This article is an introductory introduction to coffee hanging ear bags, including the skills of purchasing, some views on commercial brands, brewing methods and skills, and some advanced suggestions for playing coffee. So before it is too late, let's get started.
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If you want to enjoy a cup of qualified coffee on any occasion, then hanging ear bags is a very good choice.
This is an excellent way for beginners to formally celebrate the wonderful coffee world in into the pit, and it is also a daily food for experienced lovers.
This article will talk from the following aspects:
1. What is an ear bag?
2. What should I pay attention to when buying ear bags?
3. How to choose common ear hanging bags on the market?
4. How to brew a delicious cup of coffee?
What is an ear bag?
Ear-hanging bag is a simple coffee brewing method, which originated in Japan, then developed in Taiwan Province Province, and became popular with the tide of fine coffee in recent two years. Different from instant coffee, ear-hanging bag is to pre-grind fresh coffee beans into coffee powder with appropriate size, and then package them into independent small packages with filter paper, which is convenient for storage and carrying.
The ear bag is essentially a simplified version of hand-brewed coffee (drip filtration). Although grinding is omitted, there are still some things to pay attention to when brewing. The methods and skills of brewing will be explained in detail in the fourth part of this paper.
Common ear hanging bags are as follows: Some brands have improved ear hanging bags, such as Starbucks and UCC, and of course there are some unusual styles.
What should I pay attention to when buying ear bags?
Coffee lovers of different degrees should pay attention to different things when choosing ear hanging bags. Here I divide the knowledge points that need attention into basic, advanced and advanced.
Basic goods
For newcomers who are in contact for the first time, they should first give up the illusion that they can get a super favorite taste after reading a few articles and buying them at buy buy. It's possible, but we need good luck. In most cases, we have to try many brands and product lines before we finally find a suitable product.
So the knowledge point of this chapter is how to avoid stepping on some obvious pits. Fortunately, you only need to master the most basic knowledge to avoid stepping on the pit.
1, depending on the production date
The biggest difference between the ear-hanging bag mentioned above and instant coffee is that the ear-hanging bag contains coffee powder ground from fresh coffee beans. Since it is fresh coffee beans, with the passage of time, it will inevitably lead to the slow loss of flavor.
Generally speaking, the best drinking time of ear hanging bags is within 2 weeks of the production date. Although all brands will write the shelf life of 6- 18 months, this is only the shelf life. After opening the package for more than a month, you can obviously smell the odor. Experienced baristas, or lovers, can even judge how long the coffee has been kept by the smell.
Step 2 look at the means of preservation
Some brands with mature technical strength will delay the loss of flavor by filling nitrogen, and usually can extend the best drinking time from 2 weeks to 1 month.
Secondly, if the outer packaging material is thicker aluminum foil (refer to potato chip packaging), it can also obtain better fresh-keeping ability than kraft paper.
3. Avoid buying super multi-ears at one time.
I know, the more you buy at a time, the lower the unit price. Just before I found a product that suits my taste, I rashly bought a bunch of ear bags with the same taste, let alone like it or not. Whether I can finish it in a month is a question.
Remember what I said before, the freshness of the ear bag is the first.
Progressive article
You may have drunk a lot of ear hanging bags. In the next chapter, you will learn why different ear hanging bags have different tastes and what their main effects are.
Look at the place of origin
The essence of ear-hanging bag is a simplified version of hand-brewed coffee, so the final flavor of ear-hanging bag is determined by coffee beans. Generally speaking, we only drink black coffee in two situations: single product and blending.
Single product refers to coffee beans from a single producing area, similar to red wine. A coffee bean is usually named after its place of origin, such as Brazil, Ethiopia and Guatemala.
Blending refers to mixing coffee beans from different origins (or different varieties from the same origin). For example, the common blue mountain flavor is a typical mixed coffee. This is because the biggest feature of the famous Blue Mountain Coffee is balance, neither sour nor bitter, so when you see the taste of Nanshan, you should understand that this bag is not Blue Mountain Coffee, but balanced.
There are no good or bad items and combinations, only tastes and preferences. The only choice is to drink more, especially a few cups at a time. This is the cup test you heard from the barista. I will write a detailed explanation about how to do a cup test at home and the matters needing attention.
Step 2 look at the taste description
When you look at the package or expression of any ear-hanging coffee, you can see the words jasmine, citrus, lemon, cream, chocolate, honey, caramel and so on.
