Expertise, steps, and insights on appreciating specialty coffee – Commonly used vocabulary for coffee tasting

Coffee appreciation is an art. People who understand coffee often understand life better, just like fine wine — it’s worth savoring carefully.At the same time, coffee tasting is also a skill.Whether tasting red wine or coffee, it is ultimately a very subjective experience for each individual.A thousand people will have a thousand different Hamlets in their minds.However, for those who wish to understand coffee better, appreciate it more deeply, or aim to become professional coffee tasters, learning the basics of coffee tasting is essential.

Wine tasting generally involves three steps: look, smell, and taste. It starts with looking at the color and shape, which is a visual aesthetic; then comes smelling, filling the nose with the aroma, which awakens the brain; and finally, tasting, which is both savoring and evaluating.

The coffee tasting process is roughly the same, involving observation, sniffing (smelling), and sipping.

Slurping is a professional term in coffee tasting, and it can generally be divided into three stages: the front, middle, and back.

This is because after coffee is brewed, the temperature gradually decreases over time, thereby exhibiting different flavors in different temperature ranges.

Thus, to excel in coffee tasting, the first step is to open your senses, then use professional forms during the evaluation, such as the SCAA Coffee Cupping Form.SCAA is the abbreviation for Specialty Coffee Association of America, translated in Chinese as the “American Specialty Coffee Association.” It is the world’s largest coffee trade association, a trade organization focused on high-quality coffee.

This table was compiled by the SCAA and is specifically used for cupping to score coffee beans, thereby distinguishing between commercial and specialty beans, and providing guidance on coffee bean pricing.

For us, the most basic thing is to figure out where the deliciousness of coffee lies and from which aspects we should perceive it.In other words, you should drink with clarity and understanding.

The SCAA is mainly divided into seven parts: dry/wet aroma, flavor/aftertaste, acidity, body, uniformity/balance, cleanliness/sweetness, and overall evaluation/defects.