How to distinguish whether the coffee is freshly ground or instant? What is the difference between freshly ground coffee and instant coffee?

We all know that coffee is a common drink. It has many varieties and different flavors. Many people like to drink coffee, especially office workers. Coffee can be divided into freshly ground coffee and instant coffee. So what are the differences between these two types of coffee? Let's take a closer look!

What is freshly ground coffee?

1. Freshly ground coffee actually means that the coffee beans are ground into powder before extraction. After being roasted, coffee beans are very easy to oxidize with the air. It can be said that from the moment they are roasted out of the oven, their flavor is lost. The surface area of ​​ground coffee beans is greatly increased, which accelerates the reaction with the air.

Therefore, friends who love coffee should choose freshly ground coffee, whether it is made in a coffee shop or at home. The usual way to store coffee beans is to seal them in a cool place to minimize contact with air. Instead of grinding the coffee beans into powder for storage.

The best tasting period for roasted coffee beans is between 3 days and one month (after roasting, the coffee beans need a "nurturing" process). After more than a month, the flavor of the coffee beans will be almost lost.

2. When it comes to the extraction method, there is actually no limit. You can use an espresso machine, or you can use a hand-brew pot, moka pot, French press, siphon pot, etc.

Of course, different utensils are suitable for different beans, and the extracted flavors are also different. For example, fancy coffee is a coffee drink made by using an Italian coffee machine to extract espresso under high temperature, high pressure, and airtight conditions, and then adding milk, milk foam, syrup or cream to flavor it. Some single-origin beans are often more suitable for making with a hand-brew pot or a moka pot, which can better extract the various flavors in the beans.

What is instant coffee

Speaking of instant coffee, the first half of it is actually similar to freshly ground coffee. That is, from raw beans to roasted beans, to grinding into powder, and extracting coffee liquid, these processes are basically the same. However, although the steps in the first half are similar, there are still big differences:

1. The beans used are different.

There are two types of coffee beans: Robusta beans and Arabica beans. Robusta beans are more likely to survive than Arabica beans because they are less susceptible to pests, but their quality is lower. Instant coffee often uses Robusta beans (of course, this is not always the case, some instant coffee also uses Arabica beans).

2. The production of instant coffee is basically done fully automatically by machines.

Including roasting raw beans, grinding cooked beans, and extraction, machine assembly line production. We usually drink freshly ground coffee, and some boutique coffee shops even roast the raw beans themselves, and they have to go through a series of operations to select bad beans, residual beans, and worm beans before sending the raw beans to the roaster. The subsequent process requires the personal participation of the barista, and the whole process will not be handed over to the machine.

3. After extracting the coffee, to make instant coffee powder, you need to further evaporate the water in the coffee.

It doesn’t end here. To get the instant coffee that we usually see and buy, a series of operations are required.

There are two common ways to remove moisture from coffee liquid: mist drying and freeze drying.

The mist drying method is to spray the coffee liquid in a high temperature and dry environment, and the water in it will evaporate immediately, resulting in coffee crystals. This is the instant black coffee we often drink. Because the mist drying method has undergone high temperature evaporation, the flavor and aroma of the coffee are often lost. In this case, the manufacturer will add some flavoring ingredients to enhance the aroma.

Freeze drying is to freeze the coffee liquid into ice cubes at low temperature, grind it, and evaporate the water under vacuum and low pressure. This method can lock the aroma of coffee better than fog drying. However, it still cannot avoid losing some of the flavor and aroma of coffee.

Adding some sugar and non-dairy creamer (commonly known as coffee companion) to instant black coffee makes it "three-in-one" coffee.

The difference between instant coffee and freshly ground coffee

1. Different coffee beans are used

Instant coffee: mainly Robusta, with less Arabica.

Freshly ground coffee: mainly Arabica, with less Robusta.

There are roughly two varieties of coffee beans available on the market, Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica coffee beans account for 70% of the world's total coffee production and are high-quality coffee beans. The flavor is mainly high-quality acidity and sweetness, with low bitterness, and the flavor is complex and varied. It is mostly used in independent and commercial coffee shops and coffee competitions.

Robusta coffee beans account for 30% of the world's total coffee production and are low-quality coffee beans. They have low acidity and sweetness, high bitterness, and a relatively simple flavor. They are mostly used by instant coffee manufacturers, Italian coffee bean blends, and for practice.

2. Different production processes

Instant coffee: roast coffee beans - grind coffee beans - extract coffee liquid - dissolve into concentrated granules - dry - add auxiliary materials and preservatives - vacuum pack.

Freshly ground coffee: freshly ground and made, the roasted coffee beans are ground into coffee powder, and then made into coffee liquid using a coffee making machine/appliances according to certain parameters.

3. Different ways of brewing coffee

Instant coffee: just add hot water and stir. The proportion and hot water are indicated on the package. Common instant coffee brands include Nestle, Maxwell House, Vietnam G7, and Copico.

Freshly ground coffee: Use a coffee grinder to grind the coffee beans into powder, and then use coffee utensils or equipment to make it. Common ones include: espresso machine, hand-brewed coffee, siphon coffee, French press, Aeropress, Moka pot, smart filter cup, etc. Depending on the different coffee making equipment, the parameters of coffee making (water-powder ratio, grinding degree, water temperature, water volume) are all different.

4. The taste of coffee is different

Instant coffee: Instant coffee generally comes in two flavors.

One is the taste of black coffee, which is more bitter.

One is a mixed coffee with milk and sugar. The taste is mainly flavored milk coffee, such as vanilla flavored coffee. Although the taste is good, the overall taste is still far from the vanilla coffee made from freshly ground coffee.

Freshly ground coffee: There are also two types of coffee made from freshly ground coffee.

One is coffee without any auxiliary ingredients, which highlights the most original flavor of coffee. There are coffee beans with mainly acidity, coffee beans with mainly bitterness, and coffee beans with a balanced acidity and bitterness.

The other type is Italian coffee and Italian-flavored coffee. Italian coffee is simply espresso + milk, highlighting the sweetness of milk and the bitterness of coffee, such as latte and cappuccino; Italian-flavored coffee adds flavored syrup to Italian coffee, such as vanilla latte, caramel latte, mocha coffee, caramel macchiato, etc.

5. Different packaging: breathable valve

Instant coffee: ground coffee powder is mainly packaged in bags without air valve;

Freshly ground coffee: coffee beans are mainly packaged in bags with air valves;

The difference between the two is: ensuring the freshness of coffee

(1) Instant coffee: Coffee is ground into powder and then physically processed, so the coffee powder is not fresh. Therefore, the packaging of instant coffee is fully sealed to ensure that the coffee does not lose its flavor.

(2) Freshly ground coffee: Freshly ground coffee is stored in the form of coffee beans in packaging bags. Roasted coffee beans contain a large amount of carbon dioxide, so we can see a breathable valve on the packaging of freshly ground coffee beans. The function of this valve is to allow gas to "only go out but not in". The main purpose is to prevent oxygen from entering and thus accelerate the oxidation of coffee beans.