Coffee taste

If Europeans like light, sour coffee, Vietnamese people like strong, bitter coffee with almond and earthy aromas… But the above factors must be a complete combination to have a delicious cup of coffee.

Coffee taste creates the cultural nuances of each locality. People can look at the way they drink, their taste in coffee and recognize where that person is from. However, in big cities with a “mixed” culture, coffee has more nuances of taste. Those cultural nuances have “changed” many times since the time coffee followed the French to Vietnam during the colonial period. They chose Lam Vien plateau and Buon Ma Thuot to develop this type of tree.

Vietnamese people like strong, bitter coffee with almond and earthy aromas.

According to Saigon Marketing, there are two main varieties of coffee in Vietnam: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica can only be grown at an altitude of 800 meters or higher above sea level. However, Arabica coffee is only truly valuable at an altitude of 1,300-1,500 meters. In lower regions, people grow Robusta coffee.

The Arabica coffee variety with the Moka coffee line has been known to many people for a long time. Moka coffee from Cau Dat, Da Lat (Don Duong area) belongs to the Bourbon variety. Its unique quality has made Moka coffee famous in Vietnam and abroad. In addition to the variety and soil factors, the processing method is also important for delicious Moka coffee.

According to Mr. Pham Tan Phat, director of the Dong Duong garden coffee company, Moka has been around since the French came to Vietnam. But in the 40s and 50s of the last century, residents of Cau Dat began to develop this variety of coffee in the style of garden coffee, not in the style of large plantations.

A good cup of coffee must have natural aromas and flavors. When roasting, people can add a little butter to increase the fat and aroma, and no additional flavors are added during the processing.

The acidity of the coffee must be light, fresh, and clean on the tongue. Europeans often prefer acidity, depending on the coffee variety, its sour taste has the scent of flowers or fruits. The oiliness (body) of coffee when put on the tip of the tongue will feel fatty and heavy on the tip of the tongue. This fatness will range from light to fatty, oily and rich. Vietnamese people often like strong oiliness. In terms of aroma, coffee has the aroma of almonds, fruits, butter, earth, etc. Depending on the variety, harvesting method, roasting method, etc., it will give a unique aroma to each type of coffee. Meanwhile, the bitter taste of coffee must be naturally bitter, not dull, astringent or burnt.

Arabica Coffee

Robusta Coffee

Some people, for profit, still use many types of chemicals to create from smell to color… for low-quality coffees, to enhance the flavor that these types of coffee do not have. People in the profession also said that some types of coffee are also added with special chemicals so that each time you drink iced coffee, the coffee foam will float no less than beer foam, or to create a color for the coffee to be strong black, bitter… This is a way to kill the taste of the person enjoying it, not to mention other harmful effects.

A cup of coffee makes people more alert, but after drinking a cup of coffee, if the heart beats erratically like a drum, dizziness, blurred vision… caused by chemicals, it is considered a failure, it is better not to drink it.

To achieve a unique taste, people can mix two or more types of coffee together, such as Arabica mixed with Robusta or with other coffee varieties. These are the secrets, the appeal of this drink, and each place has a mixing ratio so that the taste of their cup of coffee is the best, most unique.

How to process Moka coffee into any flavor depends on the harvesting method. If you harvest dry, you strip the entire fruit on the tree, then dry it and then grind it to get the beans. Coffee harvested this way will turn the beans into a slightly brown color. At that time, the aroma of the coffee will have a unique smell of soil and rotten leaves. Meanwhile, if you harvest wet, you only pick the ripe coffee fruit, then immediately remove the pulp to get the beans. These coffee beans are old so they are very firm. This method will produce white coffee beans. And coffee beans with the outer husk will help the oil in the beans absorb more evenly. Its flavor still retains the scent of flowers, fruits, almonds, and special butter oil of coffee.

Coffee roasting is one of the important stages.

Coffee roasting is one of the important steps and has its own secrets. Depending on the coffee variety, people roast with the appropriate heat and time. The higher the coffee tree is, the firmer the beans will be. And the firmness of the beans helps the coffee to withstand high heat and longer roasting time when roasted. Arabica coffee meets this requirement. Thanks to the high heat, the roasted coffee beans will reach their level. Depending on the desired strength of the coffee, people watch the heat. When the coffee beans start to pop evenly for the first time, the coffee beans are done, but to make it stronger, people continue roasting until the beans pop again.

The time for the second pop is only a few dozen seconds after the first pop and must be timed to finish roasting before the beans stop popping. Because when the beans stop popping, it means the coffee is burnt. Vietnamese people like to drink strong coffee, so they often roast this way. Perhaps the unique Vietnamese iced coffee and iced milk coffee have begun to conquer foreigners partly thanks to this way of roasting dark coffee.

In the past, coffee shops often roasted coffee on the spot. The iron rotating drum was soaked in oil and smoke, shiny over the years. The roaster rotated the drum while checking by smelling the smell, looking at the smoke and listening to the popping sound of the beans. Roasting coffee is like making wine, weather factors such as humidity, air pressure… will affect the quality of the coffee batch. Currently, coffee roasting equipment is very sophisticated and controlled by programs. But according to some coffee producers, it is still necessary to combine the “feeling” of the roaster with the equipment to ensure a good batch of coffee.

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