Honestly, most Vietnamese people drink coffee according to the movement. Even more ironic, it’s the coffee-drinking movement… weird.
To know what is a cup of pure coffee, the simplest way is to buy coffee beans, grind, brew and feel it yourself.
Currently, the alarming situation of food hygiene and safety and the professional conscience of a part of the business world – using all tricks to gain profits, regardless of people’s health and lives to gain profit. Profit has caused a lot of frustration for consumers. It harms the health and economy of consumers, causing consumers to gradually lose confidence in their own Vietnamese products.
It is an extremely sad fact and a big question mark about the responsibility of managers. How will our health and our children’s health be tomorrow? Where will morality and social conscience go???…
While we wait for an answer from the regulators, we – first of all, have to save ourselves. Be “wise consumers” – equip yourself with a lot of knowledge, use clean and safe products to save our health and our children’s.
PART I. COFFEE BASICS
1. Types of coffee
There are many types of coffee, but only two main groups are Arabica and Robusta. Coffee exchanges in the world mainly trade these two types of coffee.
Arabica coffee is premium grade (the price is usually double the price of Robusta). Arabica coffee production is also very large (over 2/3 of the world’s traded coffee). This variety is mainly grown in Brazil.
Arabica beans are slightly longer, larger than Robusta beans. The two edges of Arabica beans are “sharper” than Robusta beans. Arabica coffee has only half as much caffeine as Robusta. Arabica has a light aroma and a sour taste. This type is very popular in the West (Western taste).
Robusta beans are smaller than Arabica, rounder. Robusta coffee has a strong aroma, bitter taste, and richness. Our country mainly grows this type and it is suitable for “Vietnamese taste”.
Therefore, it is very difficult for Westerners to come to Vietnam to drink Vietnamese-style coffee and vice versa.
2. Coffee drinking culture in Vietnam
There is good news and bad news when it comes to coffee in our country:
• Good news – Vietnam is the second largest coffee exporter in the world after Brazil. (Very proud).
• Sad news – Vietnamese people do not know how to drink coffee. To be honest – Vietnamese people mostly drink coffee according to…the movement. Even more ironic, it’s the coffee-drinking movement… weird.
I have met a lot of people who are “connoisseurs” about coffee. Accordingly, the “standard” coffee must be black, the blacker the better, the aroma must be strong and passionate. Drinking black coffee (hot black or iced black) should be as bitter as possible. When drinking, you have to sip, chuck, to enjoy its bitter taste.
In order to be such a “connoisseur” of coffee, everyone must “swallow sweet soap”. Then the coffee water must be very thick and viscous. If you drink brown ice, the coffee must “cling to the ice”, “cling to the spoon”, “cling to the cup”…
It is the people who are called “connoisseurs”, “coffee connoisseurs” who find themselves enjoying a cup of strong, thick, and blended coffee. Pure coffee does not have these characteristics. The idea that drinking stronger, blacker, and more consistent coffee is synonymous with “more connoisseur” of coffee has been taken advantage of by dirty coffee makers.
A large part of shop owners partly because of the taste of customers (the type must be black, solid, match, mixed) partly because of the low price, have chosen padded coffee. However, they only see the cheap unit without thinking about this fact: 1kg of blended coffee (depending on the level of filler) produces 20-30 cups of coffee, while pure coffee, 1kg can make a little 40 cups at most.
At 25g / cup, pure coffee is very strong, the amount of coffee powder will be about 5/10 filter. That is, pure coffee will be 10 cups more than mixed coffee. If you sell 20,000 VND/cup, that balance is enough to buy 1kg of premium pure coffee.
A law of supply – demand that both sides satisfy like that, there’s no reason why it doesn’t exist and develop. If there is “demand” there will be “supply”. Drinkers need black, solid and comparable coffee; The more producers mix and blend, the more profitable they become. It is the strange law of supply – demand that has pushed the Vietnamese coffee drinking culture to develop to the point of… disaster.
Please, if you’ve ever had such a cup of coffee (or nearly so), 100% of the water you drink is mixed coffee. Even more dangerous is that the substances that people mix are extremely toxic substances. Specifically, it is popcorn, roasted soybeans (to create consistency); coloring (makes black); flavorings (fragrance)… are carcinogenic agents.
So what does a true cup of coffee look like?
PART II. HOW TO KNOW PURE COFFEE
A true cup of coffee must be a cup of pure coffee; clean. Here’s how to recognize it:
❖ Recognize right from when the coffee is still a bean.
– A lot of people claim that it is coffee beans, then it must be pure, right?
– Please: not really.
– The reason?
