Coffee cupping is the practice of using the senses to experience the quality of a particular batch. Doing this within a group of people creates a dialogue of different perceptions of the roast’s aromas, taste, and especially flavor notes. Coffee cupping is a delicate process involving several steps. As a participant of ASIP’s coffee tasting, I was delightfully guided through how to classically experience a batch of single origin Brazilian coffee from the roaster himself. Also, with no prior knowledge of coffee tasting.
First, I and group I was tasting with began with a brief introduction of the background of the coffee and what we would be experiencing that night. When people think of Brazilian coffee, they might assume that it’s taste is more on the chocolatey side, partially due to coming out of a darker roast. That assumption is mostly true. Brazil in the 1920s provided 85% of the world’s coffee supply. Even today it is the world’s largest producer of coffee at 35%. Because of this, coffee from Brazil became more of a large commodity. The amount in which they produced inevitability lowered the standards of the type of harvest and roast they use than what would be compared to a special coffee. Thus, Brazil aligns with working with darker roasts to remain consistent in their flavor. But for the first time, I learned that coffee can be so much more beyond this.
The bean we tasted during this particular cupping was special in itself because it stands apart from the most common green coffee bean. This bean was yellow before it was roasted. It grows in southeast Brazil around 1,200-1,400 meters above sea level. Most specialty coffees at the baseline are grown around 1,200 meters and above. The higher in elevation, the better access to unique and lush coffee flavors. There are many other factors that attribute to the aroma or the flavor of coffee. One of those being elevation. Elevation affects the taste of coffee because higher up the coffee beans grow, the more sunlight they must absorb, thus the denser they become. Dense beans become much more fuller of sugars and flavor precursors. This holds to have a more expansive landscape of flavor after roasting.
When tasting, we were given a reference for describing taste on a taste color wheel. Ranging from categories of chocolate, citrus, vanilla, nutty, spice, fruity, and much more. It was interesting rotating the same batch of coffee with different people to smell or taste, and coming back with varied feedback of our experience. The most exciting part was finding common ground on a certain coffee. When we all collectively realized it carried the flavor note of raspberries or almonds, it was an exciting confirmation. The process by which I experienced coffee expanded. I began to fully understand the complexity of the layers upon layers the smell and taste of coffee hold.
Presented two us were two batches of coffee from the same origin, just roasted slightly differently. The first one was a lighter roast, holding more dimension of the fruity raspberry flavor the bean absorbed from the berry when it was growing, and when it was dried. The second batch was roasted for longer, therefore losing a bit of the “juicy-ness” the first batch carried. I could taste the chocolate and almond undertones brought out by the darker roast. I was more accustomed to this type of coffee, so immediately I gravitated to this batch. But after more understanding and sampling, the first batch became increasingly a more interesting experience. A type of coffee I could sit down and could fully enjoy a cup of without instinctively adding milk and sugar. The first batch even reminded me of something spicy, like chai. But also citrusy like oranges. I was learning to taste. Which is something I thought I would never learn to do.
ASIPs coffee cupping turned out to be an in-depth artful learning experience even the regular instant “cup of Joe” coffee drinker can realize and appreciate. I knew that ASIP brings the experience of specialty coffee to Merced, but better yet, this establishment opens the knowledge to it even more.