Before attending the coffee roasters workshop, the list of coffee choices on the menu was rather daunting and I would not know which to get. So when my friends ordered cappuccino or latte, I picked the same and tried. I realised I liked latte better, as there was less milk foam and i could “get” to the coffee more quickly. Somehow I thought that the amount of foam varies depending on the cafe that I visited. Somehow I didn’t search for what those terms on the menu meant and how to differentiate them. So for the longest time I have only stuck to latte. The workshop really helped demystify all those names and I was surprised at what macchiato meant (staining of the coffee with milk/caramel/chocolate). I preferred our traditional kopitiam coffee as it was stronger, more intense and felt like it packed more of a punch than the Arabica coffee in cafes. Being the usual Singaporean I complained about how expensive coffees were at cafes but i never knew it was because of the single extraction process as compared to the repeated tarik that the uncles did, which ended up as over-extracting all the bitter components of the coffee (polysaccharides). Personally I would still drink the Robusta coffee as i like the “gao” taste (or as they call it, thicker mouthfeel) and now I better appreciate this afternoon energy booster.
Through the readings, its interesting to know that bitter tasting compounds can give a sensorial perception of being sweet as well. Hence the use of sweeteners must be of appropriate amounts in the foods that we eat to avoid that bitter after taste.
The chemistry behind coffee piqued my interest and now I would share with my friends the knowledge I have gotten from the workshop, and I no longer have to guess what goes into my $5 cup of coffee anymore.