The Coffee Taste Test pt.1
Looking to impress your coffee-drinking with your knowledge of the latest flavours? Here’s a starters guide to help you to distinguish between coffees.
A Beginner’s Guide to Coffee Tasting
Introduction
Looking to impress your coffee-drinking friends with your knowledge of the latest flavours? Well, 2022 is gearing up to be an exciting year for coffee lovers, with new and unique blends appearing on café menus across the globe. Here’s a starters guide to help you to distinguish between the different coffee types out there. Enjoy!
A coffee’s unique coffee flavour profile can also be considered its brightness . Brightness is how much presence the coffee has across all three areas. Perhaps you’re picking out multiple flavours from your cup at once, then it means your coffee is bright (rather than muted). The overall taste of the coffee should reflect the qualities of its origin country and processing method. For example, an Ethiopian natural processed coffee should always taste bright! Some coffees are best enjoyed as espresso, brewed coffee or filtered coffee.
Five Essentials to Coffee Tasting
Perhaps you feel all coffee is bitter, then I suggest you are doing it wrong. The better the coffee, the sweeter it typically tastes. Sweetness is one of the reasons that most of us prefer the ‘arabica’ beans to the more acerbic ‘robusto’ beans
The five key essentials to coffee tasting are: sweetness; body; acidity; flavours; finish.
Crazy Cups Chocolate Marshmallow
Grove Square Caramel Apple
Victor Allen’s Autumn Variety Pack
Victor Allen Coffee Caramel Macchiato
Starbucks Fall Blend
Hawaii Kona Extra Fancy
Sulawesi Tana Toraja Whole Bean
Club Coffee Roasters Mocha Java
Stone Temple Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Coffee
Turkish Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Coffee
Mexican Chiapas
Van Houtte Mexico Signature
San Diego Mexico Blend
Biohazard Ground Coffee
Brazilian Cerrado Whole Bean Arabica Coffee
Lavazza Super Crema Whole Bean Coffee
Kicking Horse Three Sisters Blend
Tim Hortons Original Blend Coffee
Tim Hortons Variety pack of K-cup pods
Tim Hortons Dark Roast
Tim Hortons Dark Roast Kpods
Tanzania Dark Roast
Ethical Bean Fair Trade – Bold, Dark
Lavazza Super Crema Whole Bean Coffee
Kicking Horse Three Sisters Blend
Tim Hortons Original Blend Coffee
Tim Hortons Variety pack of K-cup pods
Tim Hortons Dark Roast
Tim Hortons Dark Roast Kpods
Sweetness
We have already hit on the sweetness palette above. Arabica vs Robusta. When you drink a cup of coffee can you detect sweetness? Is it fruity? Or honey flavours, dark caramel, or molasses? Even chocolatey?
What I would recommend is taking two divergent coffees – i.e., beans from East Africa vs Colombia, and taste them side by side. Is there a level of sweetness are you detecting? Can you discern the taste? (Hint East Africa should be honey-ish while Colombia should be butterscotch-ish).
Body
The body of a coffee is the weight and feel of the coffee on your tongue. It is one of the easiest qualities for tasters to grasp. Does the coffee feel light to your tongue or is it heavy? Coffee dose and brewing method have definite impacts on the body.
Acidity
When one thinks of acidity, one thinks of pH. But when we discuss acidity in terms of coffee, we are looking at the “quality” of the acidity. Is it tangy like melons or tart like citruses – lemons or limes? Do you find it muted and barely perceptible?
Acidity is impacted by roast level. The darker the roast, the more we taste the effect of the roast versus the light roasts. Dark roast will be more ‘sugary’ because of the caramelization and hence we taste less of the juicy or tartness.
Tetley Tea Warmth – Cinnamon Spice
Tim Hortons Apple Cinnamon (decaf)
Tetley’s Chai
Tim Horton’s Chai Tea
Stash Spice Red Chai
Twinings Earl Grey
Vahdam, Organic Masala Chai
Vahdam, Chai with Cardamom & Cinnamom
Tetley Super Green Tea Immune
Tetley Original
Yupik Organic Japanese Matcha Green Tea
Traditional Medicinals Organic Herbal Tea
Taylors of Harrogate Classic Tea Variety Box
Caykur Turkish Black Tea
Safaroma Saffron Earl Grey Tea
Organic Moroccan Mint Tea
Vahdam Green Tea Sampler
Blooming Tea Sampler Set
Twinings Rooibos Red Tea
Flavours
Do you remember when you thought a coffee was just a coffee? But once you have tried more varieties, you should be able to start to distinguish between the hints of flavours found in the various beans and various roasting methods.
If you want to expand your coffee knowledge, you need to expand your flavour vocabulary. As you eat various foods, concentrate on the flavours, and store them in your flavour data bank. Call upon these flavours to see what matches the coffee you are currently drinking.
Finish
We often describe finish in terms of duration and texture. What is the aftertaste? Is it fleeting or lingering? Rough or smooth? What kind of feelings do you get? Are you ready for another cuppa?
That’s It Snack Gift Box
Planters Unsalted Dry Roasted Peanuts
Atkins Endulge Bars – Chocolate
Goldfish Cheddar Crackers
Skinny Pop Popcorn, White Cheddar
Peek Frean Shortcake Cookies
Peek Frean Family Digestive Cookies
And So In Conclusion
Is there a coffee flavour trend emerging in 2022? It may be a bit early to tell. But we are going to continue trying different bean and roast combinations. In meantime, what would your favourite coffee palate be? Get out there and try. Why not check out our online store: Big Al’s Coffee Club
We at Al Murray Enterprises and Knight-Markets invite you to sign up for our monthly newsletter where we touch a wide range of subjects. Our goal to find products and services to make your life easier, more productive, more fulfilling. We will cover topics from fitness to finance; from tennis to travel, from software to diets. PLEASE check us out by signing up!