– Because in the roasting process, some additives may have been added. For example, coloring, butter, caramel, chicken fat, industrial oil…
– The purpose is to satisfy the need to drink “stylish” coffee from … at the root as mentioned above.
✦ How to identify pure coffee beans:
– Pure coffee beans must be rustic roasted coffee beans, without any additives.
– Mixed coffee beans, after being roasted, will feel greasy and sticky (signs of butter, cooking oil…) The smell of this type is often strong (with the smell of butter, caramel) different from pure coffee beans. After roasting to the touch, it will not be greasy and sticky, the aroma is natural and mild.
❖ Recognize when the grain has been ground into a powder
1. With the same volume, the volume of pure coffee powder is always larger than the volume of soybean meal or popcorn.
That is, pure coffee powder “blooms” more than soybean flour, popcorn.
Specific example: you pick up two bags of coffee of equal weight. Which bag is bigger, more blooming than the bag containing more pure coffee powder.
2. Porosity of coffee powder:
Pure coffee powder is very light, porous, loose and loose. The flour of the cereal grain is usually sticky, less loose.
3. Color of coffee powder:
Pure coffee powder is brown, uniform, not black like powdered popcorn, roasted soybeans.
4. The smell of coffee powder:
Real coffee has a very natural, gentle but subtle aroma, which is a pleasant smell that is different from the harsh, harsh “flavoured” coffee smell of dirty coffee.
❖ Know when to mix.
Pure coffee has porosity, contains many air chambers, so when making boiling water, the coffee powder swells and bubbles strongly. This is a feature you should pay close attention to when making coffee, when the coffee has bloomed, please adjust the inner lid to continue making water, to avoid the inner lid being blown off by the expansion of the coffee. out. Your care and dedication in this process will result in a delicious and rich cup of coffee.
Mixed coffee because there is little coffee so there is almost no swelling. Due to the mixing of soybeans and burnt popcorn, when boiling water, it is flattened and stale, giving off an unnaturally strong and diffused odor. The dough is sticky and pliable.
❖ Identify coffee water after brewing
As I am writing this article, I am also sipping a cup of coffee. Really pure and clean coffee has a cockroach brown color, when you put ice in it, it will be amber brown. In the sunlight, looking at the amber-brown coffee cup looks very nice.
With such a beautiful color, I really don’t understand why Vietnamese people can drink such thick, black water. Pure coffee water is just a little bit thicker and thicker than filtered water, completely different from the viscous type of mixed coffee. That is an extremely important feature of good coffee.
The smell of pure coffee water is still a natural, seductive, passionate, gentle but delicate scent. When you take a sip of coffee, you will feel the most about its flavor. Let the coffee melt on your tongue and sip it little by little until the last drop. Drinking good coffee is to cherish it, cherish it to every drop as if it were a priceless gift that heaven and earth bestowed on people.
I recommend you; To be more intuitive and practical, the simplest way is to buy coffee beans and grind them out; Mix and taste it yourself. That’s what coffee is all about.
Depending on the type of coffee and the mixing ratio, the coffee you drink will have different flavors. If you like “Western taste”, increase the proportion of Arabica coffee and you will have a cup of coffee with a light aroma and a sour taste. If you follow the “Vietnamese taste”, increase the rate of Robusta, you will get a cup of strong, aromatic coffee.
✦ Note: If you are not familiar, pure coffee may make you a little difficult the first time; But once you get used to it, it will be hard for you to resist its charm. And then you will officially become a ‘coffee lover’.
✦ How to recognize real coffee
Pure coffee when brewed, has the color of cockroach wings, not black, the coffee water is clear, not cloudy. There are shops, when the coffee is finished, they whip it up until it foams: it’s flavored coffee, or more dangerously, it has sodium lauryl sulfate foaming agent. I also don’t understand why there are some coffee addicts who like to drink coffee with foam?
When the coffee is filtered, the sugar has not been removed but it has a sweet taste, that is because there is caramel. If there’s caramel, it must have soy or popcorn mixed in.
Coffee is dark black: beware of disperse dyes (used in dyeing fabrics, very harmful to health). They use disperse dyes for color and coffee flavor for flavor, not coffee at all. Usually “non-specialist” roadside cafes (only for passing customers) and some music cafes play this cruel trick.
For me, drinking traditional filter coffee with the “golden ratio” between Arabica and Robusta always brings interesting things.
Through this article, I hope to have sent you the basic knowledge about coffee so that you can identify what is clean, pure coffee and what is mixed coffee.
Hopefully Vietnam’s coffee industry will develop further.
Source refer at: https://vnexpress.net/nguoi-viet-chua-biet-uong-ca-phe-2416660.html
and : https://vnexpress.net/ca-phe-sanh-dieu-cua-nguoi-ha-noi-2416195.html