Tasting

Coffee Fundamentals

Course 1 · Chapter 9 · Tasting: Cupping, Vocabulary and Scores

Tasting on Purpose

Drinking a coffee and tasting it are different. The industry's method is called cupping, and Wikipedia's articles on Coffee cupping, Coffee taster and Specialty coffee describe what it looks for. The chapter covers only what those pages say; they leave out several details that cupping guides usually give, and I list those below instead of filling them in from memory.

The Method

Dry grounds are sampled first: tasters run a finger through the grounds and smell them. The article describes trays of green, whole roasted and ground coffee.
Hot water is used, which the article says is "typically just below boiling temperature". This is the only temperature it gives.
The coffee is tasted from a cupping spoon. The taster deeply sniffs it, then slurps it so that it is "aerated and spread across the tongue".
Each spoonful is about 4 to 5 ml.

The traditional cup is an 8 oz glass, "such as a whiskey glass", so colour and foam can be seen. Ideally the coffee is roasted and ground immediately before tasting. The Coffee taster article says cupping became standard industry practice in the late 19th century, linked to Hills Brothers Coffee of San Francisco.

What the pages do not say

The articles I read give no coffee-to-water ratio for cupping, no steeping times, no crust-breaking step, no scoring form details and no recommended roast level. A formal cupping protocol covers all of these, but I have not verified any of the numbers, so I give none (check).

What Tasters Judge

Attribute	What the articles say
Body	The drink's physical properties, from thin to full, like skim versus whole milk
Sweetness	Named as a judged attribute
Acidity	A desirable sharp taste, distinct from sourness
Flavour	The overall taste and aroma impression
Aftertaste	What stays after swallowing

The Coffee taster article groups vocabulary into three sets.

Group	Terms listed
Aroma	Animal-like, ashy, burnt or smoky, chemical or medicinal, chocolate-like, caramel, cereal, malty or toast-like, earthy, floral, fruity or citrussy, grassy, green or herbal, nutty, rancid or rotten, rubber-like, spicy, tobacco, winey, woody
Basic tastes	Acidity, bitterness, sweetness, saltiness, sourness
Mouthfeel	Body, astringency

That article does not describe a flavour wheel; it only links to a guide to one. Nor does it describe how tasters are trained or certified, naming only the title Q Graders for professionals. Cupping can also be done informally by anyone, and tasters may try to identify the coffee's origin.

Specialty Coffee and the 100-Point Scale

The Specialty coffee article says the term was first used in 1974 by Erna Knutsen for beans of the "best flavor" grown in special micro-climates. The widely accepted definition today is coffee that scores 80 or above on the 100-point Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) cupping form. It lists three bands:

Score	Grade
90 to 100	Outstanding
85 to 89.99	Excellent
80 to 84.99	Very Good

The article adds that specialty coffee has 0 to 5 defects per 350 g of milled beans and is hand-picked from mature beans by selective picking. That connects to chapter 3, which said a 350 g sample is graded and that any category-one defect excludes specialty grade; the two statements fit together but are not the same wording (check). The article says flavour is shaped by climate, altitude, rainfall and grower skill, and that specialty coffee varies from harvest to harvest, unlike commercial blends, which aim for consistency. It also mentions the "Third Wave of Coffee", relating to farmers and brewers and a demand for exceptional quality, without explaining it further.

Code: Scores and Sips

The script below turns a score into the article's grade, converts the 8 oz cup, and shows how little of a cup one slurp is. I ran it to get the output shown.

def grade(score):
    if score >= 90: return "Outstanding"
    if score >= 85: return "Excellent"
    if score >= 80: return "Very Good"
    return "Below specialty (under 80)"

for s in (92.5, 86, 80.25, 79.75):
    print(f"{s} -> {grade(s)}")

OZ_TO_ML = 29.5735
cup_ml = 8 * OZ_TO_ML
print(f"8 oz cup = {cup_ml:.0f} ml")
for sip in (4, 5):
    print(f"A {sip} ml slurp is {sip / cup_ml:.1%} of the cup")

print(f"350 g sample: 5 defects = {5 / 350 * 1000:.1f} per kg at the upper limit")

# Output
92.5 -> Outstanding
86 -> Excellent
80.25 -> Very Good
79.75 -> Below specialty (under 80)
8 oz cup = 237 ml
A 4 ml slurp is 1.7% of the cup
A 5 ml slurp is 2.1% of the cup
350 g sample: 5 defects = 14.3 per kg at the upper limit

Reading the output

A single slurp is only about 2 percent of an 8 oz cup, which is why a cupper can taste many cups in a row. The 79.75 case shows the 80-point line is a hard edge: the article's bands start at 80, and I assumed that scores between 79.99 and 80 round the way the code does (check). The defects-per-kilogram line is only a unit conversion of the 350 g figure.

Not Yet Verified, and Sources

Sources. Wikipedia articles Coffee cupping, Coffee taster and Specialty coffee. The extracts looked complete and the missing items were absent from the articles, not cut off, but I saw them through a summarising tool.
Not in the pages read. Cupping ratio, steeping times, crust-breaking, score sheet categories, roast level for cupping, flavour wheel contents and tasting training (all deliberately omitted or marked check).
Possible overlap. The defect statements here and in chapter 3 are consistent but worded differently; I did not reconcile the exact categories.
Not tested. I did no tasting; the script is arithmetic and a lookup only.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe the slurping method in your own words and give two reasons the articles or chapter suggest for it. Say which part is the article's claim and which is your inference.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

Use the script to grade scores of 89.99, 90, 84.99 and 85, and add a line giving the volume in ml of a 6 oz cup and what fraction a 5 ml slurp is. Run it and say which grade 84.99 lands in.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Taste two different coffees side by side (or one coffee made two ways). For each, write a short note covering body, sweetness, acidity, flavour and aftertaste in your own words, using at least two terms from the aroma list. Then say what you think caused any differences, marking guesses "(check)".

→ Solution

Quick Reference

Cupping: sniff, then slurp about 4 to 5 ml from a spoon; hot water just below boiling
Judged: body, sweetness, acidity, flavour, aftertaste
Specialty: 80 or more on the SCA 100-point scale; 0 to 5 defects per 350 g
Bands: 80 Very Good, 85 Excellent, 90 Outstanding
First use of "specialty": 1974, Erna Knutsen

Coming next

Coffee Fundamentals 10 covers buying, storing and troubleshooting.