Hey everybody, what are you drinking? I’m Roger In Coffee and welcome to Coffee Cup. This week I’d like to spill the beans on the Planalto from Brazil, in this special edition grind taste test.
I was recently asked if freezing beans before grinding is a good idea. Intuitively I'm going to say no, because if you are flying around the world cupping coffee at farms they will have exact controlled conditions that don't include a freezer.
However, pop-science click-bait journalism has suggested that freezing could be a force for good.
http://www.sciencealert.com/want-to-drink-better-tasting-coffee-freeze-your-beans-say-scientists
So in the spirit of domestic science I thought I'd add to this with my own eye-witness anecdotal evidence.
As I said, I chose the Planalto for this because I'd reviewed it earlier in the year so I knew exactly what to expect. The full review of this can be found here. http://rogerincoffee.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/brazilian-planalto.html
So in the name of science I divided my beans fairly, freezing one batch in a low-moisture airtight container and having the other sealed in a similar fashion at room temperature. Room Temperature is sub-summer at the moment but its room temperature nonetheless.
Not knowing the specific heat capacity of coffee, its "freezing point" or how long that's going to take I left them overnight, however they "looked" frozen after two or three hours so take your pick.
Both batches were prepared in the same manner, 15g of medium ground beans in a wide cup filled at 250ml water at 90'C. The surface was broken after four minutes, skimmed at ten minutes and tasting began at twelve minutes. I did this with reasonable precision, although my balance is only +/- 1g and what is a few seconds between friends?
For reference, I had a sneaky espresso beforehand to wake up my olfactory system for the experience and prepare the palette.
So without further ado - The frozen beans have less of a sheen to them. Obviously the oil is the same, but its the visual indicator that one is cold. On the grind it's very difficult to tell the two apart and they are very similar.
Any grinder is going to produce a range of sizes and to get an impression of the balance you have to cut it, so credit cards at the ready. You can tell the ratio of fine to course grinds because the fine grinds clump a little with the oils, so as you play it back and fourth you can see clumps forming and breaking. I'm going to say the frozen beans might have been a more even grind, with less clumping, but there wasn't much in it.
The fine grinds are a little brighter too, and catch the light less. (weaker specular highlights for the technically minded) but this is pretty hard to gauge by eye.
In this side-by-side composite image, the frozen grinds are on the left. I think they are a little more even but its super difficult to tell.
So, fifteen grams and four minutes later the break revealed the aroma and both were pretty similar. I couldn't distinguish them and didn't really expect to. I think the room temperature batch was slightly sharper on the taste from its smaller grind but its hard to say.
In the drinking, I couldn't really tell the two apart. I think I prefered the frozen batch but confirmation bias is pretty strong and I didn't do a blind test.
Is frozen better ? You might just have to Let it Go.
I’ve been Roger in Coffee, and this has been my experience of using frozen beans vs a room temperature grind using the Planalto from Brazil. In the 21st century we are drinking over two billion cups of coffee a day. I'm doing my part, are you?
