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.

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Every people have their own experiences to share when you talk about coffee, especially those who drink coffee from ages 18 and up. Many specialty coffee shops can be now found in almost any corner of the city, that’s because of our addiction to coffee. And because of this, I’m sure that those specialty coffee shops are making more money by serving thousands of caffeine lovers every day.

One of the fastest growing food industries in the world is the specialty coffee industry. These kind of shops are now almost every where. Try walking in the downtown area, and you will notice that there now a lot of shops serving caffeine lovers. To produce a gourmet or premium coffee, is should be grown in the world’s most ideal coffee producing climates, like in Costa Rica, and prepared according to exacting standards. And Specialty Coffee Association of America or SCAA set all these quality standards.

Specialty coffee industry have their own trade association, and this is SCAA. To maintain the quality, SCAA put standards for roasting, growing, and brewing of coffee. This association consists of coffee roasters, producers, retailers. Some coffee equipment manufacturers are also member of this association. As you may know, SCAA provide its own information of specialty coffee in terms of cupping, brewing, roasting, and more.

The first method, cupping, is the systematic evaluation of coffee beans based on its aroma and taste. This method is commonly used by coffee growers, buyers, and roasters to determine the quality of a specific coffee sample. There is a formal step-by-step evaluation process for doing a proper cupping and it requires the observance to an exacting set of brewing standards. A cupper generally looks for six characteristics to identify its quality, these include aroma, taste, fragrance, aftertaste, nose (vapors release by the coffee in the mouth), and body.

To enhance the taste of the coffee, proper brewing should be done. And it is properly done if the proper amount of flavor was extracted from the bean. The six essential elements of proper brewing are coffee to water ratio, optimum brewing method, properly operating brewing machine, a coffee grind that matches the brewing time, high quality water, and an appropriate filtering medium.

So, that is all. There is variety of reasons why premium coffee hit off the market. One, it needs to follow certain standards in order to produce a great tasting coffee drinks and simply because they taste better. If the coffee industry is continuous in implementing these high quality standards, it will continue to soar.

John Platiko is the created a website Coffee A Day for coffee lovers. Coffee lovers can also get the latest Starbucks Coffee Store discounts from the website.

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The process of roasting coffee beans is what brings out the flavor of the coffee and develops the characteristics for a great taste. The beans are roasted in order to bring a perfect balance of acidity with just the right sweetness. A light bodied, sweet coffee is normally roasted lighter than the full bodied coffee with the chocolaty tastes.

As the coffee beans are in the roasting process, there are chemical and physical changes to the coffee itself. Some changes include the expansion of the beans, loss of moisture, caramelizing and of course a change in the color of the coffee. Once they start losing moisture and expand, they will make a popping sound, which in the coffee industry is known as crack.

Ttwo types of roasting coffee beans are Art, and the second is Science. One other type of roasting is a combination of both art and science.

Art roasting is where the roast master relies on sound, sight and smell of the coffee to determine when the beans are roasted to perfection. It takes many years of experience to achieve a level of master coffee roaster.

Science roasting is based on scientific data. The roast master takes data including temperature and time to determine the degree of roasting to gain the same color with each batch of roasted coffee beans. A combination of both art and science are used where coffee is produced in mass.

Another step is to achieve a perfect blend of coffee is the “cupping” process. This is where the coffee is tasted in similar fashion to tasting wine. When the roasted bean is cupped, samples are pulled from the process and measured into several different cups. Each cup of coffee beans are ground separately and boiling water is poured over the freshly ground coffee beans. When the coffee grounds rise to the top of the cup they trap the aroma in the cup. The cupper will then scrape away the grounds and smell the coffee aroma. The coffee is then tasted and rated on all the characteristics including flavor, acidity, aroma, body and any taste defects.

There are basically three levels of roasting. They are light roast, generally used in a milder coffee and many times sweet coffees. Medium Roast is one of the most common roasting levels of roasting coffee beans. Most of the medium roasted coffees are done when they reach their second crack. And lastly there is the dark roast. This is the level of roasting coffee beans well beyond the second crack and will appear oily on the surface. This gives the coffee a very full bodied and strong flavor.

For you the coffee drinker, you have many choices when it comes to roasted coffee beans. The best way to tell which coffee is right for you is to sample many different types of coffee.

