7/10/2014 CoffeeGeek - Crema

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Crema
Posted:October14,2006
Articlerating:8.9
feedback:(43)comments|read|write
For my
opening
article I
wanted to
discuss a
subject
relevant to
anyone who
enjoys
espresso, and
maybe debunk
a few myths in
the process. Ive only been a barista for about three years,
starting off in the industry retailing domestic machines in a
department store and somehow ending up head of training
for a machine manufacturer in the UK.
Early on in my involvement in espresso, I realised that a lot
of people around the world were spending a lot of time and
money researching coffee, but I also realised that very few
people who were actually brewing and serving the stuff
were reading the fruits of the researchers' efforts. In
short course I became slightly obsessed with food science,
going above and beyond espresso and coffee, and I hope this
column is one way to spread the word about not only my
own thoughts on espresso and the preparation of the
beverage, but also the words and deeds of many of these
researchers.
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This obsession of mine became part of my signature when it
came to barista competitions. This doesnt mean that
everything I am going to write will be from a scientific point
of view while this article is about crema I plan to cover
all aspects of being a barista from competitions (both
individual and team) through to the changing landscape and
challenges of the shop barista. With this article in particular
I want to present information as best as I have been able to
discover. I am not going to claim to be absolutely right and I
hope each article I write fosters healthy debate on the
subject discussed.
When I started down the path towards great espresso, away
from the bitter, everyday awful coffee that surrounds me,
crema became something of a grail. Whether shopping for
a good shot or taking the process into the home, first and
foremost we want to see an espresso topped with a thick,
dense and red brown foam.
The first reliable delivery of espresso featuring crema in a
commercial bar is usually credited to Achille Gaggia, the
first Italian machine designer to provide a viable, working
high pressure machine to the marketplace. Indeed, if you
look at all the preWW2 espresso advertising, like the
classic images of Victoria Arduino, you'll notice all the
espressos are cremaless, black shots. Gaggia's "Crema
Naturale" machine, operated by spring piston, changed all
of this for the mainstream espresso drinker, but by no
means was he the first.
Today, no definition of a good espresso could be made
without mentioning crema and if we look to a company that
has become one of the industry standard setters in many
ways Illycaffe they do not disappoint:
"Italian espresso is a polyphasic beverage, prepared from
roast and ground coffee and water alone, constituted by a
foam layer of small bubbles with a particular tigertail
pattern, on top of an emulsion of microscopic oil droplets
in an aqueous solution of sugars, acids, proteinlike
material and caffeine, with dispersed gas bubbles and
solids.'
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Whatiscremaandwhydoesit
appear?
Amidst the complex
chemistry of coffee roasting
a lot of carbon dioxide, or
CO2, is generated. Much is
lost from the porous bean as
it cools and rests, but a
considerable quantity is
retained with the cells.
Grinding exposes a good
amount of the remaining
CO2, so as short a wait
before brewing as possible is
necessary to take advantage
of this gas and its many
beneficial properties.
Hot water hits the ground coffee and interesting things
start to happen. To many who talk and write about
espresso, the pump pressure of 9 bars is most relevant to
emulsifying the otherwise insoluble oils in the coffee. It has
another use as well, because it allows water to become
supersaturated with the CO2, dissolving far more than it
could if the water is at normal atmospheric pressure. This is
why the thousands of tiny bubbles appear as soon as the
liquid escapes the pressurised basket. In the cup, these
thousands of tiny bubbles settle out, much like a pint of
Guinness when it is poured (where the same thing is
happening, just for slightly different reasons). Hence the
term the Guinness effect
This alone is not enough to explain the crema. After all
when I release pressure by opening a bottle of cola I briefly
see bubbles rise and form a foam, but nothing that would
pass the classic Italian test of supporting a spoonful of
sugar. To explain this properly we have to delve briefly into
a little food science.
For a foam to happen we need some bubbles and also some
sort of compound or molecule that likes to wrap itself
around the bubble, thus making the bubble's structure
stronger and more resilient. This chemical doing the coating
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is referred to as a surface active agent, or surfactant. I
first came across this concept reading the Guide to Milk
Frothing on CoffeeGeek, but, unlike milk where this
happens via proteins, in coffee this is done by a type of
compound called a melanoidin. This is a very general term
for a group of compounds creating when roasting things,
and scientists dont know as much as theyd like to about
them.
The reason proteins and melanoidins coat air bubbles is that
parts of them are repelled by water they are said to be
hydrophobic. So rather than face water they turn and face
any air, which isn't polar, causing the whole compound to
adsorb onto the bubble and we have foam!
There is something else that is non polar and that is fat/oil.
