Your cart is empty now.
Get 10% off using discount code FIRST500 at checkout.
Coffee 101: more than just caffeine (cont)
- 14 December, 2020
- Osvaldo Pena
From Taste to Flavor and Beyond
Welcome back! In this post we're going to pick up where we left off and dive right into tasting. When it comes to tasting coffee, there's this coffee grading form...err...you know...'the thing!' This form (i.e. list of flavor descriptors) will tell you that there’s more to a cup of coffee than just the way it tastes. Things like acidity, aroma, balance, body, clarity, finish, and mouthfeel are all qualities that contribute to the total experience and are worth taking into account as you continue to grow as a taster. When I look at coffee tasting, I often ask myself the very question most of you reading this post seem to never get an answer too: "Who comes up with this sh!T!!" Unfortunately, I don't have the answer to that question either, but together, we're going to attempt to understand how to decipher the previously mentioned descriptors as we taste.
-
Acidity: When we talk about acidity in brewed coffee we are not referring to its pH level. Acidity in coffee is actually the perception of how it feels on your palate (separate from body(i.e. weight) or texture! (i.e. silky, creamy etc), which are often talked about using words like lively, tannic, mellow, or sharp. Does your coffee give you the impression of red or white wine? Apricot juice? Fresh citrus like grapefruit? Acidity is a major factor in all of those experiences!
-
Aroma: Aroma is straight-forward enough on its own, but its importance in coffee is second to none. Taste and smell come together in the brain to create what you experience as flavor, which means the aroma of your brew will start telling your palate what to expect before you even get a chance to take a sip! Coffee can smell fruity, floral, savory, roasty, and loads more; don’t underestimate the value of your nose the next time you’re diving into a mug of the good stuff. Also, don't be surprised if what you smell is different from what the label is telling you it should smell like. It takes time to train the brain while performing the synchronization between taste and smell.
-
Balance: With so many different attributes to consider it’s important to make sure that they all stay in concert with one another. Is the acidity too flat for the fruit flavors you taste? Is the body appropriately luscious for those chocolate notes you’re loving? Balance will take the whole cup into account and tell you how well each individual component dances with all of the others. Truth be told, this is probably the last thought on your mind when enjoying a really fantastic cup of coffee, but some coffee snob somewhere decided it needed to be on 'the thing.'
-
Body/Texture: These will be the actual tactile impressions you get on your palate, ranging all the way from “watery” to “chewy”. Body and texture will vary based on the kind of coffee beans you’re using, the brew method you choose, and the filter used in that brewer. There won’t be necessarily good or bad descriptors, but a body and texture that matches the rest of the brew’s characteristics can make or break a cup of coffee. In plain English, have you ever tasted coffee and thought to yourself "Wow! this coffee feels really light?" That 'feeling' is derived from the actual weight/body of the coffee you're sipping on. Most American breakfast blends tend to be light bodied where as after dinner coffees like espresso or Turkish coffee are heavier or full bodied.
-
Clarity: Clarity asks whether or not the taste components in your brew are obvious or muddled. This attribute will be difficult to assess before you’ve achieved some mastery of identifying flavors, but clarity is often a highly valued characteristic among specialty coffee lovers. I only mention it here so that you're aware of what they mean if you're ever meet a true coffee snob who wants to impress and throws out the term while casually discussing or describing a particular coffee. Consider this one a sort of secret code word :)
-
Finish: The length and quality of aftertaste is the last impression you have of your cup of coffee. Does the flavor dissipate quickly? Is it long-lasting but bitter? A long and satisfying finish is ideal for most folks; a sweet reminder of that glorious brew you got to enjoy.
Search
Custom Menu
Recent Post
Dec 14, 2020
Nov 22, 2020
Coffee 101: more than ...
Archive
- December 2020
- November 2020
FROM_JS
jsprice
jsprice
FROM_JS
FROM_JS
Add to cart
Added
Limit Products
Wait..
Translation missing: en.general.search.loading