Appreciating Quality Coffee Through Tasting

 

Key Takeaways:

• Tasting coffee, once considered niche or only done by coffee professionals, is now something practiced by many coffee lovers seeking to develop their palates
• Formal coffee tasting is known as coffee cupping
• Tasting includes looking for attributes like body, aroma, and specific flavor characteristics
• It’s easy to practice tasting coffee at home by simply being more mindful of what you’re tasting
• Improving your palate can deepen your enjoyment and appreciation of coffee—and help you dive deeper into what you love!

 

Coffee Tasting Moves into the Mainstream

It wasn’t that long ago that talking seriously about coffee tasting drew a raised eyebrow. Once mostly limited to wine aficionados, professional tasting and evaluation is now understood in the mainstream as something we do for coffee, too, and something that even everyday coffee lovers can benefit from.

Whether or not you consider yourself to have an advanced palate, or think of yourself as simply a coffee lover, there’s always more to discover when tasting intentionally. Exploring the possibilities of flavor within different roast styles and origins can enhance your appreciation of coffee, and open the door for even more connection with other coffee lovers. By tasting coffee with more intention, a coffee lover will be able to better articulate what they like (or don’t) in a coffee, and expand their understanding of what affects the tastes they experience.  

At Swiss Water, our coffee experts taste coffee every day—professional tasting of coffee is called cupping. Thinking about tasting in some of the same ways we do is a great way to begin refining your palate. It’s as easy as thinking more carefully about what you’re tasting every time you drink a cup of coffee—and we think using quality decaf to practice on is a great way to start!

 

Tasting Coffee at Swiss Water

In our Cupping Lab, we cup nearly 50 samples per week on average, tasting coffees from all over the world as part of our day to day quality assurance (and professional exploration!) Our Emerald Micro Lots program brings in limited-batch coffees from unique origins and farms, and these coffees can be among the more exciting coffees we taste.

“Some of our most recent Emerald Micro Lots have included Candy Blast, a watermelon co-fermented coffee and our first co-fermented decaf—a really fun and fruity coffee,” said Cupping Lab Manager Stacey Lynden. Stacey and her colleagues tasted notes of green apple, honeydew melon, and of course watermelon, in this unique decaf. Lynden also called out Rwanda Natural Nyamasheke as a micro lot with huge personality. “It’s syrupy, with lots of berry, stone fruit, and tropical fruit flavors,” she explained.

 

The Language of Tasting Coffee

While tasting, it can be helpful to think about the language we use to discuss different characteristics of coffee. Some of the terms we use include:

Aroma: A sensation that is difficult to separate from flavor. Aroma contributes to the flavors we discern on our palates. Subtle nuances, such as “floral” or “wine-y” characteristics, are derived from the aroma of brewed coffee. When professionally cupping, we take in both the dry aroma of the coffee when it is fresh ground, as well as the aromas released after pouring water onto the coffee and beginning the brew process.

Body: This word describes the mouthfeel of the coffee; the weight and texture of a coffee. It is the viscosity, heaviness, thickness, or richness perceived on the tongue and at the back of the palate. You may find some coffees possess a thicker, more syrupy body, and others feel more delicate.

Acidity: A desirable characteristic in coffee that provides a sharp, bright, and vibrant quality. Without sufficient acidity, coffee tends to taste flat. Acidity should not be confused with sourness, which is an unpleasant, negative flavor characteristic.

Flavor: The overall perception of the coffee in your mouth; the taste and aroma combined. Acidity and aroma are components of flavor. It is the balance of these senses that create your overall perception of flavor. A coffee’s unique variety, terroir, and the style of roast applied to the bean will all affect its flavor greatly. In coffee, we often draw on our own sensory catalog of other things we’ve tasted to help us describe the flavors we find in a specific coffee. Lynden notes: “I traveled and backpacked quite a bit in the beginning of my coffee career, and one of my favorite things to do while traveling is to visit the local markets and try the local fruits, veggies, and regional dishes. Tasting new things and trying new dishes allows for me to create my own inner dictionary of flavors that I can draw on when I’m tasting coffee.”

 

Tasting Coffee at Home

Anyone can develop their palate, sensory vocabulary, and tasting skills, says Lynden, without needing to be a professional—or cup 50 samples a week! “Just being by being conscious and mindful of what we are eating and drinking can help us become better coffee tasters,” she explains. “At first,” she says, “you don’t have to identify specific fruits or flavors—it can be very general, like is the coffee sweet, sour or bitter? It can also be more precise if the coffee triggers a specific memory or feeling.”

Lynden also recommends keeping a food diary as a great way to begin developing one’s palate. “This can include great dishes you’ve eaten, dining experiences you want to remember, new foods you’ve tried, and even coffees. You can record how they made you feel, memories they brought up for or maybe they make you think of a certain color, and this can help you build up your sensory dictionary.”

 

Conclusion:

Becoming a better coffee taster can enhance the experience of drinking coffee, and is easy to practice by doing what you’re already doing every day—eating and drinking!—and thinking about it more intentionally.