This is actually describing the flavor tendency of hanging ear coffee at present, but it should be noted that the flavor (or smell) of coffee is a compound taste, so different people may have different feelings even if they drink the same cup of coffee. This is not metaphysics. They will find out after drinking too much.
In Taiwan Province Province, there is a saying called "God-class coffee", which means that you feel the obvious flavor from coffee for the first time, so this cup of coffee is the God-class coffee in your life. If there is no special taste correction, you can always meet high-quality coffee every day. So, the trick is to drink more.
Step 3 look at the treatment
As we all know, the coffee we drink is not harvested directly from trees, but can be directly made into drinks. We need to go through a pretreatment process to remove the pulp to get raw coffee beans. There are many methods in this process, the most common ones are sun exposure and water washing.
Generally speaking, sun-treated coffee can retain more flavor, while water-washed coffee can get more pure flavor. In addition to the traditional methods, some special treatment methods, such as whisky barrel fermentation, are very popular now. The coffee beans treated in this way will have a very obvious bouquet, but actually there is no degree.
4. Look at the degree of baking
Between raw coffee beans and a cup of coffee, in addition to treatment, baking is also needed to reduce the water content of coffee beans. The same coffee beans with different roasting depths can also bring different flavor expressions, which is somewhat similar to cooking. Even if all seasonings are the same, different chefs can make different flavors.
Simply put, shallow roasting can retain more local flavor, and deep roasting can produce coffee beans with stable performance, while bringing burnt taste and caramel-like smell. There is also moderate roasting between shallow roasting and deep roasting, which especially tests the experience and understanding of coffee roasters.
Advanced article
After drinking a lot of coffee, you suddenly find out why the same bean tastes completely different from that cooked at home.
Look at the degree of grinding
The grinding degree of coffee powder can determine the extraction efficiency of coffee. The coarser the coffee powder, the lower the extraction efficiency, and vice versa.
However, the thickness of coffee powder also has dessert. Too strong coffee powder will lead to insufficient extraction and taste like drinking water. On the contrary, too fine coffee powder will lead to excessive extraction and make coffee difficult to swallow.
There is no way to judge this accurately before the first purchase, so we can only watch the seller's show, or try to buy less.
Step 2 look at the filter paper
Filter paper is actually an easily overlooked factor, which is divided into two aspects: the smell of water and smoothness.
If the quality of the filter paper itself is not very good, there will be a great smell in this cup of coffee, which is usually what we don't want. The way to avoid it is simple. Just buy a big brand that you can trust. On the other hand, it is the smoothness of launch. If the launch is not successful, it will take a long time to inject water for the second time after hanging the ear. Wasting time may not be the biggest problem, and too much soaking will also lead to too much extraction. On the other hand, the water is too smooth, which may lead to insufficient extraction.
This is the same as above. I can't judge accurately before buying for the first time. I can only watch the seller's show, or try to buy less.
Pay attention to the water temperature when cooking.
This is not a knowledge point about shopping, but it is a major factor that affects the taste of hanging ear bags. Generally speaking, the higher the extracted water temperature, the more bitter it is, and the lower the water temperature, the more sour it is. In fact, even after the extraction, the taste of coffee liquid will change with the decrease of temperature.
Next time, try to see what happens to the taste when the temperature drops to 50, 40, 30 and 20 degrees after extraction.
How to choose the common ear hanging bags on the market?
There are really many choices of hanging ear bags on the market. According to my own years of experience, it can be basically divided into four categories: commercial ear hanging bags, boutique ear hanging bags, online celebrity ear hanging bags, and homemade ear hanging bags.
Commercial ear bag
Too long to read the version: the delivery cycle of commercial ear hanging bags is relatively long, which will lead to the loss of coffee flavor and the price is not particularly advantageous. If you go to the supermarket and feel that there is no coffee at home, you can buy several bags, but it is not worth buying specially.
Typical brands: Starbucks, COSTA, Lany Point, UCC, Yili, Nestle, Lavazza and Blendy.
Brand characteristics: multinational companies
Advantages: stable taste and convenient purchase.
Disadvantages: the turnover cycle is too long, resulting in serious flavor loss and slightly lower cost performance.
This includes a large number of common brands, such as Starbucks, COSTA, Lany Point, UCC, illy, Nestle, Lavazza, Blendy and so on, so I won't list them one by one.
The biggest feature of this ear bag brand is multinational and large companies. Does it sound particularly reliable? In fact, it is also reliable.