I say both because fat is just an oil in a solid state, and
both solids and liquids are present. The presence of fat
often destroys foam think getting a little egg yolk in the
bowl when trying to whip the whites: this fat from the yolk
is the main reason so many souffls fail.
So are the oils in coffee the reason that crema is fleeting
and last only a few minutes? The simple answer is yes and
no. There exists a bigger problem, and that problem is
drainage. The surfactant is dissolved in the water and as
gravity starts to drain the coffee from amongst the foam
this can drag the coating from the bubbles and leave them
weak and inelastic. Very quickly they burst and are gone.
How quickly this foam bursts is therefore linked to the
speed of the drainage. The crema on top of a properly
pulled shot lasts much longer than a fast shot because the
liquid that makes up the entire beverage is much thicker,
something confirmed by the feel in the mouth when tasting
these shots.
Thecolourofcrema:whatdoes
ittellus?
I mentioned the colour of crema
being a reddish brown but what
does it mean if the crema is
more pale, or perhaps a really
7/10/2014 CoffeeGeek - Crema
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UnderExtraction
Usuallytheresultofaweaker
brewandafastshot.
OverExtraction
Thetelltalesignofdarkouter
ringsandburntappearance
showsoverextraction.
dark, almost burncoloured
brown? The answer partially
comes from the beverage.
Because crema is bubbles of CO2
covered in brewed coffee, then
the darker the foam looks then
the darker the brewed coffee
liquid must be, one must assume.
But seeing differences in the
colour of the coffee itself is
extremely difficult unless you
dilute two different shots down
or look at them under a
microscope. Another factor
comes into play as well: the way
that foams refract light means
that the colour of the liquid
foamed up will appear much
lighter than the full liquid state.
The smaller the bubbles are, the
more exaggerated the effect can
be, so the foam of even a very
dark liquid that doesn't have the same thickness as espresso
will look surprisingly light (explaining why a dark pint of
Guinness has a bright white, foamy head as the bubbles are
extremely small and tightly packed)
In espresso, a fifteen second shot typically has a much paler
crema because it is a much weaker brew. The water has
had less time to capture the coffee solubles, and the
resulting brew doesn't have the same viscosity that a 25
second well prepared shot may have. For a similar reason a
shot with lower temperature brew water will have pale
crema because there wasn't enough energy to dissolve
everything desired from the coffee. It then makes sense
that overextracted shots look darker than normal, resulting
in what looks often like a burnt outer ring on the crema.
CanIeverhavetoomuch?The
arabicavs.Robustadebate.
For a long time one of the counterarguments to those who
were against robusta in espresso was that some robusta
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gave the shot better crema. This is indeed true and the
most plausible explanation is down to the oils in coffee. On
average robusta varietals contain about half of the flavour
and aromatic oils that arabica coffee beans typically have.
This means there is less oil extracted into the brew so less
of them effectively attacking the foam and causing it to
disappear. Whilst I am not going to get embroiled in the
debate of whether it belongs in espresso, in effect adding
robusta lowers the overall quantity of oil available to
extract from your puck of coffee, meaning you have a
higher probability of a stronger crema.
Food technologists will also tell you that this lower amount
of oil means that whilst the shot may initially seem to have
more body, the lack of oils means that sensation does not
last like it does with a pure arabica shot, full of body. What
is very much up for debate is the use of smaller quantities
such as 5%10% where you wouldnt expect a dramatic loss
of quality, but would expect an increase in the stability of
the crema. I am happy to accept arguments that this alone
cannot explain robustas extra crema, and there are some
articles that point towards some different types of sugar in
robusta that may have an effect. I hope that as more
information comes to light this article can be updated and
kept current.
This by no means answers every question about crema. I
regularly encounter unusual espressos with unique crema
producing qualities, based on their different chemical
composition. One that comes to mind is a biodynamic Brazil
from South Minas. The farm of Camocim dry pulps some of
its Yellow Bourbon (meaning more of the sticky fruit meat is
left behind when it goes for drying). In the cup it is
monstrously sweet and when brewed as an espresso, even 9
days from roast, it produced huge amounts of very fluffy,
oddly stiff crema.
Even as it drained and dried out, shots brewed with this
Camocim, South Minas Brasil coffee showed crema that
stayed strong, with a texture close to that of dry milk
foam. This coffee is not alone in producing unusual
crema. Often coffee processed very differently such as
aged coffees like Monsooned Malabar show themselves in a
7/10/2014 CoffeeGeek - Crema
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TigerFlecking
Inthecup,thedarkerbrownflecksare
particlesofgroundcoffee,showingagood
extraction.
crema with a different texture, be it in the dryness or
perhaps brittleness of the foam.
