Today I greet the readers of the Coopzeitung with a cheeky smile from the front page of the printed edition. You can also read a detailed article and watch some short video tips from Demian and me in the online edition. We are thrilled to be able to represent our passion project to such a large audience.
The author of the article, Stefan Fehlmann, spent many hours with me at the academy, and together we delved deep into the world of coffee. It was a lot of fun. Thank you for your interest and the great questions!
Lucia Hunziker captured the whole thing in brilliant pictures as the photographer. Many thanks, Lucian!
An article is always a summary of many topics, and not everything can be covered in depth. That is why, for example, the Brewing course takes place over several days rather than a few hours. In that respect, an article is always a compromise. Many areas were touched upon in this article in the Coopzeitung.
However, one small note is important to me because the graphic shown for the drinks is not entirely precise regarding a topic that is central to me. No, I am not talking about the amount of milk foam to heated milk. That is certainly open to discussion.
For both cappuccino and latte macchiato, an espresso is generally used, as is the case here in the graphic in the article. That is correct. However, the ratio of dissolved coffee particles (TDS) to water changes when milk is added. If one assumes that cow's milk consists of about 87.5% water, in addition to carbohydrates, milk fat, protein, etc., the total proportion of dissolved coffee particles in relation to the water and other new components of the drink is, of course, no longer 7 – 10% TDS. Milk here should be seen as a "bypass" that changes the percentage ratio.
You can calculate it as follows:
(current espresso coffee weight x current espresso strength) / total beverage quantity (including "bypassed" milk/water) = final TDS of dissolved coffee particles in relation to total beverage volume
Example: Espresso = 25 g, TDS % = 8, added milk volume = 130 ml
((25 g espresso * 8 (% TDS) / 155 g total beverage volume = 1.29 % TDS
In terms of strength, a cappuccino is ultimately nothing other than filter coffee with a milky taste. 🙂
If you want to take into account the TDS of the milk or the added water, the formula looks like this:
((current espresso coffee weight x current espresso strength) + (added liquid quantity (milk/water) * TDS of milk/water)) / total beverage quantity / 100 = final TDS of dissolved coffee particles to total volume
"Bypass" is, by the way, a super exciting topic. It always refers to liquid that does not flow through the coffee during extraction but is added afterwards. That can be water, milk, or even alcohol. But more on that another time. For now, we continue to be happy about the article in the Coopzeitung.
