Those fruity, wine aroma, and chocolate flavor are not naturally fermented, but from mysterious and unpredictable flavors and additives. Unconsciously, you drank flavors and additives, leaving a long scent -this is a special flavor given to coffee given coffee, and this kind of coffee beans are called "flavors" in the circle.
Chen Ming, who specializes in food fragrance, describes the fragrance and technology commonly used in coffee to the tiger. "Through the GC -MS analysis technology (gas -colored spectrum analysis method), you can analyze the aroma content of all flavor coffee. This is equivalent to having a recipe. You can make coffee beans in accordance with the recipes and additives. Commonly used additives include bipitorcosol, bran -based sulfuritanol, methyl cylinder, and percoin acid. Through flavors and additives, they can be treated with very ordinary beans into high -level flavors of well -known production areas, or they can also Machining the residual beans as a high -priced boutique bean. "According to Chen Ming, with the advancement of flavors, especially the hot beans in the past five years. The fragrance technology of coffee beans is changing with each passing day. "Some new flavors and additives lack a unified standard, and some existing standards are already more than ten or twenty years ago."
Due to the low cost of flavors, multiple chains are regarded as "a good way to reduce costs." According to industry insiders, in addition to a few international head brands and local heads, multiple chain of well -known coffee brands have launched products containing fragrant beans between 2020 and 2022. "A common method is to match, such as the coffee drinks with four kinds of beans, one or two coffee beans are actually fragrant beans; some brands also use the expensive varieties of flavored bean species, based on These products directly launch SOE products. "(Tiger Sniff Note: SOE generally refers to Single Origin Espress. It has presented a pure flavor through a single production area and a single coffee bean. In recent years, it has become a new favorite of coffee consumption.)
Zhao Ning, a coffee enthusiast who was sick because of Xiang Jing Bean, told Tiger Sniff that at that time, she bought a pack of coffee beans with a gimmick of "upgraded version of the Gorgeous Xia". Will feel a little headache. When drinking, the fruit taste is more rich. Another consumer, De Sheng, said that he would vomit after drinking coffee liquid made of flavoring beans or flavors, and the tonsils were inflamed after several hours of drinking.
Leatin describes the difference between natural fermentation and flavor processing: In traditional coffee roasting techniques, fresh coffee beans produce "flavors" through natural methods. Common "natural methods" mainly include sun exposure and water washing. Through natural fermentation, the sugar, acidity, and odor of coffee beans can be changed. "The protagonist of the natural method is microorganisms and natural enzymes. In order to control the sugar decomposition process, we sometimes add various raw materials such as fruits, wine, etc., but this model is not only highly cost -effective and the results are uncontrollable. For example The taste of coffee beans is likely not to be pineapple. "
Latin said that when the fermented raw beans were transported to the baking factory, the experienced bakers would judge according to the smell and color after opening the bag. Coffee beans with traditional fermentation technology generally have a very light smell, and even have a fermented flavor similar to "sauce tofu" and "big sauce". The raw beans of the flavors can clearly smell the rich wine, flower fragrance, and fruit fragrance when they open the bag. And this aroma is very accurate. An ordinary amateur can clearly smell whether the bean aroma or grape aroma.
In 2015, SASA SeSTIC won the hedema treatment method. In the orthodox anaerobic treatment method, the barista and bakers will join natural fruits and natural yeasts to assist fermentation. Essence Under such treatment methods, the flavor of coffee began to become more diverse, and it is closer to the flavor coffee of fruit juice, wine, and chocolate flavor. However, the cost of traditional anaerobic treatment is high, and the fermentation process is sometimes full of uncertainty.
As a result, a less cost, more controllable results, and stronger flavors began to rise: through artificial flavor, "customized" flavor. And this kind of flavors quickly became the "Xue Xue" of the Chinese coffee circle.
The precise and efficient of low cost and the entire research link is the key to the emergence of flavors coffee beans on the supply side. The taste of "what you see is" also allows the fragrant sperm to quickly open the situation on the consumption side.
