"I prefer my coffee at an intensity of 6 in the morning when I wake up and 10 after a meal."
"I only drink strong coffee."
These common remarks have raised an interesting topic and the need to establish concrete benchmarks for comparing coffees. The various "strength" or "intensity" scales seen on mainstream coffee brands have been developed to guide consumers in their purchasing decisions. But what do they actually mean? Is it a marketing ploy or genuine information? When we say a coffee is strong, what are we referring to? Its aromas, its roast level, or its caffeine content?
Variables - n.f.
One can assume that this intensity generally describes the strength of taste and caffeine content. These two factors can be linked, as caffeine is largely responsible for coffee's bitter taste. Nevertheless, it seems interesting to list 4 singular variables that can nuance a coffee's strength and alter one's perception of it:
- Species: If one is looking for a powerful coffee with a high caffeine content today, it is easier and more economical for an industrial producer to offer robusta (see article on the difference between arabica/robusta). This coffee species is less appealing вкусно, even though improvements have been made recently. Thus, very generally with major coffee brands, the higher the intensity, the higher the proportion of robusta (canephora species) and the lower the gustatory complexity.
- Roasting: It is possible to emphasize the bitterness of any coffee through its roasting. A pronounced roast has the advantage of standardizing coffees towards a standard bitter taste, but also the disadvantage... of giving coffees a bitter and standardized taste. When the bean has been roasted too much, most of the other organoleptic qualities of the green coffee: acidity, sweetness, umami, etc. are lost, in favor of the sole bitterness that all coffee drinkers know.
- Extraction parameters: Depending on your extraction (how you brew your coffee), the intensity of your coffee and its caffeine content can be radically different. The coffee-to-water ratio will be crucial: if you run little water through a large amount of grounds, this water is likely to be concentrated in aromatic compounds and vice versa. The type of coffee machine can also give a radically different result: a filter coffee will be much less strong in taste than an espresso, and even the texture will be different. This is due to the difference in pressure, often 9 bars for an espresso, and gravity for filter coffee.
- Subjectivity: Coffee is an aromatically complex product, and there is no single type of intensity. We are accustomed to bitterness in coffee, but it can also be (sometimes too) intense in acidity or sweetness. For example, a very acidic coffee may seem strong to one person and light to another who has set their intensity gauge to bitterness.
Thus, you will never see a strength scale for Celsius specialty coffees, but rather the expression scale above: from the most conventional to the most complex. This scale seems more accurate to us, as it is established based on different criteria that make each coffee a unique product:
A terroir specific to an origin and a suitable coffee variety, which gives it typical aromas. A beautiful Ethiopian coffee will immediately have a quite complex expression, for example, whereas an entry-level coffee (in specialty coffee, mind you) from a Brazilian farm will be lower.
A process of harvesting, fermentation, and drying of the beans, developing a distinct aromatic profile. For example, a coffee that has undergone anaerobic fermentations or a thermal shock is likely to see its complexity increase.
A roast that is more or less light, depending on the roaster's style and the consumption method (filter or espresso).