What this all boils down to is that even within the arabica
genus of coffee beans, many different varietals can have
different effects on crema, and most of it is based on how
the coffees store CO2, what kind of range of oils and fats
they contain, and how these are extracted into the cup.
The discussion about arabica vs. robusta when it comes to
crema is very limiting it can even extend to microgenus
species within the arabica family.
Tigerflecking/mottling
We are often told our
shots should have a
darkish red mottling over
the surface, and Illy have
made it part of their
espresso definition.
The flecks are tiny fine
particles of ground
coffee, pushed out of the
puck during the first part
of the extraction. Often I
see them around the rim
of the shot early on and
it seems to spread across the surface as the shot
progresses. This would imply they are not only a sign of a
good shot, but also of a good grinder that is able to produce
the necessary range of particle size for good espresso.
If a grinder produces too uniform a grind then, contrary to
expectation, the pieces dont fit together as well. Imagine
filling a swimming pool with beachballs, and the filling it
with a mixture of beach balls, soccer balls and tennis balls.
Or take a cue from Mark Prince's initial article on tamping,
and visualise the coffee grounds as pieces of a puzzle all
different shapes and sizes, and many interlocking to form a
nice tight container, yet still some pieces overlap and leave
gaps and spaces for water to properly flow through. In the
cup, tiger mottling shows the results of this grind particle
size range.
7/10/2014 CoffeeGeek - Crema
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Whatcremacanandcannottell
us:
Crema can tell us:
If the coffee is fresh
Whilst we can look for an abundance of foam to confirm
freshness this can be confused by high robusta content.
Instead look at the way the foam settles out. With fresh
coffee the entire shot seems to be crema as it brews.
Only after the pour stops does it settle out into two
clearly defined phases. With older coffee you can often
see a thinner, separate head of foam settling out as the
shot pours. The resulting coffee is often thin and watery
meaning the little crema we have disappears quickly.
How fully we have extracted the coffee
The darker the crema the more solubles in the cup.
The evenness of the extraction
If the crema is stable then the liquid we brewed was nice
and thick, implying less channeling, pitting, or other shot
defects.
What crema does not tell us:
If the coffee will taste good.
Cheap, poorly roasted coffee will still produce good
crema when fresh, and a machine has to be massively
filthy before it becomes evident in the crema.
That the coffee oils are properly emulsified
For a long time people myself included thought the
crema gave us information about how well we've
extracted the oils. But theory tells us the more oil we
have the less foam we should end up with. Should you
ever brew espresso with a pump running at 5 or 6 bars
you will find it still produces plenty of crema but a cup
that tastes pretty poor due to the missing oil and oil
soluble flavours.
7/10/2014 CoffeeGeek - Crema
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Crema,uncomplicated
Espresso and crema
are often built up to
be more complicated
than they are (and
perhaps an entire
article on this matter
of crema doesn't help
that perception!). But
crema is something
actually quite simple
in the overall scheme
of espresso
preparation. David Schomer the noted expert on espresso,
latte art, and roasting techniques from Seattle, once
described crema as a polyphasic colloidal foam. I would
disagree, and I will explain why:
Polyphasic means that crema would have multiple phases
and the terminology is correct when talking about the whole
espresso. It has three phases: a water phase, an oil phase
and a foam phase. Colloidal means that there is some sort
of stable emulsion, which again is true of espresso: the oil
in water emulsion is very stable, and unlike home made
salad dressing will not separate out.
Espresso foam falls to pieces very quickly it is unstable and
not a colloid. A better 'air in liquid' colloid is cream fresh
from the whipper. At a stretch you could claim crema is
colloidal because the liquid in which the CO2 is trapped is a
liquidliquid colloid. But to me thats a little too far. I am
not picking on Schomer in particular I learnt a great deal
from his books and writings and have nothing but respect
for him instead I want to make the science of espresso a
little more approachable.
In fact, the whole point of my inaugural article on
CoffeeGeek is to take away some of the unnecessary
mystery of crema. I do not believe that unraveling the
rainbow, and by removing the mystery we lose any of the
romance or pleasure in espresso. Quite the opposite in fact.
Crema is one of the many joys of an espresso. The
7/10/2014 CoffeeGeek - Crema
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honeycomb network of bubbles traps many of the aromatics
ready to release them as the bubbles burst on the tongue. It
lends both an appealing texture and an appealing look to
the drink, and will remain inextricably linked to the
romance of coffee. Its presence will give us many clues as
to what we are going to taste, and may offer some
explanations if we are disappointed but can never be a
guarantee of a great cup.
Articlerating:8.9
Posted:October14,2006
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