Pu’er Coffee

 This was my first encounter with Father’s Coffee . Their full name is Father’s Coffee Roastery , a roasting brand founded in 2018 in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic. They are a family-run business—but not in the traditional sense of just parents and children. Instead, they see “family” as a group of coffee lovers brought together by shared values. They place a strong emphasis on coffee quality and freshness, while also deeply caring about transparency in sourcing. Father’s Coffee actively shares the stories behind each coffee, striving to build long-term relationships with producers. This mutual trust allows them to better oversee the entire process—from harvest and processing to export. Since 2023, they’ve also been involved in several projects that directly support coffee-growing regions. One such project funds a professionally equipped quality control lab in the beautiful Mount Elgon area of eastern Uganda. This initiative benefits not only the coffee pr...

 Recently, a friend noticed something interesting: compared to dark-roast coffee, brewing light-roast beans seemed to more easily result in coffee with an astringent taste. Unsure about this observation, he came to Qianjie for some clarification. So, what exactly is “astringency”? It’s that sensation in your mouth and on your tongue where things feel “gripped” or slightly rough, like a puckering or wrinkled texture. This experience is triggered when certain compounds in coffee interact with proteins in your saliva. Since it’s more of a tactile sensation than a taste, we call it astringency. The situation my friend described isn’t just a misconception—it’s real. Compared to dark-roast coffee, light-roast coffee does tend to extract with more astringency. Of course, brewing method plays a role as well. The astringency in coffee mainly comes from polyphenols such as tannic acid, tartaric acid, and quinic acid, which is formed from the breakdown of chlorogenic acid. If you notice a di...

 Green beans start with a raw, grassy aroma, and as they roast under intense heat, everything begins to change. At the moment of “first crack,” the beans expand and their flavor shifts—moving from grassy notes to nutty and chocolatey aromas, eventually developing the smoky depth of a dark roast. But here’s something you may have wondered: Why do some coffees carry a distinct smoky character? Is it an inherent trait of the bean, or just a “little accident” during roasting? Today, let’s break down the origins of coffee’s smoky flavor by looking at roast levels and roasting methods. First Things First: The 8 Roast Levels That Define Coffee’s Flavor Profile A coffee’s foundational taste is largely determined by its roast level. In professional roasting, there are eight levels from light to dark, each with its own characteristics—and its own relationship with smokiness: Light Roast (Around the start of first crack) Strong grassy notes with mild aroma and weak body. Very little d...