Adding a drop of water to the coffee beans before grinding will reduce dirt and give you a more flavorful coffee.
Coffee lovers often add a small amount of water to the beans before grinding them, either with a wet spoon or in the form of a water sprinkling. This is to prevent the coffee grounds from sticking and to prevent the coffee grounds from flying off the main pile. Scientists believe it’s because water reduces static electricity, but the exact mechanism and the optimal amount of water to add were unclear.
investigate, christopher hendon Researchers at the University of Oregon sprayed different amounts of water on different coffee beans that had been roasted for different lengths of time and had different internal moisture levels, then put them through a grinder. They then measured the amount of static electricity, the size of the ground coffee particles, and the flavor of the coffee brewed by the espresso machine.
They discovered that the most important factor in determining electrostatic charge, and therefore coffee clumps, is the total moisture content of the beans before grinding. Beans roasted to a dark color have less moisture and are more likely to clump.
“It’s not about where it comes from or how it’s processed. It’s not about the quality of the coffee or the price you pay for a particular bean,” says Hendon. “Ultimately, it depends on the color of the coffee and the moisture inside.”
Adding about 20 microliters of water per gram of coffee (about 0.5 milliliters for regular coffee) can prevent the grounds from caking and improve the consistency and flavor of your espresso, Hendon says. “If you spray it with a little water, you’ll notice the difference in the brew,” he says.
In addition to helping people brew better coffee at home, adding water before grinding could save commercial coffee companies hundreds of millions of dollars, Hendon says. This is because the resulting ground coffee has fewer chunks, allowing more water to permeate, reducing the amount of coffee beans needed to brew a given strength of coffee.
“This paper could lead to small but important changes in the process of making espresso coffee,” he says. william lee At the University of Huddersfield, UK. “The most interesting part of this study is the investigation of particle agglomeration due to electrostatic charging. Water cannot penetrate these clumps, which could affect the taste of the coffee.”
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