Can someone explain to me what "bitter" means in terms of coffee?
I just did part of a barista course and got a lot out of it, but I'm left perplexed and convinced that my preference for coffee reaches far far into overextraction.
The "ideal" shots were (to me) smooth, with delicious aroma but not a great deal of flavour. These made very nice milk drinks. The overextracted (say 29sec vs the 23-25sec ideal) shots were called bitter by others, but to me had the sweet astringency that I enjoy in black coffee (especially in long blacks) which previously I would have referred to as "bright" or "high acidity". It's tangy, rather than what I'd call typically bitter (which I've had plenty of tastes of while I was learning/burning on a popper). I didn't taste anything I'd call bitter because we were all pulling decent shots.
So what gives? Is it that the commercial taste for a coffee is blander/smoother than in an environment where you're only trying to please yourself or have I inadvertantly taught myself to like a flavour element that most people don't?
I just did part of a barista course and got a lot out of it, but I'm left perplexed and convinced that my preference for coffee reaches far far into overextraction.
The "ideal" shots were (to me) smooth, with delicious aroma but not a great deal of flavour. These made very nice milk drinks. The overextracted (say 29sec vs the 23-25sec ideal) shots were called bitter by others, but to me had the sweet astringency that I enjoy in black coffee (especially in long blacks) which previously I would have referred to as "bright" or "high acidity". It's tangy, rather than what I'd call typically bitter (which I've had plenty of tastes of while I was learning/burning on a popper). I didn't taste anything I'd call bitter because we were all pulling decent shots.
So what gives? Is it that the commercial taste for a coffee is blander/smoother than in an environment where you're only trying to please yourself or have I inadvertantly taught myself to like a flavour element that most people don't?

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