Coffee

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

Author: Timothy S. Collins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Recently, my friend bought the Phillips Senseo coffee machine and I’d just like to share with everyone my own personal review after testing this product for myself!

My usual experience with coffee machines is that the good ones are filled with complicated buttons and the bad ones brews coffee that tastes like something no one ever wants to drink in a few lifetimes. So when I had to give a review about this coffee machine, I had to admit I was extremely hesitant.

Much to my surprise, I found that it was very simple to use. I mean come on, the whole machine has what… lets see. 3 buttons. You can’t possibly go wrong with pressing any of them. Not like the usual professional coffee machines with a 101 buttons that starts the coffee machine go “buzzing…(silence)” and yet no coffee comes out.

What I simply LOVE about this machine is that it allows you to add a Latte Foam Topping to your coffee. I mean how fantastic is that? You can now make coffee that looks like Starbucks right at home!

And you can laugh at those people who brag about their coffee brewing skills because you too can brew professional looking coffee from the comfort of your own home! Its best if you have business clients etc because you can now make them coffee…WITH LATTE FOAM TOPPING!

Sorry about the over excitement about foam toppings but seriously, they are the coolest things in the world that gives you a milky mustache and coffee with these foamy stuffs usually make you feel like in heaven… OK, brewing skills aside, the coffee machine is compact and takes up just a small corner on your table. Besides it being small, what other benefits does it have you say?

So when you brew a cup of coffee, apart from quality of the coffee, one thing most people fear is the CLEAN UP. I mean, imagine you just brewed a relaxing cup of coffee that tastes so excellent your taste buds are in the high heavens and your dreaming of sandy beaches and sunny skies.

Then it strikes you, “Oh gosh, I have to clean up the mess before my wife comes back” (which happens with most coffee makers, what with the spurting of the coffee when the machines gets all excited when brewing a cup of coffee). The Phillips Senseo coffee machine is the quickest and easiest machine that I’ve ever cleaned in my life. It take 2 steps to clean. 2 easy steps and PRESTO!! You can go back to dreaming about those sandy beaches.

Rinse the pod holder Give the drip tray a wash Come on la, even a self proclaimed machine idiot can clean this machine without wrecking it.

The coffee machine has just 2 regular nozzle thingy that when going into details sounds seriously complicated but who cares? I don’t care if its made of titanium or whatever. What I know is that this nozzle’s accuracy of spitting coffee into a cup is 100% accurate. When I use other machines, their nozzles don’t shoot the coffee directly into the cup but all over the place. Sometimes its sideways, sometimes is straight, sometimes its crooked. And how in the freaking world would I know where to position my cup huh?

But for this Senseo coffee machine, just put the cup below the nozzle and HEY PRESTO! ALL MY COFFEE ACTUALLY LANDS IN THE CUP AND NOT OVER MY COUNTER! (how freaking happy I was you can never imagine). And now I can actually stare at the coffee trickling into the cup without worrying that some random spurt will land in my eye. Gosh, it makes me want to shout hallelujah again!

In terms of capacity of the coffee machine, like how many cups it can make etc. It takes around 30 seconds (I wasn’t bothered to take a timer there to take a record but this is a guesstimation) to brew one cup of fresh piping hot coffee. Every time you fill the machine, you can make 5 cups of coffee and to fill the machine, you just to need to simply detach the water reservoir thingy, fill with water and snap it back!

Nothing complicated like pressing this button then opening this latch and then pour this amount or whatever crappy stuff! So now that I’ve bragged about its size, its usability and whatever, it boils down to the question of price. I mean whats the point if it costs millions of bucks only a billionaire could afford right?

Comparing its prices to professional coffee makers and regular coffee machines, for the kind of quality of coffee it produces, it is definitely a great bang for your buck. Its cheaper than other brands that produce similar coffee quality and affordable for every household. Its not dirt cheap but definitely worth it. Every single penny people!

What I mean is you don’t have to be a filthy rich lady/man to own this. Anyone can! And that’s whats so great about this machine!

For more details, read Philips Senseo Coffee Machine. P.s: Don’t believe me? Compare my reviews with the billions of rave reviews found on the net! The world filled with Passion and desires!

Fallon Han
http://www.passionoflife.net

Author: Fallon Han
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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