How to Taste Specialty Coffee

Coffee cupping - a coffee tasting if you like - is used as part of the quality control process to determine flavour profile and quality. You taste (cups) different coffees side by side to understand subtle nuances and see which profile style you prefer, and if the quality is up to the standard.

It is also a great way to get to understand more about the coffee character as you can evaluate a single parametre - like processing with our Ethiopia set from Lalesa. Here you get two coffees from the same farm and the same harvest - the only difference is the processing methods: anaerobic natural and black honey. It's a super exciting opportunity to try the coffees side by side, so you can explore the nuances between these processing methods and their impact on the flavour.

Disclaimer:
If you haven’t got a grinder at home, this only works if you’ve ordered your coffee ground for filter coffee.

So, how do you set up a cupping?

Step 1: Get all your things ready

• As many vessels (glasses, cups, mugs) as the number of coffees you’re tasting. Ideally, the vessels are all the same size, but don’t worry if they’re not exactly the same
• Kitchen scales
• A kettle filled with enough water and ready to boil. Ideally, you want to use softer/filtered water (the best-bottled waters for coffee are Volvic, Aqua Pura, and Tesco’s Ashbeck)
• Your coffee(s)
• A timer (you can use your smartphone)
• A glass with water for rinsing your spoons
• Spoons (can be table spoons or larger dessert spoons)

Step 2: Grind your coffee

The amount of coffee you should use depends on the size of the vessel. The general rule is to use 15g of coffee for 250g of hot water. If your vessel can’t hold 250g of water, you can reduce the coffee and water amounts in this ratio.

• Weigh out 15g of each coffee directly into the vessels
• Grind to the finer end of medium fine

Step 3: Assess the Aromas

Before pouring hot water onto the grounds for brewing, you want to bring the vessel to your nose and smell the different aromas of each coffee. If you’re going to assess coffee using the scoring sheet, this is where you fill in the “Aroma” row.

Step 4: Prepare the Coffee

• Bring your water to a roiling boil, take it off, and leave it for at least a good minute. If your kettle allows you to control the temperature set it to 94 - 95°C
• Place the vessel with the coffee in it on your scales and tare it
• Start your timer
• Immediately start pouring hot water directly onto the grounds - you want to pour until you reach 250g per vessel. While pouring, make sure all the grounds are wet so that it forms a nice and firm crust
• After 4 minutes, you need to do what’s called ‘break the crust’. You do this by pushing through the crust with a spoon and stirring it to the bottom of the vessel (we suggest stirring three times)
• Rinse your spoon in clean water and go to the next vessel following the same procedure
• After breaking the crust, you want to skim off any foam that has formed on top and any ground floaters

Step 5: Taste the Coffee

After breaking the crust and skimming off let it sit for another 8-10 minutes before you start tasting it. You want the temperature to come down slightly as it is easier to taste the different nuances. Then:

• With the spoon, take a small amount of coffee just from the surface. Make sure you don’t stir the settled grounds at the bottom.
• Bring it to your mouth and slurp vigorously and loudly so that the coffee covers as much mouth area as possible, especially the tongue and upper palate. The trick is to slurp exactly like the hot soup or tea. Don’t be shy.

Step 6: Evaluate the Coffee

We have created a simplified version of the assessment sheet that the professional cuppers would use for you (and for you nerds out there, here’s a link to a full SCA Cupping Protocol). Here are the steps to evaluate your coffee during cupping:

• Follow the order in the first column to assess each of the quality attributes. Coffee reveals different flavour characteristics at different temperatures, which is why we assess each attribute in a specific sequence
• For each attribute, rate its intensity level and your personal preference, then note specific flavour descriptors (this can be fruits or nuts for example, or other flavour references that come to mind)
• Evaluate the coffee at least three to four times as it cools to different temperatures to capture the evolving flavour profile.
• Remember: The flavour changes as it cools, so don't linger too long on a single attribute. Move quickly through attributes and coffees to experience them at various temperatures.

Your ultimate goal is to experience and appreciate the complete flavour journey of your coffee, identifying subtle changes and nuances at different temperatures as well as different flavour profiles of various processing methods.

Assessment or Evaluation Sheet

You can download the evaluation sheets here

You assess the coffee on seven attributes and rate it across two levels. Here’s an explanation:

Intensity
How intense is the particular quality attribute?

0 - I can’t sense it, 3 - very intense

Preference
How much do you like a particular quality attribute?

0 - you hate it, 5 - you absolutely love it

Each quality attribute can be described in one or another way. For example, it has an apple-like flavour, or it tastes like grapefruit, I get bergamot and lemon in the aftertaste, etc. Let your imagination do the magic.