Gourmet Coffee Shop

Friday, August 05, 2005 -----

Coffee Chemistry

The aroma of a coffee is responsible for all flavor attributes other than the mouthfeel and sweet, salt, bitter, and sour taste attributes that are perceived by the tongue. Therefore, it might be said that the aroma is the most important attribute to specialty coffee. Even instant coffee has the components responsible for stimulation of our taste buds. The difference, however, is that instant coffee lacks most of the aromatic volatile compounds causing a dramatic decrease in the overall flavor.

Aroma is perceived by two different mechanisms. It can either be sensed nasally via smelling the coffee through the nose or retronasally. Retronasal perception occurs when the coffee is either present in the mouth or has been swallowed and aromatic volatile compounds drift upward into the nasal passage.

Translation... if your coffee is fresh, you can smell it and subsequently taste it. If it is not fresh, your nose will tell you first and then your mouth. Coffee has a peak freshness window of only 14 days from the day it was roasted... if it is packaged properly. The solution is to find out when your coffee was roasted and dont buy old coffee.

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