Coffee Cups

The Science of Coffee Cupping

When it comes to delving further into your cup of Joe, cupping is a science that allows you to test and analyze all of the components that go into creating Coffee Roast. If you are new or experienced in your love of coffee, this is a wonderful technique to use to further delve into what makes your cup of coffee so unique.

Coffee cupping is often done by professionals and amateurs to further understand the quality of the coffee roast and make comparisons to other roast types. When done correctly, it can be exciting, fun, and fairly easy to do! Coffee cupping involves visually inspecting the brew, smelling, sipping, savoring, and spitting, which is a process that is quite similar to taste testing wine or other beverages. This involves studying the sensory science and learning how to better describe the aroma and flavors of each cup in the process.

Cupping is truly the most authentic way to evaluate the attributes of a coffee roast, which include fragrance, aroma, acidity, sweetness, body, aftertaste, cleanliness, and uniformity. This gives you the chance as a coffee drinker to further appreciate and understand each individual coffee roast. In the process, the coffee is unfiltered and unadulterated so that there are no defects in the identification. Before you decide to purchase any coffee for drinking at home, cupping is the best way to assess the flavor profile and quality of each distinct roast. This can be used as the first step in quality control and product development when introducing a new brand of coffee to the market.

Over the past several years, the coffee industry has significantly grown to give way to more roasters, retailers, and new coffee shops. This is an interesting time to work in the coffee industry, yet many new coffee business owners do not always take the time to analyze and test their coffee products. Much of the emphasis when operating a coffee business is put on profitability and efficiency, when quality should be a huge defining factor. This leaves the process of cupping to cultivate sensory science and testing as often an afterthought, when it truly should be brought to the forefront for all coffee consumers to have a better appreciation of their coffee roast.

Within a formal training for cupping, the students will practice understanding flavor and aroma while comparing different types of coffee each day. Cupper trainings focus more so on identifying different aromas and flavors than studying the specific scientific components of sensory testing. Nonetheless, a coffee cupper must also have an understanding of the right way to reach their rating or conclusion of each roast. This involves determining which coffee should be tested, and all tested coffees are kept in a controlled environment so that the data collected and testing process will be as accurate as possible. Coffee cuppers will then learn different types of sensory testing to make the process faster, more accurate, and more efficient.

About the Author

Mark Ramos is a coffee geek. For a great selection in all things coffee, espresso machines and the
Bodum French Press
, check out
The Coffee Bump
.

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