Ocha has been in sales and sales management for over 24 years. He is currently in marketing and support in the distribution industry. He also manages several websites and blogs. Providing customers with what they want.

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What would you say if your child or young teen wanted to become an official taster of coffee?

Would it be any different from becoming a wine or orange juice taster? What does it take to become an official coffee taster or “cupper”?

Cupping can be a fun occupation and a hobby. Cuppers run in families and it is not unusual for the job to pass from father to son and so on. There are female cuppers but the majority are males.

If your child or teen wants to become a cupper, they can practice at home and look for cupping events through coffee clubs or other groups. Who knows? You could have a cupper in the making right at home!

Cupping is a technique used to evaluate coffee aroma and the flavor profile of a coffee. Cupping is used to taste defective coffee or to evaluate coffee blends.

Learning how to distinguish coffees through cupping takes much practice and a love for coffee. It also requires following certain standards and habits to ensure objectivity and the ability to cup many times throughout the day as a professional cupper

Cupping takes place after the green (un-roasted) beans go through inspection before being graded for sale, especially for export. The professional cupper inspects the beans for color, shape, size, appearance, density and fragility. Next the samples are roasted. The beans are examined again for discoloration, appearance and smell.

What is a coffee cupping session like?

• Coffee cupping sessions usually start with the coffee table preparation set up with a cup for each of the 6 to 10 coffees to be sampled.
• The cupping session includes several coffees to evaluate.
• Throughout the various steps of the session, the coffees are evaluated in a consistent order.
• The setting includes a sample of the roasted coffee and a sample of the green coffee.
• These samples are covered until the coffee cupping session is completed and the aroma, fragrance and flavor profile of the coffee are documented.
• In addition, on the table, there is a cup of water at room temperature and an empty cup with the cupping spoons.
• The coffee sample preparation requires placing 2 tablespoons of freshly roasted and freshly ground coffee in an empty cup.
• The coffee is ground to a standard fineness and a weight of about 10 grams or equivalent to the weight of a nickel.
• Visual verification of roast similarity among the coffees included in each session is common practice.
• This requires placing ground samples next to each other on a black sheet of paper.

How does the cupper prepare to taste the fragrance and the aroma of the coffee?

• The cupper smells the ground coffee before water is added to evaluate the coffee fragrance.
• Next, the cupper adds hot water to each of the cups and to the cup with the cupping spoons so everything is at the same temperature.
• The cupper smells each of the cups without disturbing them and writes down observations about the coffee aroma.
• After 1 to 2 minutes, the cupper breaks the crust of the coffee using one of the preheated cupping spoons.
• The cupper puts his nose directly over the cup and pushes the coffee down.
• This is the time to get the best burst of aroma of the coffee during cupping and to write down observations.
• Next, the cupper stirs the coffee to make sure it is covered by water and to help the coffee sink to the bottom of the cup.
• Again, the cupper writes down additional observations.
• The cupper then rinses the spoon with hot water and moves on to the next sample cup until sampling all of them.

When does the cupper slurp coffee?

• When the coffee is sufficiently cool, the cupper takes sufficient coffee from a cup into the spoon and slurps the coffee to cover the entire tongue.
• Correct aspiration is important because the objective is to cover all the tongue evenly and to allow some drops to go into the throat and the nasal passages. Why? The aromatic compounds in the flavor of coffee are evident when your nose and tongue smell and taste coffee.
• The cupper writes down observations about the coffee flavor.
• Cuppers testing more than a couple of cups of coffee spit out the coffee to prevent too much caffeine which can impact the cupping ability of the professional doing this job.

Cupping is a very important step in the coffee evaluation process because it helps grade the coffee in terms of fragrance, aroma and flavor. Positive cupping marks mean higher prices for specific beans and branding opportunities for limited editions, selected varietals and other marketing qualifications.

So, ready to enjoy your next cup of coffee?

Timothy (“Tim”) S. Collins, the author, is called by those who know him “Gourmet Coffee Guy.” He is an expert in article writing who has done extensive research online and offline in his area of expertise, coffee marketing, as well as in other areas of personal and professional interest. Come visit the author’s website: http://www.ourgourmetcoffee.com

Copyright – Timothy S. Collins. All Rights Reserved Worldwide

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