yannisandstellaLeave a Comment on Coffee cupping or coffee tasting – how to?

Coffee cupping or coffee tasting – how to?

Comparing coffees can be very interesting! Some of the differences you wanna note are flavor, fragrances, aroma, flavor, acidity, body, balance and sweetness. At the end we have a bit more explanation about all these.

Ideally you wanna try 3-5 coffees.

The ratio should be 1gr of coffee to 16-18ml of water.

The grind should be medium. Like table salt. Ideally grind in the beginning 2 gr of each coffee to “clean” the grinder and then grind your 5gr. We did 5gr, cause we didn´t have more from one of the coffees. You can do 8-9gr of coffee instead plus the 2 in the beginning.

Let´s say you have x coffees and y people

  • Scale
  • grinder
  • gooseneck kettle
  • timer
  • x coffee bowls, where you will put your coffee
  • x+y+2 spoons (1 spoon per coffee, 1 spoon per person and 2 spoons for cupping)
  • x+y water cups (you could also have 1 cup for all the actions and 1 for each person)
  • papers for notes or the official cupping form of specialty coffee association->link down in the bibliography (we made our own one, since we are not such experts)

Steps

  • Prepare everything in advance. You want to keep times and the process flowing.
  • Prepare the paper with the instructions and the notes you wanna take. It´s nice for the discussion afterwards. Place the papers where the people will be placed and each person gets a spoon.
  • Find the bowls, for each bowl a spoon, 2 extra spoons for clearing the surface, 1 glass of warm water for each bowl
  • Place the bags and some beans at a specific spot, where the bowls later will go.
  • Weight your coffee grounds.
  • We did 5gr of each of your tasting coffee and 85gr of water, that is 93 degrees Celsius
  • After grinding each coffee, check the fragrance and write down your notes
  • Start the timer and pour the water in the coffee grounds
  • After 4 minutes break the crust and smell the aroma. Have different spoons for each coffee. You need to lower at the bottom of the cup all the coffee grounds. Do not agitate a lot the coffee grounds and do not insert the spoon till the bottom.
  • Then take 2 spoons and skim the surface. Clear the whole surface of each bowl from foam and coffee grounds.
  • Wait 10-13 minutes for the temperature to lower
  • Taste the coffee making noise! You need to slurp the coffee, so that you allow the coffee to spread to the whole surface of your tongue, in order to be able to spot different aromas and tastes.

BE CAREFUL always not to cross contaminate the bowls. Rinse always the spoons in glasses of water.

What are you looking for?

SMELL

  • Fragnance: the smell of coffee when dry. Best moment to smell the fragrance is directly after grinding.
  • Aroma: the smell of coffee when wet. Best moment: when coffee is brewing

TASTE

  • Acidity: bright, juicy or lively. Often described with specific fruits like lemon or citrus fruits, stone fruits, apple etc
  • Body: It describes the viscosity, heaviness or richness. delicate, light, rich, heavy.
  • Sweetness: The lighter roasted the coffee, the sweeter will be.
  • Balance: Does the cup have harmony or there is a distinct flavor that dominates the cup.
  • Flavor: What do you taste. It can be fruits, nuts, etc

If you wanna describe what you taste even better, you can check out the sensory lexicon, that we include at the bibliography. This will help you find the words for what you feel or make you more specific.

Check out also our other post with the taster´s flavor wheel:

We used in Mahlkönig X54 the setting 24 that gives around 700 microns, which falls in the category of medium.

Bibliography

Leave a comment

Location Yannis and Stella Apollonas Naxos Phone +49-1525-7716967 (DE) Email yannisandstella@gmail.com
Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started
search previous next tag category expand menu location phone mail time cart zoom edit close