Drinking coffee more and enjoying it less?
A common persons guide to the perfect cup of coffee
Author: Scott Best
If you are, you are not alone in that pursuit. According to
a recent CBS News report over half of the U.S. population drinks coffee
everyday. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 155 million people drinking
coffee every day. The U.S. is the
largest buyer of coffee of any country in the world. Coffee has Americans hooked. We spend more per capita on coffee then any
other country. Coffee is a multi-billion dollar a year business ranging from the
largest of coffee importers to the smallest one man coffee vendor wagon on the
street.
Tucked away inside those figures are a large percentage of
coffee drinkers that are in search of a new drug. Yes, I called it a drug. Coffee is not just a beverage, it's a drug.
Hundreds of thousands of law abiding citizens are physically addicted to coffee.
Our addiction has taken a large percentage of us in search of the perfect
cup of coffee. No need to become
alarmed by my use of the words of drug and addiction in the same paragraph when
talking about coffee. Coffee is an
enjoyable beverage world wide which is morally and socially acceptable. For many
has turned into a life long passion.
There are literally thousands of coffee roasters in the United States,
touting their blend or roast of a particular bean as the best there is. Who am I
to say it isn’t true. There is no
way I could possibly try each and every roast of a particular type of coffee
from every roasting company to make a true comparison. I am not sure that I
would want to.
All of this leads us back to our title question. Are you enjoying the coffee you drink less these days? Are you one of the
millions in search of that perfect cup of coffee? I know I am. So where can it
be found and how do we go about finding it? This is a very complex question
indeed. There is no simple solution, so be weary because there are many who are
unscrupulous in their attempts to sway you to one brand, one roaster, one method
of brewing over the other in order
to make the sale They want to get your money first.
As has been said, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Like wise the quest for the perfect cup of coffee is subjective to individual
taste. The right blends or fullness
of flavor I seek in a cup of coffee may be miles removed from that of someone
else. The variables are too great to
place a particular distinction on one specific coffee variety, roast or blend
and be able to say with positive assertion that it is the best or as close as
one will ever come to the perfect cup.
So then how do we pursue the personal quest of finding the
coffee that matches best our palate and fulfills our subjective qualifications
of the perfect cup of coffee? I have
read copious amounts of professional coffee reviewer’s compilations of words and
adjectives they use to describe a particular coffee.
Here is an example of a professional
review:
“A rich aroma settled by nut
and blackberry notes that deepen resoundingly in the cup, adding hints of tart
lemon, red wine, flowers, and Chocolate. Poised and balanced acidity, roundly
lavish finish, shimmers of flowers.”
Reviews like this for a long time sounded like a bit much to me, kind of over
the top. So much so, that for a long
time, I just didn’t get it. That was until I started to perform my own tastings
or cupping.
I know I am not as much of a coffee sophisticate as those
who write professional reviews about coffee. I would be more prone to simple
descriptions, and I am betting the vast majority of the coffee drinking public
would agree with me. The language used to describe a cup of coffee in most, but
not all, reviews is a bit over the top. Not that we don’t relate to those kinds
of descriptive terms, but rather we don’t want to think that hard about how to
apply those types of descriptions to a cup of coffee.
But not to go unnoticed, these people who do cup coffee and
do write coffee reviews get paid the big bucks to do so. Having said that, then there must be some validity to the kinds of
reviews they give other than the number ratings which most often accompany the
reviews.
Keying on that very thought, I sat out to find a common
persons’ way … a less intense way, if you will, to the personal perfect cup of
coffee. In doing so, I believe it is
necessary to look at and try to understand a bit more about how coffee is graded
by these professionals. After all,
they have the advantage of hundreds of years of experience to draw from for
coffee has been selectively appraised and graded in this method to one degree or
another since around the 6th century.
The reason it becomes important to understand more about
cupping, the way professionals do it, is not to make you into a coffee snob or
to set your feet on the road to becoming a professional coffee aficionado. But rather to help you distinguish the characteristics of any particular
coffee that you find personally appealing. By virtue of professional reviews
already written about a particular coffee roast and or blend you can more
quickly and accurately select types, roasts and blends that match your desired
taste. This knowledge most certainly
will help you once you learn to identify the characteristics you find pleasing
about the coffee you now or have in the past enjoyed.
Most people start their journey on the road to the perfect
cup of coffee from the coffee aisle at the local supermarket. From one of those
pre-ground pre-packaged nationally advertised brands. Then they try coffee
offered by a friend who grinds their own or from a local coffee shop. Finally,
they decide they want a better cup of coffee at home.
