The cupping method and tasting terms
Red wine, by comparison, only has 400. Most coffee connoisseurs prefer mild roasts because the longer a coffee bean is roasted the more characteristics that are burned off.
Tasting coffee is an art form. To detect the most amount of flavor from the coffee bean, it must be tasted properly. Coffee tasting works much like wine tasting. As in wine tasting, coffee tasting has special terms, used to describe the taste of coffee and to find the perfect balance.
The Cupping Method of Coffee
Tasting Coffee tasting, or cupping as it is called, has to be done the same way every time to ensure that the difference in the taste of coffee beans is not due to outside factors like amount of coffee and water temperature.
The cupping method works in the following way.
Choose the beans that you want to taste.
Take a quarter ounce of coarse ground roasted coffee.
Heat 5 ounces of water to just below the boiling point.
Pour the water over the coffee in a circular motion.
Dip a spoon into the cup (with your nose close to the cup) so that it breaks the top layer of that coffee grinds that floated to the top.
Take approximately half a spoonful of the liquid from the cup.
Quaff it with a loud slurping noise.
The noise is made so that you can mix the liquid with the air, spraying it directly over your tongue.
Savor, swish once, and the spit out the liquid.
Using this method, the tongue is able to discriminate among the many subtle flavors of coffee. Different parts of the tongue detect different flavors.
The back of the tongue discerns the bitterness.
The sides of the tongue discern the staleness.
The tip of the tongue discerns specific flavors.
Terms used in Cupping
Knowing how to taste coffee is not enough. One must know how to describe the flavors. The terms below are used in cupping. Each of these terms describes certain characteristics of coffee.
Aroma: the smell of the coffee.
Fragrance: the smell of the coffee grinds.
Body: the way the coffee feels in your mouth. This is the feeling of weight and texture.
Rich: the coffee has more than body and aroma. The coffee is buttery and satisfying
Mellow: the coffee has a fully-developed body; not harsh.
Acidity: The verve (for lack of a better word) of the coffee.
Arabica beans are famous for having this characteristic.
A Word on Acidity Acidity is a highly desirable characteristic in coffee. Water that is used in brewing can affect it. If alkaline water is used to brew coffee, it will counter the acidity in the coffee. Purified or filtered water is recommended to get the best and truest taste from coffee.
Interpreting Reviews
Aroma, acidity, body, flavor and aftertaste are the standard descriptive categories used by the Coffee Review and American professionals when evaluating coffee. We use a rating system of 1 (low) to 10 (high) for each of these five categories, reflecting both quantity (how much) and quality (how good.) Overall ratings provide a summary assessment of reviewed coffees and are based on a scale of 50 to 100. Degree or darkness of roast dramatically affects a coffee's flavor profile. For each roasted coffee, we report its roast level in quantitative descriptive terms based on readings from a specially modified spectrophotometer popularly called an Agtron.
Aroma
How intense and pleasurable is the aroma when the nose first descends over the cup and is enveloped by fragrance? Aroma also provides a subtle introduction to various nuances of acidity and taste: bitter and sweet tones, fruit, flower or herbal notes, and the like.
Acidity
Acidity is the bright, dry sensation that enlivens the taste of coffee. Without acidity coffee is dull and lifeless. Acidity is not a sour sensation, which is a defect, nor should it be astringent, though it sometimes is. At best it is a tart, often rich vibrancy that lifts the coffee and pleasurably stretches its range and dimension. Acidity can be overpoweringly clear and wine-like, as in most Kenyas, sweet and delicate as in many Perus, low-toned and vibrant as in many Sumatras. The darker a coffee is roasted, the less overt acidity it will display.
Body
Body is the sensation of weight that gives power and persistence to taste. Body can be light and delicate, heavy and resonant, thin and disappointing. Body tends to increase with darkness of roast until it peaks at about a medium-dark roast, then begins to thin again in even darker styles.
Flavor and Aftertaste
Flavor and aftertaste include everything not suitably described under the categories aroma, acidity and body. An assessment of flavor may invoke general terms like balanced, complex, deep, clean, rough or flat; it may identify specific defects like grassy or fermented; or it may praise positive nuances like winey, fruity or herbal. Aftertaste reflects sensations that linger after the coffee has been swallowed (or spit out) and incorporates finish (how taste characteristics grow, diminish or change as the coffee remains in contact with the palate.)
Overall Rating
The scale for the overall ratings runs from 50 to 100, and reflects the reviewers' overall subjective assessment of a coffee's aroma, acidity, body and flavor and aftertaste. Overall ratings are interpreted as follows:
| 95-100 | Exceptional |
| 90-94 | Outstanding |
| 85-89 | Very Good |
| 80-84 | Good |
| 75-79 | Fair |
| 70-74 | Poor |
| <70 | Not Recommended |
Roast
Degree or darkness of roast dramatically affects a coffee's flavor profile, as does how the coffee has been brought to a given roast: quickly with high temperatures, slowly with low, and so on. Overly light roasts may taste bready, baked or grain like; overly dark roasts charred and thin. But aside from these extremes, no single degree of roast is necessarily better than another. Preferences in roast vary widely, influenced by tradition (New Englanders often prefer lighter roasts, West-Coasters darker), brewing style (coffee intended for drip brewing is usually best roasted lighter than coffee intended for espresso or French-press brewing) and drinking style (people who take their coffee with milk often prefer darker roasts to lighter.)
Degree of roast can be measured with some precision through the use of a specially modified spectrophotometer popularly called an Agtron. Agtron readings range from #95 (lightest roast) through #10 (darkest common roast) in intervals of ten. At the Coffee Review, we also use the descriptive terms such as light, medium, medium-dark, and dark (based on terminology developed by the Specialty Coffee Association of America) to indicate various degrees of roast. These deliberately simple terms avoid the glamour of more popular roast terms like French, Viennese, Espresso, Italian and the like, which can be confusing because their use varies so widely. A Starbucks regular roast may be considerably darker than many espresso roasts, for example, while a Viennese roast can mean almost anything depending on who's doing the roasting and labeling.
The following chart can be used as a general guide to describe different roast levels:
| Roast | Agtron | Characteristics |
| Light | > 70 | Light brown to cinnamon color Light body, minimal aroma, tea-like flavor No oil on surface of bean |
| Medium - Light | 61 - 70 | Moderately light brown color Bright acidity, green coffee distinctions clear Surface of bean remains dry |
| Medium | 51 - 60 | Medium brown color Balanced acidity, fuller body Generally dry bean surface |
| Medium - Dark | 41 - 50 | Rich brown color Droplets of oil appear on bean surface Hints of bittersweetness emerge Muted acidity, heavier body |
| Dark | 35 - 40 | Deep brownish/black color Spots of oil to shiny surface Bittersweet roast notes dominate Acidity and muted |
| Very Dark | 25 - 34 | Black surface covered brightly with oil Bitter/bittersweet tones dominate Body thins, green coffee distinctions are fully muted |
| Extreme - Dark | < 25 | Black, shiny surface Burned bitter tones dominate |