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| This is one of the terms you can find on the labels of your next product. |
When something enthuses us a lot and we become “fans”, we discover that in the world of our fandom many new words begin to appear, whether they’re words properly speaking or simple jargon referring to the group to which we belong.
The world of coffee is not so different when it comes to adding elements to our vocabulary, and, in the following article, we present a brief but enriching glossary of terms related to the art of barista.
- Affogato: ice cream (traditionally vanilla) “drowned” with a shot of espresso
- Arabica: mild-flavored, high-quality coffee obtained from beans of the Coffea arabica tree (the most widely grown coffee plant)
- Barista: a coffee expert, the person who prepares coffee at a coffee bar
- Body: the sensation of heaviness, richness, thickness and associated texture when tasting coffee
- Crema: the pale brown foam covering the surface of a well-brewed tazzina of espresso
- Cúcuta: market name for a coffee grown in northeastern Colombia, but often shipped through Maracaibo, Venezuela
- Demitasse: French for “half cup”. A half-size or three-ounce cup used primarily for espresso coffee
- Drip or dripped coffee: coffee prepared by allowing boiling water to percolate through ground coffee
- Espresso: concentrated coffee made when hot water is forced at pressure through fine coffee grounds. Usually slightly less than 2 ounces total
- Ethiopia: Ethiopia is a very complex coffee origin. The best Ethiopia dry-processed coffee (Harrar or Harar) tends to be medium-bodied and brilliantly acidy with rough, fruity or winy tones. The best washed Ethiopian coffee (Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, some Limu, and some washed Djimah) is light-bodied but explosive with complex floral and citrus notes
- Flat white: espresso with flat, steamed milk, about 5 to 7 ounces
- Frothed milk: milk that’s heated and frothed with a steam wand as an element in the espresso cuisine
- Green coffee: unroasted coffee beans
- Hard bean: a term often used to describe coffees grown at relatively high altitudes. In the same context, coffees grown at lower altitudes are often designated “soft bean”
- Heavy roast: also known as French Roast and Spanish Roast. Terms for coffee brought to degrees of roast considerably darker than the American norm
- India: India coffee is grown in the south of the country. The best is low-key, with moderate body and acidity and occasional intriguing nuance
- Jamaica Blue Mountain Style: various blends of coffee intended by their originators to approximate the qualities of authentic Jamaica Blue Mountain
- Kopi Luwak: coffee from Sumatra, Indonesia, distinguished not by origin, but by the uniquely intimate way it’s processed. A mammal called a Luwak, or Civet eats ripe coffee cherries, digests the fruit, and excretes the seeds, after which the seeds or beans are gathered from its dry droppings. Kopi luwak is one of the most expensive coffees in the world owing to obvious limitations on its production
- Latte, Caffè Latte: a serving of espresso combined with about three times as much hot milk topped with froth
- Lavado fino: best grade of Venezuelan coffee
- Mature coffee: coffee held in warehouses for two to three years. Mature coffee has been held longer than old crop coffee, but not as long as the aged or vintage coffee
- Mocha: espresso mixed with chocolate syrup and steamed milk
- Natural coffee: coffee processed by removing the husk or fruit after the coffee fruit has been dried
- Open-pot method: brewing method in which the ground coffee is steeped (not boiled) in an open pot, and separated from the brewed coffee by settling or straining
- Pulping: the process of removing the outermost skin of the coffee cherry or fruit. See Wet-Processed Coffee
- Quakers: defective coffee beans that fail to roast properly, remaining stubbornly light-colored
- Redeye: a cup of brewed coffee with espresso
- Specialty coffee: the practice of selling coffees by country of origin, roast, flavoring, or special blend, rather than by brand or trademark
- Tamper: in espresso brewing, the small, pestle-like device with a round, flat end used to distribute and compress the ground coffee inside the filter basket
- Uganda: the finest Uganda arabica (Bugishu or Bugisu) displays the winy acidity and other flavor characteristics of the best East African coffees, but is less admired than the finest Kenya or Zimbabwe, owing to a generally lighter body and less complex flavor
- Vintage coffee: traditionally, coffee held in warehouses for several years, sometimes deliberately, sometimes inadvertently. Such aging reduces acidity and increases body
- Washed coffee: coffee prepared by removing the skin and pulp from the bean while the coffee fruit is still moist. Most of the world’s great coffees are processed by the wet method, which generally intensifies acidity
- Whole-bean coffee: coffee that has been roasted but not yet ground
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| Learn what the most common coffee label terms mean. |
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