Coffee

I love coffee. I always have. I like some coffees better than others, but I don’t know why. I’ve decided to conduct my own taste test to determine which qualities in coffee I like and which ones I don’t.

Coffee tasting is a lot like wine tasting. The correct term for coffee tasting is “coffee cupping.” The recommended method for “cupping” requires coffee to be ground into an 8-oz. porcelain or glass cup. Water is then poured in the cup and the coffee steeps for a few minutes. The grinds rise to the top, forming a crust which is broken with a silver spoon. The coffee’s aromas are evaluated first; then, after the coffee has cooled a bit, the taster (cupper) slurps the liquid, evaluates the flavors, and spits the coffee out to avoid caffeine intake.

That’s not quite the way I drink coffee. I make it by the pot and drink it by the gallon. Nevertheless, if I’m going to try to determine which qualities I like most in a coffee, it would be helpful to define the four terms used to evaluate coffee: acidity, aroma, body, and flavor.

ACIDITY: sensation of dryness that the coffee produces under the edges of your tongue and on the back of your palate

Acidity refers to the sharp and pleasing aftertaste, often referred to as the liveliness of the coffee. It is a desirable quality that describes the brightness of flavor. Acidity ranges from low (smooth) to high (lively). A coffee without any acidity is referred to as flat.

AROMA: the feeling that the steam produces similar to the “bouquet” of a wine

Aroma is the smell of the coffee. Without our sense of smell, we would only have our taste buds, which are only capable of detecting the four basic taste sensations of “sweet”, “sour”, “salty” and “bitter”. The more subtle nuances of coffee flavor such as “floral” or “winy ” come more from the aroma or smell of the coffee.

BODY: the body is the thickness, heaviness, viscosity, or richness perceived on the tongue.

FLAVOR: the perceived taste of the coffee

Flavor is the overall perception of the coffee and is also a balance of the acidity, body and aroma of the coffee.

This is very much like wine tasting, except I have to make the coffee myself.

Diena Zavetsky has been a coffee gourmet for over 15 years. She is the owner of Hot Gourmet Coffee, a subsidiary of dmskye. She believes that whole bean coffee should be ground just before brewing to get a fresh coffee flavor.

Author: Diena Zavetsky
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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A high quality delivered coffee for a business coffee service requires a minimal roast to delivery time frame. Whether the roaster is office coffee provider or just the supplier, the product must be roasted, packaged and delivered within days, not weeks.

The problem with most services available to businesses is that the product delivered for a vending coffee is often quite lengthy. To preserve the characteristics defined in this article, the time from roaster to business consumer must be within two to seven days. This time frame enables a reasonable consumption period where the coffee’s unique taste characteristics are preserved.

For the novice coffee drinker, there are four primary taste profiles described and categorized for Specialty Arabica gourmet office coffee. These include: Acidity, Aroma, Body and Flavor. Flavor can be further broken down into Balance, Range, Complexity, Richness and Finish.

Acidity

The measure of a coffee’s acidity is different from the use of the word typically associated with food products. In coffee acidity is a positive trait that is a measure of the acid content after brewing. A proper level of acidity will give a level of tartness that gives the coffee a pleasant result when in the proper balance with the beans natural sweetness. Because of the consumer’s negative association with the word acidity, this characteristic in coffee is often described using terms that include brightness, sharpness, briskness and dryness.

Aroma

The pleasant aroma that is enjoyed by consumers of high quality gourmet office coffee is a result of the gasses being released during the brewing process. The various aromas are described as spicy, fruity, floral, earthy and herby. It is the combination of characteristics that will enhance the coffee’s ultimate aroma.

Body

This characteristic is a result of the texture as experience in the mouth. You can easily notice the thickness of the body, which can include more undesirable variations that include gritty or oily in the brewed coffee. Because of various preferences, you can find office coffees that have very full, full, medium or light body.
Blends usually result in the best overall quality as highly desirable aromatic coffees can often be light in body, while full bodied coffees can often have more bitter qualities. With the right combinations of roast profiles and quantities, very unique results can be achieved by the master roaster.

Flavor

It is only after the brewed coffee is in the mouth is flavor experienced. This is the true measure of a quality gourmet office coffee. The combination of acidity, body and aroma comes together to give the coffee lover a unique experience for that specific coffee as compared to any other.

Descriptions of a coffee’s flavor vary widely, but the basic terms include: Balance, Complexity, richness and range.

Balance measures the levels of characteristics compared with each other.

Complexity measures or reveals the more unexpected nuances of the sensations and flavor during drinking.

Richness measures the levels of body, aroma and flavor experienced by the consumer.

Range relates to the range of flavors that expose themselves in the mouth.

The aftertaste is what is referred to as “finish” in coffee tasting circles. These are the characteristics that are experienced after the coffee is swallowed. This sensation can be very pleasant as when there is a fruity, spicy or chocolaty aftertaste, or very unpleasant when there is a bitter taste or what is called in the industry a “cow shed” taste.

The Master Roaster is much like a chef who must account for all of the possible characteristics that will please the consumer of the product. A high quality office coffee service roaster is just as critical to providing high quality business coffee to our nation’s business community.

Author, Steve Josephs is a marketing consultant and CEO of Intellidon Marketing Solutions, whose family office coffee service business, the Great American Coffee Company, http://www.GourmetOfficeCoffee.com, is a premier Specialty coffee roaster and office coffee service provider in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan business community.

Copyright 2009 The Great American Coffee Company and Intellidon Marketing Solutions, Inc.

All rights reserved. Reprints are permissible when this Copyright statement and website link are included.

Author: Steve Josephs
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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