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Bitter Froth Rim in Cappuccino

adelaidecoffeeadelaidecoffee
edited January 1970 in Have your say
A couple of times now when i have been out and about i have had a cappuccino and found that the rim of the froth to be particularly bitter which carries through the entire froth. In both cases after finishing the froth i still had the bitter taste in my mouth but after drinking the coffee it completely vanished.

Someone has suggested that maybe its because of the "glass/cup has been sitting on top of the machine and not been used or washed properly"

Any ideas?


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Comments

  • FreshCoffee2FreshCoffee2
    on 1310974900:
    ......bitter is an interesting term and can mean all things to many people.....  ;)
    The appropriate *standard* for the milk topping on a cappuccino is that it should not "white out"  to the sides of the cup. Best marks (in competition) are achieved when the milk is contained within a ring of the crema of the coffee, even better when it is as symetrical as possible. That is how you get the character of the coffee on the edge that you sip from, and in competition you are intended to sip from that area, rather than from  an area where the milk has whited somewhere around the rim. The interesting thing about the term "bitter" as AM wrote, is that you cannot judge what any individual means in using the term. In many instances, it is simply the character of an espresso coffee or the crema on an espresso coffee, and may in fact not be bitter at all as in "flawed". Hope that helps, Attilio very first Crema Site sponsir.
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    In my experience many cafes still do not wipe out the group handle with a dry cloth, before refilling it, and likewise a lot of places dont purge the group head by running some water through it prior to running the next shot - both of which can leed to a 'muddy' or 'dirty water' taste in the coffee - not really the same as bitter though Only other thing I can think of is that either the shot has been over extracted, or the coffee is over roasted to start off with, or both - both of which produce bitter flavours in the cup
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  • FreshCoffee2FreshCoffee2
    on 1310984691:
    .............Only other thing I can think of is that either the shot has been over extracted, or the coffee is over roasted to start off with, or both - both of which produce bitter flavours in the cup
    This is true Pat but in reality actual "bitterness' in cafe coffee is not a coffee (bean/roast) flaw but most usually a flaw caused by the method of operation of the person behind the machine. In order to detect real technical "bitterness" in an espresso, the espresso has to be brewed properly first. Even a low quality blend is not necessarily "bitter" when brewed properly..it can be a lot of things, but not necessarily bitter as in "cafe bitter", unless it is diabolically brewed.  "Common cafe bitterness" and "over roasted bitterness" are not the same. Actually, without being there it is almost impossible to answer the question (as in the question asked in the topic). Rgdz, A.
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  • hazchemhazchem
    on 1310970304:
    Any ideas?
    how was the espresso from these places? did it have the same flavour without milk?
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