Around 20 years ago – when we wore jeans made of Tencil, Miley Cyrus’s father was a superstar and the internet was barely a thing – office workers drank instant coffee from a Nescafe machine and indulged in a plunger on weekends. These days, espresso reigns supreme and Australians have taken to superior coffee whether with morning paper or in a Keep-a-Cup for the office.
Moreover, single origin beans of an organic nature have permeated the coffee lexicon. Aficionados talk about coffee the way our parents would have talked about wine – discussing body, flavor and acidity in ways that push the product well beyond a simple, desperate need for a hit of caffeine.
Cupping is the preferred method for testing the qualities of a coffee bean, but what exactly does this mean? As it turns out, the history of cupping dates back to the 1890s in the United States by the Hills family of San Francisco, whose original coffee brand exists today.
Preparation
The technique is pretty simple, and obviously benefits from having a number of different blends that have been freshly ground. Use a fine grind – The Specialty Coffee Association of America recommends a grind slightly coarser than that used for filter coffee. Something similar to what would be used for French Press is about right. Ask your friendly barista for help.
Measuring is important
The correct ratio is 55 grams of coffee per litre of water (purists can argue all day this one). Use glass or porcelain cups (approximately 180ml is a good size) and ensure all cups are the same make, volume, shape and material. Keep the cups covered with a lid so as not to mix flavours while steeping (brewing).
Tip: We recommend you attach the name of the blend or roast to the bottom of each cup once the grounds are placed inside. This will help you track what you taste, and compare your notes with others
Smell!
One-by-one, remove the lids from the cups and inhale the aromas of the ground coffee to measure the fragrance. Be sure to get your impressions down on paper.
Add the correct amount of nearly boiling water to maintain the ratio and have another smell without disturbing the grounds at the bottom of the cup (don’t swirl it like wine!). The fragrance will be markedly different.
Taste
Grab a spoon and taste a measure of the coffee. This is the time to get noisy – ‘aspirating’ the coffee by sucking it off the spoon with a noisy slurp. By mixing air with the coffee, you will force droplets up into the olfactory (nose) sensors to bring in to play your sense of smell. Without this, you may be left with simply the taste of the bean (salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami) without of the layers and levels that flavours bring through the nose.
Finally…
Got it? Tasted it? Smelt it? Written it all down?
Now compare notes. What did your coffee-tasting companions think? Who preferred what? Did you smell a hint of old leather or a Caribbean sunset? No? That’s okay… you can’t take it too seriously. It’s only coffee, you know!
All images from Flickr User 5SensesCoffee
