Dalla Corte Mina: How to obtain a perfect brew even with an old roast

MILAN, Italy — Every day you have to grind and place the coffee into the machine, it might seem irrelevant, but the roasting date has a massive effect on the taste.  From the crema to the aroma, flavours to texture, all the characteristics of the coffee can change every day.

For this tasting session, coffee pro Danilo Lodi used three different coffees: Brazil – natural red catuaí, Guatemala – honey bourbon, and Colombia – washed gesha.

The point is to understand when the ideal roasting date is and how to extract it in order to optimize it.

A traditional flow profile (10g/s for the entire extraction) gives fresh coffee (0 to 5 days) bitter flavours because of the CO², effervescent texture, sharp acidity and underdeveloped sweetness.

The same flow profile will make the old coffee (16 to 30 days) taste stale; flat, with a lower sweetness and weaker body.

To improve both fresh and old roasted coffee using Mina, we always have to take blooming, the time required to reach the extraction pressure, and the extraction itself, into consideration.

With Mina, you can control all the above-mentioned steps by adjusting the amount of water on the coffee cake, and then you can save the recipe using the app.

This profile is perfect for fresh coffee:

We should start the extraction with a very gentle flow profile of 5g/s – half of the traditional flow – and keep it for around 10 seconds.

This will result in a slow and soft pre-infusion that will bring clarity to the cup and develop sweetness without bringing the carbonic gas flavours to the cup.

After that we go to 6.5g per second till the end of the extraction and by letting the acidity shine, always working with a low flow profile.

The next profile is designed for old roast:

A short first step with 6 g/s for 3 seconds and ramping up the second step to a traditional flow (10 g/s) for 7 seconds will extract the coffee’s main characteristics, more body and texture.

After that, change the flow to 5 g/s till the end of the extraction and you will reduce the risk of bringing the oxidized flavours and will showcase the sweetness present in the bean.Again, choose your coffee, consider the roasting date, adjust the flow, create your favourite recipe and Make It Better!