A Beginner’s Guide to Coffee Cupping

Coffee cupping, like wine tasting, looks complicated and intimidating. However, once you break it down, it can actually be fun and enjoyable. This beginner’s guide will help you understand everything you need to know about cupping coffee.

coffee cupping tasting

This way you can feel confident enough to participate in a session. Whether you want to join a coffee cupping sessions, or create your own at home, you will know how to do it successfully. Once you know the steps and proper process, you will discover that it is easier than you think. So, let’s get right to it.

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Table of Contents

What is coffee cupping? 

Coffee cupping is the industry standard for the quality assessment of various kinds of coffees and a perfect way to learn more about coffee, no matter if you are a dealer, roaster or an ordinary consumer. 

From its overall consistency to individual characteristics like acidity; smell or grain density and unique flavor annotations, cupping is a quantifiable and extensively used method of analysis for a coffee specimen allowing us to taste various types of coffees in a very efficient way.

There will mainly be a number of samples at a cupping conference. They could be coffee of the same provenance, but distinct farms, different varieties and methods of production could be represented, and maybe they could well even be from different nations. When you are trying to purchase or sell coffee, or are simply keen to expand your knowledge and expertise, this variety is extremely useful.

Origins of Coffee Cupping: 

Cupping is thought to have initiated in the 1700s, when merchants would sample a selection of coffees to establish which ones they wanted to purchase and to review for quality as well.

Cups were first used in Cup of Excellence competitions in 1999, contributing to the establishment and implementation that have been generally adopted by the international specialty community since then.

Today, the sector uses cuppings in the very same manner as those marketers of the 19th century did: to evaluate the characteristics of a coffee, make buying decisions, and confirm quality. Cupping enables a consistent technique and terminology to be used and recognized everywhere.

Benefits of Coffee Cupping:

1. It serves as a device for Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) that can rural workers recognize problems and deformities at the farm level from the moment the coffee is grown and harvested. As well as how the plants are harvested and stumped, this may include soil structure.

The quality of a coffee is often significantly impacted by labor. Coffee Cupping can help you identify and replace potential poor labor practices with good ones that affect the profile of the coffee. This can only involve harvesting ripe fruit and, when they are found, extracting faulty cherries.

2. It functions as a tool for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) that can recognize post-harvest defects caused during harvesting, drying, and storage. Over-fermentation or insufficient drying may involve these.

Water analysis is closely integrated to cup quality while processing washed coffees. Cupping may allow producers to notice when contaminated surface water from streams, rivers, and lakes affects their crop's cop profile, for example.

3. It provides the window of negotiation to the producers along with confidence, if they are aware of the superior quality of their coffee, they can sell it easily. The price is directly proportional to the coffee’s quality. 

How to Cup Coffee at Home: 

If you have ever attended a wine tasting or had your drinks from a brewery, then you must be familiar with the joy of exposing your taste buds to a plethora of new flavors. We give you easy, step by step directions for how to have a coffee cupping party at home.

Supplies Required:

Tasting Parameters:

All coffees can be categorized on the basis of four major characteristics. They are acidity, aroma, body and flavor. Being a novice, you will get confused between different kinds but will be able to tell them apart as you become a pro.

1. Aroma:

The way a coffee smells is closely connected to its flavor, it ranges from all kinds of fragrances - earthly, spicy, nutty etc.

2. Acidity:

On the sides and tip of your tongue, you can really notice the lively, palate-cleansing sensations you feel. Coffees with high acidity are described as convivial, tangy and crispy.

3. Body:

The weight of a coffee on your tongue, is described as light, medium or full. Light-bodied coffees feel lighter on the tongue and have a clean finish. Full-bodied coffees feel heavier and have lingering flavors.

4. Flavor:

The way a coffee tastes. Sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle, flavors can vary greatly between coffees–from citrus to cocoa to berry, to name a few–and register in different parts of your mouth.

During the beginning of your learning curve, start by focusing on one single parameter and perfect yourself in it.

Step by Step Directions:

1. Grind:

Grind out 9 grams (approximately 1⁄3 of an ounce) of each blend per person if your coffee is a whole bean. Pour each coffee out of its own bowl and use this time to test each coffee's dry scent.

2. Heat:

Heat your water up to 200°F, then pour 150 grams (about 5 ounces) of hot water into each bowl and start your timer for 4 minutes.

3. Scoop:

Break each bowl's surface with a teaspoon. Scoop the crust, foam, and any lingering coffee grounds from each bowl. Continue to wait for 15 minutes for the coffee to cool down, and then you're ready to start the tasting.

This is where everything comes together, because by comparing aroma, acidity, body and flavor, you can discern the individual taste of each coffee.

4. Smell:

Always smell before tasting the coffee. Deeply inhale it. Your mouth can make a distinction between five tastes - sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. However, a trillion different aromas can be detected by your nose.

5. Taste:

Slurp the coffee, like soup, and let it roll over your tongue. This will allow you to get the full range of flavor from each coffee sample.

6. Describe and determine:

Note down your observations and take note of how every sample makes you feel, check for weight, acidity, bitterness and difference in aroma.

Avoid doing the following:

1. Making lots of noise:

Remain silent to avoid disrupting the assessments of other individuals. After that, the debriefing part will come. 

2. Swallowing large quantities of caffeine:

This can have adverse short-term effects on the body, and it can also start to alter your palate so that you can no longer detect delicate aromas and flavors and always misjudge. 

3. Participate in Coffee Cupping when sick:

kindly avoid the coffee cupping session if you have a stuffy, runny nose or sore throat because it will affect your taste buds and experience.

Tips for getting the most out of your coffee cupping party:

Invite your friends:

You will have a lot more fun and feel more relaxed if you invite your close friends for this experience. It will also allow you to hear others’ opinions and speed up your learning process for when you decide to go to a professional coffee cupping session.

Don’t sweat the small stuff:

it can feel overwhelming learning the process. You will have much more fun if you just enjoy it and don’t worry about being able to taste every little nuanced flavor of the samples. As with wine tasting, the more you do it the more of the subtle flavors you will pick up.

Have a themed coffee cupping party:

Add a twist to your at home party by theming it. You can choose from a wide variety of experiences from trying different coffees from one country, or you can try different brand coffees that are all the same flavor to see how they are similar and different.

You can even have everyone dress up and decorate the table to go along with the theme you have chosen. Make it a fun and unique experience for everyone.

Have a great time:

It can be stressful planning a party. Let alone a party for a new experience. You may feel stressed about doing everything exactly right. However, remember everyone will enjoy the experience more if you set the tone to just have fun and go with the flow.

Let everyone know that it doesn’t matter what the coffee tastes like to them. If you are relaxed and having fun, your guests will be also.

Final Thoughts:

Coffee cupping is a great experience that all coffee lovers should have at least once. Like wine tasting, it can be a serious event or a fun, low-key party. How you decide to do it is up to you. Now that you know what coffee cupping is and how to do it, you can get started planning your first party at home for your friends to enjoy.

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