Coffee consumption is truly an art these days. Yes there is the little motif of a dog running past a windmill that your barista has lovingly etched into your microfoam but it doesn’t end there. There are also the endless of varieties available for your order (from macchiato to long black to latte) as well as the numerable postures and attitudes one can adopt when sipping on a java. The true connoisseur though cares most about the taste and according to a new study that taste could be taken to a new level.
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The new study from the University of Bath analysed the effect of grinding roasted beans at different temperatures from room temperature to -196 degrees Celsius. They discovered that the colder the beans the finer and more uniform the particles from the grind.
Size matters when it comes to coffee particles because a small uniform grind allows for better extraction of the flavour compounds from the beans. What you want is the smallest possible difference between your smallest and largest particle size to maximise flavour extraction. The researchers found that chilling tightens this process resulting in less variance in flavour. Changes in particle size make a huge difference to coffee flavour so chilled beans could be the future of trendy coffee consumption.
That’s news to send a chill up the sign of coffeephile but if nothing else comes of this research it should mean that “chill your beans, man” should be the new idiom to paraphrase “get the most out of life”.
