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The intensity scale in Celsius.

"I prefer my coffees with an intensity of 6 in the morning when I wake up and 10 after eating."

"I only drink strong coffees."

These often-heard remarks have raised an interesting topic and a need to reposition concrete benchmarks for comparing coffees. The different scales of coffee "strength" or "intensity" that we see among mainstream coffee brands were developed to guide consumers in their purchasing process. But what does this really mean? Is it a marketing argument or genuine information? When we say that a coffee is strong, what are we referring to? Its aromas, its roasting level, or even its caffeine content?

Variables - nf

Sketch of a cog to illustrate the variable

It can be assumed that this intensity generally describes the strength of the taste and the caffeine content. These two factors may be linked, as caffeine is responsible for the vast majority of the bitter taste in coffee. However, it seems interesting to mention four unique variables that can nuance the strength of a coffee and change our perception of it:

  • The species: if we are looking for a strong coffee in the mouth and with a high caffeine content today, it is easier and more economical for a manufacturer to offer us robusta (see article on the difference between Arabica and Robusta). This species of coffee is less interesting in terms of taste, even if progress has been made recently. Thus, very generally with major coffee brands, the higher the intensity you go, the higher the proportion of robusta and the lower the taste complexity.
  • Roasting : It is possible to force the bitterness of any coffee through its roasting . A pronounced roast will have the advantage of standardizing the coffees towards a standardized bitter taste, but also the disadvantage... Of giving a bitter and standardized taste to the coffees. When the bean has been cooked too much, most of the other organoleptic qualities of green coffee are lost: acidity, sweetness, umami, etc. in favor of the only 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/water ratio will be essential: if you run a small amount of water through a large quantity of grounds, this water risks being 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, even the texture will be different.
  • Subjectivity: Coffee is a complex aromatic product, and there isn't just one type of intensity. We're used to bitterness, but coffee can be (sometimes too) intense in acidity or sweetness. For example, a very acidic coffee may seem strong to one person and mild to another who has set their intensity slider to bitterness.

So, you'll never see a strength scale for Celsius coffees, but rather a scale of expression: from the most conventional to the most complex. This scale seems more accurate to us, as it's established according to different criteria that make each coffee a unique product:

      A terroir : specific to an origin and a suitable variety of coffee, which gives it typical aromas
        A process : harvesting, drying, fermenting the grains, developing a distinct aromatic profile
          A roast : more or less light, depending on the consumption method (filter or espresso)