What Does Specialty Coffee Flavor Mean? Understanding Coffee Flavor is Not About Following the Crowd

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FrontStreet Coffee - Understanding Coffee Flavor

"Flavor" refers to the various different tastes and is the overall perception of coffee quality, including everything from aroma to mouthfeel.

"Flavor description" is how we express in language the tastes we perceive, which helps us describe the unique characteristics of each coffee.

A Crucial Distinction

Flavor descriptions are often very subjective. A taste description given by one person is their interpretation of what they sense.

However, this often leads to misunderstandings. Especially when there are differences between the flavor descriptions of trained industry professionals and the customer's taste buds, it becomes a protracted battle for both parties, no matter how hard they try. When customers try their best but still cannot perceive the flavors described by the barista, it becomes more difficult for us to prove the value of coffee's uniqueness.

The Importance of Flavor Descriptions

Although flavor descriptions are difficult to understand, they do help customers.

For customers, discussing origin and processing methods may be more acceptable but tedious than simple flavor descriptions. After all, many factors affect coffee taste: climate, origin, coffee variety, processing method, roast level, blending methods and recipes... even the water used for brewing will affect the final coffee taste.

Therefore, in the brief interaction between barista and customer, the sensory experience is often difficult to fully explain. So flavor descriptions may not be perfect, but they are one of our best tools.

The more familiar consumers are with specialty coffee, the more helpful it is for them. The more coffee people drink, the richer their experience and vocabulary become. The better they know what kind of coffee they want to drink, the more they will pay attention to the subtle differences between different coffees and share refined flavor descriptions with other equally experienced coffee enthusiasts.

In Summary

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research workshop, happy to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation only to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month, we hold three coffee discount events because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends drink the best coffee at the lowest price. This has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473