The ear-hanging bag they introduced is not good to drink, but the taste is really stable, and it is not easy to have inconsistent tastes after two purchases. I know, it doesn't sound like much, but it's a very big advantage.
But the disadvantage is precisely because they are big companies, so they will purchase a large number of raw coffee beans at one time. And then collective baking, in order to ensure the stability of the product, generally take moderate to deep baking, in this process, will lose a lot of coffee flavor.
It's not that medium and deep baking is not good, but that this standardized process is very rigid and will not make fine adjustments to each batch of beans. After grinding, bagging, inflating, packaging, leaving the factory, and then through a long layer of distribution, it finally arrives at the warehouse of supermarkets and e-commerce, waiting for you to choose, and then it will arrive in your hands in a few days.
At this time, the biggest problem with commercial ear bags is time.
Generally speaking, roasted coffee beans are recommended to be eaten within 2 weeks 1 month, otherwise the flavor and aroma will slowly disperse over time. If it is ground into powder, the aroma can only be maintained for about 15 minutes, which is why cafes are generally freshly ground coffee beans.
And made into ear hanging bags, according to different packaging materials, this fresh-keeping time can be extended to about 2 weeks. Commercial ear-hanging bags will add extra nitrogen into the package to further increase the fresh-keeping time, which is about 2 weeks 1 month.
You can pay attention to it when you visit the supermarket next time, and you will find that the production date of ear bags on the shelves has passed for several months. If the flavor loss is so serious, then what you drink is pure bitterness and caffeine.
In that case, why not buy high-quality convenience food?
Boutique ear bag
Too long to understand the version: boutique ear bag is a brand that focuses on making ear bags. Generally speaking, the proportion of the lower body is small, which may be just a baking workshop. Usually presented in the form of an online shop, it will pay attention to the flavor and taste of coffee. Often drink black coffee, and friends who like black coffee will like this brand.
Typical brands: Xinluoyi, JokerCoffee and Zhihu Wu Zhi.
Brand features: relatively small volume, own baking studio, independent brand, and launch new products from time to time.
Advantages: You can find coffees with various flavors and origins, and there are single items and combinations, which is a real gateway to fine coffee.
Disadvantages: the quality of different brands is very different. Even if the same brand is bought many times, it may encounter unstable flavor.
Boutique ear bags have mushroomed in the past two years, and many brands have appeared. This kind of hanging ear bag is a mixed bag, because no matter what business you do, you will say that home is good, but don't worry, as long as you master the skills, you can greatly reduce the chance of stepping on the pit.
The main target customers of boutique ear hanging bags are people who know coffee, or at least people who often drink coffee, so the introduction information will be very comprehensive, and you can feel this through the product description. Usually, the description will include: variety, origin, manor, altitude, grade, treatment method, blending, baking degree, flavor tendency, grinding and so on.
One of the skills of identification is that the more complete the information, the more detailed the flavor introduction usually means that the store knows more about coffee, which can exclude many shopkeepers who play tickets.
I got the first coffee from Zhihu at the first time, and I was very surprised after drinking it. All three kinds of coffee have obvious sweetness, especially Gamma, a medium and deep roasted coffee, which makes me surprised.
Usually when recommending coffee to friends around you, you will encounter a small problem. For friends who are less exposed to fine coffee, the impression of coffee is bitter. So when they drink a cup of coffee with obvious acidity, they will feel uncomfortable. Of course, some people do prefer bitter taste to sour taste, and vice versa.
These three coffees in Zhihu are excellent in this respect. On the premise of retaining the flavor tendency and characteristics, the taste is very smooth and elegant. Whether you like to drink sour or bitter, you can feel the delicious taste of another tendency well.
Alpha tastes sour as a whole, almost without bitterness, and has a sweet and sour feeling of tropical fruits. If you like to drink fine coffee or are ready to try it, I recommend you to try this one.
Beta tastes sour and slightly bitter, and its flavor performance is more balanced than that of alpha and gamma, so it is a good ration coffee.
Gamma, on the other hand, has no sour taste at all, has the pure bitterness of deep baking, and tastes rich in creamy taste and cocoa-like sweetness. If you don't like sour coffee, I believe this one will be your dish.
Sinloy
When my friend first recommended sinloy to me, I thought the price was very cheap, so I decided that the details page was really good and all kinds of patented technologies came out. I just want to buy it and try it, and then it smells really good (covering my face).