The next step is to go out and buy the first whole bean
coffee recommended to them or they buy the first whole bean coffee they think
sounds good. Then they buy their
first coffee grinder. More times than not they buy a blade grinder, because they
are A: readily available or B: because they are cheap. Next they go home and make their first pot of fresh ground coffee. They
think to themselves at that moment, how much better this coffee, is than what
they had been drinking. Of course
they are right, it is better, but usually not that perfect cup. They may go for a long time using the same bean, with the same roast,
using the same blade grinder until one day they have a reflective thought
somewhere along the lines of the title of this article. And the quest begins.
Now that the quest has begun, where do we begin? Probably the best place to start is to tell you that if you take to heart
the information I intend to pass along, you will need to be willing to commit to
adding for a period at least, a small amount of effort, time and possibly even
money to your coffee experience.
Having said that, let us first begin with a few terms which are commonly used in
coffee reviews and what they mean.
Here are some of the terms, and a brief explanation of
each. These are some of the common
descriptive terms reviewers use to describe different coffees.
- Fruity –
having a citrus or berry scent. Many
reviewers will actually specify a fruit such as lemon or blackberry rather
than just saying fruity.
- Chocolaty –
aftertaste similar to unsweetened chocolate. This term can apply not only to
taste but to aroma as well. Many coffees can have quite a chocolate aroma to
them.
- Fragrant –
aroma can range widely from floral to nutty to spicy.
- Dry or Bright
– highly acidic leaving a dry aftertaste, sometimes also referred to as
being sharp or crisp.
- Mellow – a
smooth taste lacking acidity but not dry or flat.
- Caramelly –
caramel-like or referring to the aroma or taste of caramelized sugar not
burnt.
- Nutty –
having hits of aroma or taste similar to roasted nuts.
- Grassy/Herbal
– leaning toward the aroma of
freshly cut grass or relating to the flavor or fragrance of green herbs.
- Sweet – a
lack of harshness usually denotes low acidity when used to describe a
specific taste quality.
- Winy – aftertaste remonisant of mature wine.
-
Muddy or earthy – Having an aroma
or fragrant taste that is akin to
soil or freshly turned earth, not always a good characteristic for coffee.
- Woody – aroma or hint of flavor that makes one think of aged wood, again not always
a favorable trait for coffee.
- Bitter – aftertaste that is probably the easiest to perceive.
- Harsh – caustic, can be used to denote highly acidic coffee or overly roasted
coffee.
- Rubbery – a smell of burnt rubber.
These are just a few of the more common terms used to
describe coffee by reviewers .Any or
all of them may be used either to describe aroma or flavor due to the fact that
olfactory and taste perceptions are so closely tied together.
With the above descriptive terms in mind, the following can
be determined when cupping coffee, and usually addressed in this order.
- Acidity
- Body
- Sweetness
- Finish
Acidity may be the most important aspect of cupping coffee, for most believe that it is though
the acidity of the coffee that the most important flavors are delivered. Acidity
can be described as anything from flowery to sharp, mellow to bold, tart, edgy
wild, mild, elegant or anything in between any of the above. Usually the acidity is evaluated once the coffee has cooled slightly to a
warm, not overly hot temperature.
The Body of a coffee
is an evaluation of how it feels in the mouth: is it heavy, or light, smooth or
watery. If you have a hard time grasping the concept of body, think about what
whole milk feels like in the mouth. This would be full or heavy in body, where
as water in the mouth would be the other end of the spectrum.
Sweetness is a very important aspect of how a coffee is judged. Think of it like this if you start out by tasting a lemon directly, it is
very tart, almost dislikable. However, if you squeeze the lemon for its tart
juice and then slowly add sugar, there comes a point where the sweetness of the
sugar combines with the tartness of the lemon to form a favorable and desirable
taste that is quite pleasing. The sweetness of a particular coffee is crucial,
allowing the other tastes to surface and be appreciated. Even the most acidic coffees can be judged favorably elegant and lush
when they contain enough sweetness to allow a good balance of flavor and allow
for a fine finish.
Finish. While it might be true for some things that first impressions are the
most important, for coffee it may not be quite as correct. First impressions are
powerful, indeed, but it is more often the lingering memory of flavor that
remains after the coffee has left the mouth and been swallowed that will aspire
a coffee to greatness. A great finish will affirm the quality of flavor for a
lengthy period after the coffee is consumed, without transformation, or change
in characteristic, almost to the extent of evoking an emotional appreciation.