But the harm of fragrant beans to the coffee industry is huge.
There are four points of harm to the industry in Raytin and Link and others: 1. When a production area is named "fragrant bean", the production area will greatly decline in global words and influence in the global right to speak and influence. , Ultimately affect the overall price of coffee beans in the production area; 2. Inferior coins are expelled from good coins, high -quality fermentation and baking supply chains are severely hit, which eventually leads to the overall industrial chain deformation; Domestic coffee brands are risk items; 4. Most of the purchase of boutique flavored coffee are post -90s and post -95s. The younger generation of coffee consumers are affected by flavors of fragrant beans, which is not good for the long -term development of local brands.
However, "short -sighted" is allowing the industry to actively embrace the fragrance technology.
The main car of Yunnan Coffee Manor was surprised to find that several "fragrance bean subjects" have been added to the courses of the largest "coffee roasting training schools" in Yunnan. And a local cooked bean "dealer", which has been supplied to the local head chain brand, is now playing the role of Yunnan's "fragrant sesame bean promoter".
In the "dealer" training institution, coffee bean roasters will be told how to use various "additives" to make coffee beans get wine, chocolate, and fruit flavor. In this training institution, not only do scholars come from Yunnan, but also a number of domestic well -known brands of domestic brands study here. After the successful learning of these baristas, it will not only become the person in charge of brand product research and development, but also become independent entrepreneurs, competition judges, emerging manor owners ...
Xu Cheng, who runs a coffee farm in Yunnan, experienced the "belief collapse" in 2021. Several brands who have collaborated for many years have directly issued the "fragrant bean order", Xu Cheng clearly remembered that two of them also "spit out the fragrant beans" with him a few years ago.
In the Pu'er area where Xu Cheng is located, the coffee manor that refuses to make fragrant bean is being regarded as "pedantic". This has caused the phenomenon of inferior coins to expel good coins: more orders have begun to gather to flavonian beans. Some people who originally produced traditional coffee beans and roasting began to adjust the technical routes and replace equipment, and set up the fragrant bean project in batches.
The deep -seated crisis of the industry is not only "distortion" of the supply chain, but also a complete rewriting of the rules of the game.
In regular mode, every coffee farm encounters the problem of residual rates. Xu Cheng said that in the best farm, about 20%of the residual beans also appear. In the traditional technical route, these residual beans cannot flow into the boutique bean market. But under the fragrance process, these residual beans can be packaged and upgraded to advanced beans.
"It hurts the rights and interests of consumers. From the short term, the profits of farms and baking factories will increase, but in the long run, this will eventually damage the reputation of the production area." Xu Cheng said that the evil fruit of flavors is actually reflected: 2021: 2021 For the past year, when the top -level high -end product lines have been "cautious" in Yunnan production areas when they purchase coffee beans. Some beanians and professional barista, even "retreating three houses" on some farms in Yunnan.
In the world's coffee market, the flavor label is a "general language". In international competitions, the coffee will be "described" through these labels. But a conventional rule is that the flavor label of coffee is mainly a "taste imagination", not "1: 1 equivalent taste". In short, in the orthodox coffee circle, if a coffee is described as "chocolate flavor", the tastor will predict the sweetness and sweetness of this coffee, and try to "think and try to feel as much as possible when you taste it. To "the chocolate flavor hidden in the aroma of coffee.
Link told Tiger Sniff that the effective "flavor description" method of professional coffee circles and deep coffee enthusiasts is difficult to do in today's Volkswagen consumer market. "The development speed of our coffee market has exceeded the popularity of our coffee culture. In Shanghai, where coffee culture is the most developed, nearly half of those consumers who try a cup of flavor coffee are coffee novice or ordinary consumers. They barely barely It can be clearly clear about what Arabica and Jigerphin are separated. For these consumption, it is difficult for them to feel your flavor description through imagination. "
But a benign solution is: the brand invested more resource training store employees and barista, continuously improved the employee's understanding of the coffee flavor, and then completed the interaction and information transmission through the employees of the store. At the same time, through more coffee cultural projects, the brand has cultivated more deep coffee enthusiasts and consumers in the market. Through overall cognition and consumer taste upgrades, it expands the market space of fine -grained coffee.
