What Is Brix, and Why Does It Matter in Coffee?

If you've spent any time around fruit growers or winemakers, you've probably heard the word "Brix". It's a way of measuring how much is dissolved in a liquid. In coffee, it tells you how much of the bean actually ended up in your cup.

When you brew coffee, water pulls flavour out of the ground beans. That flavour is made up of dissolved solids: oils, acids, sugars and the compounds that give coffee its aroma and body. The more of these you capture, and the more evenly you capture them, the fuller the coffee tastes.

A typical home brew only extracts part of what's in the bean. Some of the flavour is left behind in the grounds and goes in the bin.

At TCB, our proprietary process captures nearly 100% of the available flavour solids from the bean, using only coffee and water. Nothing is added to make up for what's missing.

Why should a café or manufacturer care?

Because Brix is measurable. If every batch has the same Brix, every batch tastes the same. That's what lets a café chain serve the same iced latte in two different cities, or an ice cream maker produce the same coffee gelato all year round.

In short, Brix is the number behind the flavour.