Okay, now that you have a better understanding of the type
of descriptive language used to describe a coffee cupping, you can cup your own
coffees. Side by side and pick out the characteristics you prefer to acquire in
a coffee. Here is what you will need. I suggest that you do this with only two
different coffees at a time to start.
Find two distinctly different coffees that you have
personally had experience with, even if one of those is the old pre-packaged
store brand. One should be as fresh
a roast as you can acquire, preferably the coffee you consume at present. If
not, then a whole bean from the local coffee emporium you think you might enjoy.
The grind of the coffees should be course and as close in that coarseness as
possible, but not absolutely necessary for this purpose. It is probably best to stay away from flavored coffees at this point.
- You will need two porcelain cups
- Boiling filtered water.(Good clean non-chlorinated filtered water is a must!)
- It is said to use a silver spoon, but if you don’t
have one, a regular stainless flatware spoon will work. Do not use plastic
or other materials.
- A note pad and pencil
Place two tablespoons of the first ground coffee in one of
the cups and as soon as the water is removed from the boil. Add about 6oz. to
that cup. Do not touch the cup.
Replace the water to the boil for later use.
Now notice the coffee in the cup … how dark it is.
Gently smell the aroma of the coffee.
Make note of it using as closely as you can and as many as you can the
descriptors discussed earlier.
Does it have a chocolate aroma? Is there a discernable
fruity or woody aroma, or maybe a flowery or winy characteristic? Trust me … it will have some of them. Chocolate is most commonly
noticeable. Do your best, referring to the list of descriptors and check them
off one by one if need be, noting that it does or doesn’t have a particular
characteristic aroma.
Once you have given it a good sniffing and marked down what
you observe as aroma characteristics, take your spoon and plunge it into the cup
all the way to the bottom. As you do, again gather an aroma sampling. When you
break the surface of the coffee in the cup, the most intense aromatics will be
released at this point. Now the once hidden subtle aroma traits may become very
apparent.
Now the grounds will begin to settle to the bottom of the
cup. In about two minutes or so it will be cool enough to begin the taste test. Filling your spoon with the coffee from the cup, press it to your lips
and slurp it back into your throat, but don’t swallow it. You want to add as
much air as possible to release the aromatics of flavor as it covers the tongue.
Hold the coffee in your mouth and make your observations as
to the body, acidy and sweetness of the coffee. Again, you can use the
descriptors mentioned here as a guide. Most don’t recommend that you swallow the coffee, rather to purge and
savor. I swallow and as I am reflecting on what I have just sampled, I can
record my observations, letting my thoughts flow on how the coffee finished: was
it memorable 15 seconds or so later or is the taste that lingers bitter and
unworthy of further pursuit?
The last thing one should record is your passion remarks …
meaning did you like it? Ask: was it good? was it great or is it a pass?
Once you cup your two coffees and recorded your findings,
you will have a list. Although it might be a short one, of coffee
characteristics from at least one coffee you like. The list will probably one
you don’t like or enough information at
least to discern which qualities make one better then the other.
Armed with this small bit of information you are now
equipped to begin your quest for that perfect cup of coffee. By reading reviews
on coffee already compiled on the internet, or in magazines from professional
coffee connoisseurs you can begin to pick coffees which will more likely be the
type and quality you are leaning toward.With each new purchase of coffee, you need but cup it once to determine
which traits it has you like, and those you don’t. Then move on from that,
adding the individual traits to the list, being able to make better selections
with each new coffee you add to your cupping information base.
Who knows, you may make it a new life pursuit, as many
have, or you may do as I do. I find a coffee that suits me for a season, then
when I tire of it and feel the need for a new coffee experience I look for a
coffee with one more desirable trait, and enjoy it then for a season as well.I don’t progress very fast toward the ultimate goal, but I do enjoy life
along the way. My love of fine coffee is one indulgence I allow myself, one that
I love to share experience with others.
I have a select group of friends who are lovers of coffee
as well. When I find a new coffee that suites my taste, I can’t wait to share
and tell them about it so they might have the experience as well.
Later on we will discuss the importance of proper grinding
and brewing techniques and how greatly they impact the overall flavor
experience. Who knows, someday you
or I may just find that perfect cup of coffee.
This copyrighted article Drinking coffee more and enjoying it less is owned by
Scott Best and has been
reproduced here by written Permission from the author.
Permission to republish Drinking coffee more and enjoying it less in print or
online must be granted by the author in writing.