Coffee
professionals refer to the process of tasting and describing coffee
as 'cupping'.
It is used to establish flavour and aroma profiles of coffee
samples for quality control and evaluation purposes.
People's perceptions of taste and aroma vary greatly. What may be
thought of as bitter to one person may not be so to another. Indeed
even the perceptions of the same individual can change form day to
day depending on their general health and what they may have eaten
recently.
However professionals in the coffee industry do need some type of
criteria when discussing and analyzing coffee samples and so they
have attempted to create a common language amongst themselves to
help them compare and understand certain characteristics of coffee
taste and aroma.
Professionals use four basic descriptive criteria concerning
coffee.
descriptive critera
Acidity – This is the most important
distinguishing characteristic of coffee. It is defined as a
pleasant sharpness around the edges of the tongue and towards the
back of the palate. Some people would describe the sensation as
dryness. Acidity should not be confused with sourness, as a good
coffee should have some degree of acidity. Acidity provides a
sharp, bright vibrancy to a coffee and a lack of such will
result in a dull, flat lifeless brew. Coffees described as mellow
have low acidity, but should have enough to avoid blandness.
Body – This refers to the texture or feeling of
the coffee as it is perceived in the mouth. Is it rich and heavy or
light and watery for example. The body or texture of a coffee is in
direct proportion to the amount of oils and soluble compounds
extracted during the brewing process. A stronger brew for example
would be considered to have more body and vice versa.
Aroma – This refers to the sensation perceived by
the nasal passages (olfactory organs) as a result of interaction
with the aromatic oils and volatile compounds released during the
brewing process. To properly appreciate the aroma, the nose
should be within a couple of inches of the brew and several deep
breaths taken through the nose.
Flavour – This is used to describe the overall
effect of the previously discussed acidity, body and aroma plus the
main sensations experienced by our tongues such as sweetness,
sourness, saltiness or bitterness. This is the most difficult
criteria to get right and can be very subjective. However a
professional coffee taster will comment on the complexity of the
flavour (multiple flavours), the balance (if no one characteristic
dominates) and the depth of body.
As you can see describing a good coffee can be as complex as
describing a fine wine, but with practice and a clean palate the
main characteristics of a coffee can be effectively
communicated.
For a complete list of cupping terms with descriptions see our
section under Coffee Terminology.