffee requires less of each brewing factor in order to extract efficiently. This means less time, coarser grind and cooler temperature levels. If brewing aspects are adjusted to compensate for a darker roast, dark roasted coffee can be prepared to be the like or weaker than a lightly roasted coffee, and vice versa.
So, hopefully, I’ve convinced you that making an excellent cup of coffee includes more than good quality equipment and dexterous thumbs for button pushing. With any luck, you have also discovered a bit more about coffee preparation which will allow you to make your home brew that bit more delicious!
Additional important information on coffee and coffee preparation: What is over extracted coffee