Of course, it is not difficult to copy homework these days. You can also pay attention to whether there are any special selling points in the description. For example, sinloy's ear bag 03 is a very recommended one. It has a very big feature that all red fruits are refined, which will bring unique and fermented fruit sweetness. Just one sip is really enough to change the understanding of ear hanging, so it is not an exaggeration to call it God-class coffee.
However, 03 also has a regret that it is unstable. I bought it several times before I tasted this magical taste for the first time. I don't know whether it has something to do with the batch or the baker.
I can only say that you can try it, and it will be a special surprise if you really drink it.
Internet celebrity Guaerbao
Too long to understand the version: the quality of the hanging ear bags produced by online celebrity brands is qualified, but its brand power is not realized through products, but through joint name, packaging and feelings to enhance the premium. There is nothing wrong with this, but the price/performance ratio is slightly lower.
Typical brand: three and a half meals
Brand features: joint name, many activities.
Advantages: there are many activities, and the surrounding area is usually more fun.
Disadvantages: if you go to drink coffee, the cost performance is relatively low.
Online celebrity ear-hanging bags and boutique ear-hanging bags are very similar in brand strength, but the core of maintaining brand strength is different. Boutique lug bags enhance the brand strength through the popularity of the products themselves, while online celebrity lug bags enhance the brand strength by doing activities, playing joint names and selling them everywhere.
There are typically three and a half meals. It used to be a brand that focused on boutique ear bags. I have been its customer for a long time, but I may feel less profitable later. In the direction of network celebrity brands running all the way, the varieties of hanging ears have also decreased, the varieties of coffee beans have also decreased, the surrounding areas have increased, and the activities held have also increased (the activities are quite interesting, and I participated in them myself), and the main products have also become instant coffee (which can be understood as fine instant).
In fact, in my opinion, celebrities on the Internet have just average tastes and don't expect surprises. But relatively speaking, it can bring a sense of design, fashion, interesting activities, beautiful environment and ease of use.
As for choosing a boutique ear bag or an online celebrity ear bag, it depends on your appeal.
Self-made ear hanging bag
Too long to understand the version: in addition to buying finished products, you can also buy tools to make them yourself, and you can choose your favorite coffee beans at will. In addition, many cafes or online stores also provide the service of making coffee beans into ear bags directly, but the storage time is usually short because the production tools used are incomparable with those used in factories.
Typical brands: some online shops and local cafes specializing in coffee beans.
Advantages: Coffee beans are wide in choice and fresh.
Disadvantages: Due to the gap of production equipment, the fresh-keeping time is short, so it is recommended to drink it within one week.
Friends who often play coffee, especially those who make coffee by hand, will one day feel that it is too late to make coffee on weekdays, but they don't want to give up high-quality coffee. At this time, they can choose to buy blank ear bags, outer packaging and sealing machines to do it themselves.
Because it is a blank ear hanging bag, it is not limited to the standard ear hanging bag, and you can also choose an ear hanging bag (V60 shape) similar to hand-washed filter paper to further improve the quality of ear hanging coffee.
Other local cafes also provide the same service, but because the factory has no large equipment, it is basically handmade and will not be filled with nitrogen, so it generally won't last long.
But if you make it one night in advance and drink it the next day, there is no big problem.
How to brew a delicious cup of coffee?
Negative example (can be used as a lesson)
1, the ear hanging bag is made directly as a tea bag.
2. Pour the coffee powder out of the ear pocket.
The water overflowed.
Serious teaching materials
Basic terms:
Find an empty cup.
2. Observe carefully and tear open the ear pocket.
3. Spread the small ear and hang it on the cup (different types of ear hanging bags are used in a similar way).
4, slow water injection.
5. After the extraction is completed, wrap it and throw it away. Warm reminder, ear bags belong to other garbage (is it very intimate).
Advanced articles:
Advanced skills can help you improve the stability of cooking.
1, when brewing the ear hanging bag, if you have a choice, try to choose a higher cup so that the bottom of the ear hanging bag will not be soaked in coffee.
2. If it is medium-light roasted coffee, first inject a small amount of water, stew for 30s, and exhaust.
Advanced articles:
Advanced skills can help you make coffee comparable to handmade coffee.
1, you can use a special hand-washing pot when brewing, but don't choose a special hand-washing pot for hanging ear bags, because the temperature control ability is too poor.
2. The brewing water temperature can be selected between 85-92 degrees according to different coffee and personal tastes.
3. Nongfu Spring is used as water. The impurities and PH value of Nongfu Spring are very suitable for extracting coffee for professional barista competition.
4. Inject water in stages, pay attention to stirring and extract evenly.