However, this "righteousness" requires not only more investment, but also longer time.
Under the "blessing" of flavors, the "fragrance version" boutique coffee, which has a lower price and more "clear and rich" flavors, and has customized "fragrance" based on the market trend.
A senior coffee bean dealer told Tiger Sniff that about 18%of his total cargo in 2020 was fragrant beans or related products, and by 2021, this ratio has risen to about 44%. In the first half of 2022 The proportion of fragrant sperm and related products in all goods accounts for more than 60%.
The owner of an independent coffee shop in Shanghai told Tiger Sniff that since the store has added three fragrant bean products, some "coffee depth players" who often go to the store will no longer go to the door. Instead, some coffee rookies and small white consumers are replaced. "Suddenly, your passenger flow and sales have risen, but in fact, it is difficult for these users to bind to your store for a long time. Their taste will gradually change, such as a 22 -year -old girl, who may like the sperm bean modulation. Jiu Xiang coffee, but as her experience and spending have improved, she may only buy authentic Xia Xia at the age of 27. We are very clear that it can not become a full -cycle product of consumers -it can only solve the last few in the past few The reality of the year. "
Another hidden danger has caused some brand owners to start reflection. A boutique independent coffee store in Beijing pushed a Jamaica coffee in 2022. This is a boutique coffee made of authentic imported coffee beans. The owner has high hopes for this. As a result, when he recommended to dozens of store members, these members felt that "the taste is much worse than the two barrel coffee in the store." The owner said that at that moment he regretted it -those wine barrel coffee was fragrant beans, and they These precious members of the store have been "rewritten" by the flavor of flavors. "When I push the real good coffee with higher profit margins, the difficulty becomes bigger."
It is worth noting that most people in the industry told Tiger Sniff that the current development speed of the coffee consumer market has exceeded the speed of the overall growth of the coffee industry. At present, the Chinese coffee industry is still "weak" in many links such as talents and supply chains. If the entire industry and large -scale areas begin to gamble with fragrant sperm, the Chinese coffee industry will lose the chance of growth.
"Hormone chicken has no taste and no strength. It looks very large, but it is vulnerable. In recent years, foreign big names have increased their investment in China in recent years. From planting to processing, international big names are strengthening industrial competitiveness. Some brands and farms are incense sperm sperm beans. "Rein believes that gambling fragrant sperm is a typical short -sighted behavior.
Do not get rid of the "fragrant sperm bean dependence", the Yunnan production area ...
In Cheming, in Dehong, in 2021, a coffee farmer cut off the coffee tree species and put on fruit. In Pu'er, several medium -sized coffee farms have greatly reduced coffee planting in 2021, adding tea and fruit planting areas.
In Yunnan, if you want to live with planting coffee, you must enter the supply chain end of "higher added value". For many estates and farms, fermentation and baking are a vital "profit treasure".
But learning fermentation and baking technology is very expensive. In Yunnan, the tuition fees for high -quality coffee roasting schools are generally 10,000 yuan/7 days. The complex upgrade and certificate system means that a student needs to take at least 150,000 yuan to complete all courses. Che Ming admits that 99%of farmers can basically not afford such training courses, but if they do not go to learn technology, they can only play "the lowest -level fresh bean growers in the coffee industry chain."
"In Shanghai, after salary adjustment, the monthly salary of an ordinary barista is around 8,000 yuan. Excluding rent and daily expenses, how much can he spend on non -essential funds a month? A cup of boutique coffee, usually 20 ~ 20 ~ About 40 yuan, the cheapest one has to be around 15 yuan. To be honest, this barista may also drink a little coffee sample of his own store, how can a person who does not consume coffee really study coffee What about the flavors and passion and soul to consumers? "Leidin believes that the real problem that plagues the coffee industry is: a fast -growing market and a weak talent foundation form a huge gap.
