WHAT THE CUP?? Beginner's Guide to Coffee Cupping
The idea of a wine tasting is as common to us as “blackberry notes” and “hints of vanilla,” but the coffee world has its own longstanding equivalent — the cupping — and this communal gathering of roasty appreciation has gained significant popularity over the last several years.
Cupping: the practice of observing and documenting the tastes and aromas of brewed coffee. While a professional practice, it can be done informally by anyone or by professionals known as "Master Tasters.” Wondering how works? We've created a basic breakdown below! This guide will get you ready to attend a coffee cupping in your area or hold your own. |
The Format
For something sounds like a chaotic waltz of slurps and sniffs, coffee cuppings are often very carefully organized events intended to present the coffees on display in their most ideal preparations. Here's a quick summary of the flow of events we experienced at a recent cupping we attended at one of our distributor's, Royal Coffee's, headquarters:
- The guests split out to 3 tables
- Each table receives their flight of coffees and begins sniffing the dry coffees and observing their aromas (rotating around the table from coffee to coffee)
- 4 members of each 12-person table go the sink and pick up their pre-heated water pitchers
- When each guest finishes smelling the coffees, the four pouring members, at the same time, pour near-boiling water into each cup.
- A four-minute timer is started when the last cup has been filled.
- After four minutes each cupper “breaks the crust” on the coffees in front of them, gently breaking the layer of loose coffee grounds accumulated at the top of each cup
- Each guest deeply sniffs the hot brewed coffees and documents their aromas
- Using one or two spoons they gently remove the grounds floating on the tops and move them to discard cups.
- The guests spoon out some of the cooled coffee and begin the actual tasting phase by loudly slurping the coffee to make sure it spreads to the back of the tongue so all flavors can be processed.
- The cuppers once again rotate around the table and sample each coffee in this fashion (taking notes and washing off their spoons in between).
As you can see, there's a lot to this! You don't have to be this regimented in your own cuppings, but this gives you an idea of the intensiveness of this unique process.
Flavor Profile
So where do you begin in assessing a coffee — doesn’t coffee just taste like … uhh … coffee? Glad you asked! There’s a lot more to it.
... So much so actually that cuppers use a flavor wheel to aid them in evaluating the coffees they're tasting. You ever taste something in a coffee, good or bad, that you couldn't quite put your finger on? That's where the value of this visual aid comes in handy.
... So much so actually that cuppers use a flavor wheel to aid them in evaluating the coffees they're tasting. You ever taste something in a coffee, good or bad, that you couldn't quite put your finger on? That's where the value of this visual aid comes in handy.
Scoring the Cup
According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America coffee tastes can be scored on eleven criteria:
• Aroma – Flavor and Aroma are very tightly connected in coffee often intertwining into one taste experience. Aroma generally refers to what many might call flavors in other contexts (e.g. caramel, chocolate, berry, citrus, etc.) • Flavor – The main tastes the coffee triggers on the palate (sweet, salty, sour, bitter) together with the highlights of the aroma (a bitter chocolate). • Aftertaste – The length and pleasantness of flavor on the tongue after swallowing the coffee. • Acidity – “Brightness” or “sourness” to respectively describe positive or negative acidity in a coffee. Not all coffees are inherently acidic. African coffees tend to have high acidity. • Body – The kind of light or heavy mouth-feel a coffee creates. Island coffees tend to be rather light, while South American varieties are notably heavier. • Balance – How the previous elements interact with each other—is the overall effect pleasing? • Sweetness – The degree of caramelization of the sugars in the bean and how this impacts the roast. • Clean Cup – The appropriate lack of interfering non-coffee flavors that disrupt the experience (e.g. the straw-like taste of sitting in a bag too long). • Uniformity – The consistency of flavors and attributes from cup to cup. • Overall – The overall impression of the coffee as a whole. • Defects – Negative elements (acridness, “baked” sitting flavor, blandness) that detract from the experience and the intensity of these qualities. ***** |
While coffee masters use these criteria to rate a given coffee on a 100 point scale, these items can help casual coffee tasters to appreciate roasts on a greater level of depth. Next time you sip a new brew think: what do I smell, what do I feel … does the flavor combination work? Unleash your inner coffee connoisseur!
For more information on coffee cupping terminology, check out this awesome illustrated guide here!
For more information on coffee cupping terminology, check out this awesome illustrated guide here!