- Coffee facts
Coffee and nail polish remover? How does that go together?
Something really odd happened the other day when I was having coffee with a friend: Her coffee tasted like the smell in a nail salon. Like acetone. Not that I know what nail polish remover tastes like, but – phew… – the cup was undrinkable. What had happened?
Barbara Beiertz
Making coffee is not so trivial after all.
My first impulse was to think that the friend in question had brewed the coffee too hot. Because then the aromas dilute, and the coffee tastes badly burnt. But that wasn’t the cause at all. Nor was it the water – impurities could have been a reason. But no, the water was filtered and absolutely fine. It wasn’t the machine either, there were no residues of cleaning agents and the like. The only thing left was the coffee itself.
How can coffee taste like acetone?
One possibility is the so-called “stinker bean”. This is a coffee bean that is defective due to insufficient drying, poor storage, or pest infestation and can ruin the taste of an entire batch. With modern sorting methods, this should hardly ever happen… The safest way to protect yourself from this is with hand-picked premium coffees such as those from Mount Hagen, where such beans are identified and sorted out during the process (if they occur at all).
Caffeine extraction, an art in itself.
Another cause of chemical aftertaste can be the decaffeination process used to produce a decaf. Conventional coffees often use a chemical solvent such as dichloromethane or ethyl acetate – which is also found in nail polish removers. It is therefore quite possible that the residues from the decaffeination process are responsible for this unsightly effect.
By the way: In organic decafs, the caffeine is always extracted using natural means. At Mount Hagen, for example, we only use spring carbonic acid. Although this is time-consuming, the taste shows that it is definitely worth it: The flavors can fully develop – and above all, there is no chemical aftertaste. After all, decaffeinated doesn’t mean you have to do without taste. The opposite is the case. You will hardly taste the difference between Mount Hagen organic decafs and their caffeinated counterparts – and if you do, then only in direct comparison.
You can find out how to avoid other mistakes when making coffee and what else there is to know about decaffeinated coffee here:
“10 things you should know about decaf…”
“Coffee facts”
“Coffee prep”
By the way, my friend has switched to the decaffeinated Mount Hagen espresso. It wasn’t hard to convince her…
