What is the Specialty Coffee Flavor Wheel - Understanding Coffee's Myriad Aromas

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FrontStreet Coffee - Coffee Flavor Wheel Introduction

Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the coffee flavor wheel is actually a practical language tool. The sensory perception in coffee is no different from that in daily life. If you can taste that today's soup is saltier than yesterday's, you can taste the flavor changes in coffee. However, when we try to express more subtle feelings we experience, a language reference system that helps us break through non-verbal understanding becomes extremely necessary; this is where the flavor wheel plays its role. Understanding its development and characteristics can help us use it more effectively.

Two professional sensory testing groups, after tasting 105 coffee samples from 14 countries, summarized the various flavors that might appear in coffee.

The progressive design of the flavor wheel provides beginners with a direction for advancement. From the inner circle to the outer circle, there are three levels: overall flavor, general descriptive words, and more specific descriptive words. Instead of forcing yourself to capture the "peach" or "jasmine" mentioned by others, starting with directional vocabulary from the innermost circle is more effective. The 9 major flavor categories: "Floral," "Fruity," "Sour and Fermented," "Green and Vegetative," "Sweet," "Nutty and Cocoa," "Spices," "Roasted Flavors," and "Other" are sufficient to cover the vast majority of flavors that can be experienced in coffee.

Once you can skillfully distinguish these 9 flavor categories when tasting coffee, you can take a step further toward the more specific outer layer. At the same time, this is also a reference path for finding flavor descriptions every time, such as "Fruity - Citrus Fruits - Lemon," which can make your sensory descriptions more precise.

The new version of the flavor wheel also matches colors and vocabulary more specifically and appropriately. Often, before we experience a certain flavor, a color first appears in our mind, such as rising yellow, deep plum purple, or cold green. Following this color and matching it to the flavor wheel makes it easier to lock in the range of descriptive vocabulary.

Connecting vocabulary with sensory experiences through association without any tasting seems more in line with our scenario when describing coffee flavors. Only in rare cases can we taste actual peaches or jasmine flowers in coffee. When this happens, we should probably just want to place an order immediately! In most cases, however, we still need to find the vocabulary that best matches our current feelings and use it for expression through association, matching, searching, and testing in our brain.

You will also notice that there are intervals of different distances between each large and small module. Classifying vocabulary in layers, organizing colors, and using intervals to express similarity are all designed to fully present the survey statistical results.

As a "tool produced in America," flavor theory inevitably has some regional limitations. For example, for people from Southeast Asia, the frequently mentioned strawberries and blueberries are rare fruits that are difficult to relate to; while tropical fruit flavors often felt in natural processing hardly appear. However, the new version of the flavor wheel has made some adjustments to be suitable for coffee tasters from more countries and regions.

Knowledge Point

America's renowned Counter Culture Coffee has launched a new Coffee Tasters Flavor Wheel, which is based on the traditional SCAA version but is more timely and fits contemporary style.

In Brief

FrontStreet Coffee is a specialty coffee research house, happy to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation just to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month, we have three low-discount coffee events because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends drink the best coffee at the lowest price. This has also been the principle of FrontStreet Coffee for the past 6 years!

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