Introduction:Many people wonder, do true coffee enthusiasts drink pour over or espresso? In fact, the answer isn’t an either/or. This article takes the perspective of beginners to analyze the coffee progression from lattes and cappuccinos to pour over, and uses real examples to illustrate the flavor characteristics and suitable audiences of various types of coffee, helping you find your ideal coffee choice based on taste preference.
It’s often asked, what do true coffee connoisseurs usually drink? Is it black pour over coffee, or milk-based drinks like lattes and cappuccinos? Actually, there’s no standard answer. Many coffee professionals have diverse daily choices—some prefer lattes, some start their day with pour over, and others occasionally opt for tea. The key is not which one to choose, but whether you’re willing to explore and appreciate the uniqueness of each type of coffee.
Many consumers mistakenly believe that understanding coffee means only drinking black coffee or pour over. But in reality, many professionals also choose different flavored coffees based on mood and occasion. If you’re not yet accustomed to the strong taste of black coffee, you might start with milk-based drinks like lattes, mochas, or flavored lattes. These beverages can soften the bitterness and slight burnt notes of coffee, making them smoother on the palate and a good entry point.
For those new to coffee, it’s common to envy experts who can identify origin and processing methods through smell and taste. However, becoming a coffee drinker capable of discerning subtle flavors takes time and experience. While black coffee can most directly showcase the texture and flavor of coffee, the accompanying bitterness and slight charred notes can be off-putting for beginners. Therefore, milk-based drinks like lattes and cappuccinos are actually more beginner-friendly.
Even Americano, which is diluted from espresso with water, retains more of the original characteristics of the coffee beans, unlike milk-based drinks where the flavor is largely moderated by milk. If you can already tolerate a certain level of coffee bitterness, you might try Americano to experience the differences between various beans.
Next, let’s look at several common types of espresso and rank them by coffee intensity to help you gradually try them according to your taste. If you’re particularly sensitive to bitterness, you can start with a mocha. A mocha is a milk coffee with added chocolate, where the coffee flavor is less pronounced, and it’s more like a chocolate drink with coffee aroma. Once you can accept mocha, you can try a latte, which is also primarily milk-based, but the sweetness mainly comes from the milk itself, without additional syrups.
Once you’re familiar with lattes, you can further try cappuccinos. Cappuccinos and lattes are both milk coffees, but they differ significantly in the ratio of coffee liquid to milk and the thickness of the milk foam. Taking standard espresso extraction as an example, it typically uses 20 grams of coffee grounds, extracting about 36 grams of espresso liquid in approximately28 seconds . Lattes use two shots of espresso (about 36 grams of coffee liquid), with around200 milliliters of milk ; whereas cappuccinos use a single shot of espresso (about18 grams of coffee liquid), paired with thicker milk foam, making the coffee flavor more prominent. Additionally,the milk foam layer in cappuccinos is usually much thicker than in lattes
, resulting in a creamier texture.
There’s also a recently popular coffee—Flat White (澳白), which has very little milk foam, almost a tight integration of coffee liquid and milk, and a smaller overall cup size. It’s suitable for those who enjoy a strong coffee flavor but don’t want to drink too much milk. Once you can accept the coffee intensity of cappuccinos, you can try pure Americano. Americano is made by diluting espresso withwater at a ratio of 1:4 to 1:8
, which extends the flavor layers, allowing you to more clearly perceive the characteristics of the beans. The taste of Americano can vary between coffee shops depending on the espresso beans used.
If you want to learn more about the details of espresso blends, you can observe the characteristics of the beans commonly used by coffee shops. Some shops, to harmonize with milk, choose blends with nutty profiles; while others may select more distinctive bean varieties, such as those with fermented wine-like aromas or high sweetness. These blends are not only suitable for milk coffees but can also showcase excellent Americano flavors.
When you’ve come to appreciate and enjoy the above types of coffee, the next step is to challenge yourself with pour over coffee. Pour over is also a type of black coffee, but its biggest difference from Americano lies in the brewing method: pour over is a drip filtration extraction, which can more clearly highlight the layers and details of the coffee.
The bean selection for pour over is more diverse, and the flavor profiles of different regions and processing methods can be finely appreciated through pour over. It’s recommended that you start building your own coffee tasting notes, linking the flavors you taste with everyday foods, such as fruits, nuts, floral notes, etc., which helps train your flavor memory.
While learning pour over, you can refer to the coffee flavor wheel, a tool commonly used in the industry that maps coffee flavors to specific ingredients, helping you more intuitively understand flavor descriptions. However, since the flavor wheel originates from abroad, some ingredients may be hard to find local equivalents for. In such cases, you can also read books to understand the general flavor tendencies of coffee beans from different regions—for example, Central American beans often exhibit nutty and chocolatey profiles, while Southeast Asian beans tend to have low acidity and spicy notes. Besides tasting, understanding the basic parameters of extraction is also important, including grind size, water temperature, coffee-to-water ratio, and brewing time. These are all key factors affecting the flavor performance of pour over. If you’re unsure how to adjust at the beginning, you can start with commonly used medium-roast beans, usingmedium-coarse grind 90~93°C, controlling the water temperature at , with a coffee-to-water ratio of about1:15 to 1:16
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
