Recently, I was asked about my descriptions of locally roasted coffees. The specific question was…
“What are you looking for when you are tasting coffee?” Let me open with the fact that I’m not a trained coffee cupper, yes that is a real job, but I have had the privilege of some very basic instruction. Note that if you’re not a hipster then you can stick with descriptions like good coffee and bad coffee.
If you're wondering what cupping is, don't worry, I didn't know either. It's just a professional term for a tasting that helps determine the quality of any given coffee. For example Starbucks quality tests every single batch of coffee that goes out to its customers, which means that a small group of coffee tasters hole up in the "cupping room" at the company's HQ in Seattle and taste a whopping 600 to 800 cups per person per day. (They don't actually drink all that coffee!)
Four Steps To Coffee Tasting Like A Pro
1. Smell (“Paddle & Swirl”): Always smell a coffee before you taste it. Your tongue distinguishes only five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami — but your nose can detect thousands of smells. Cup your hand over the coffee, hold the cup close to your nose, and inhale.
2. Slurp ("Dip & Scoop"): When tasting a coffee, it’s important to slurp it. Slurping sprays the coffee across your entire palate and lets subtle flavors and aromas reach your nose. For those of you who know how to taste wine this is identical. The coffee cupper that taught me insisted that the two slurps are different but I couldn’t find any difference so if you know how to slurp wine then you’re covered.
3. Locate & Spit: Think about where you are experiencing flavors on your tongue. Is it on the tip and sides? What is the mouth feel and weight of the coffee on your tongue?
4. Describe: Now that you’ve smelled and tasted the coffee, think about how you would describe the experience. Talk about the aroma, acidity, body, flavor and finish. What food flavors or other experiences can you compare this sensation to? Citrus, cocoa, and berries are just a few flavors you might taste.
So, how do you describe your coffee and sound like a hipster?
- Aroma – Is it intense or mild. Do you smell chocolate, earth, spice, herb citrus or flowers?
- Body – Is it thick like cream or think like skimmed milk, not the same as flavor.
- Texture is a sub attribute of body. I would consider texture to be an attribute of its own but I was corrected here too. So, what does it feel like in your mouth as you swish it around- Is it creamy, oily, buttery, slippery, silty, watery?
- Acidity – This is the bright tangy quality of a coffee like the difference between an apple and a lemon. An acidic coffee can be described as bright. Candidly I had the most trouble with this concept. Unless I was testing two coffees side by side I had a hard time pinning this one down. However when I went with my gut feeling describing it to the cupper I was found to be correct more often than incorrect.
- Flavor – Take another sip after the coffee’s temperature has dropped below tongue scorching and try to identify flavors that stand out. Things that your looking for are:
- Nut
- Chocolate
- Spice
- Fruit
- Herbs
- Earthy (peaty flavor) Ick I don’t like peaty scotch either
- Flowers
- Finish – This is the flavor that lingers in your mouth after the sip. If you described it as fruity, what kind of fruit did you taste? If the flavor disappears right away the finish is said to be short and you’ve guessed it. A long finish lingers after you have swallowed the sip. You’ll find that coffees with a longer finish often reveal flavors that you didn’t initially detect. Personally I prefer coffees with a shorter finish.
So now you know enough to dazzle your friends but ask around to see if there are cuppers in the room before you show off. They are a proud bunch and will call you out if you’re overstepping.
Posted on: 2016-03-09 1:50 PM 
