How to Describe Coffee Mouthfeel and Flavor: The Language of Coffee Tasting

Coffee Flavor Description

If you were asked to describe an aroma, what words would you reach for besides "fragrant" and "foul"? The human sense of smell is not particularly sensitive - for tasks that depend on olfaction we often rely on other animals, such as drug-sniffing dogs and pigs used for truffle hunting. Visually, humans have rich language for forms and colors, but that vocabulary pales next to our poverty of words for smells. Anthropologists suspect this is the result of primate brains weighing visual processing capability against olfactory benefit.

We often find that when describing the flavor of the same coffee, baristas express different views using not-quite-identical language. You might call it plum while I call it peach. Customers are often left confused.

Improving general sensitivity to smells or tastes is very difficult, but becoming more sensitive to specific flavors is achievable with planned training. The same applies to flavor expression: practice describing the aromas and flavors you identify to others, seizing every opportunity. Building a "coffee vocabulary" is entirely possible, and if every professional does this, there is hope of forming a shared descriptive system.

If you cannot taste the delicate flavors in a coffee, or detect the notes others describe in a dish, it is not because your senses are broken - it is because your brain cannot yet distinguish and interpret those flavors. What needs training is the brain: accumulate more flavor memories so that, when the moment comes, you can make associations and quickly analyze and interpret what you taste.

This is also part of cupping training. Coffee lovers can practice by tasting different foods and fruits in daily life - oranges, grapes, mangoes, berries, plums, peaches, lychees, red wine, nuts, caramel, honey, and so on.

The acidity in specialty coffee stimulates saliva production, which helps the taste buds perceive more flavors. After liquid enters the mouth it gets washed away by saliva: flavors that wash away quickly feel clean, while those that linger leave a long aftertaste. Some flavors we want to appear and then vanish quickly - bitterness and acidity, for example. They are important components of coffee, and when they arrive and recede swiftly they bring a refreshing sensation.

Other flavors we hope will linger longer - sweetness, aroma, pomelo, and nutty notes - create the sense of aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Philosophy

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research center dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone, without reservation, hoping to help more friends fall in love with coffee - a mission FrontStreet Coffee has carried for the past six years!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The best way to train your flavor vocabulary is with coffees whose descriptors are unmistakable. From Ethiopia, the FrontStreet natural Hambela (Huakui) is a study in tropical fruit - strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, even lychee - while the washed Workado (Guodingding) Cooperative hones your sense of jasmine florals, lemon acidity, and berry tones.

Beyond Africa, the FrontStreet Costa Rica Mozart (raisin-honey processed) teaches grape, pineapple, and osmanthus sweetness; the FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon and Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon train your nose on cream, peanut, cocoa, and caramel; the FrontStreet Lindong Mandheling adds herb, spice, and black sugar; and the FrontStreet Yunnan Typica rounds things out with preserved fruit, plum, brown sugar, and black-tea notes. Taste side by side, write down what you find, and your "coffee vocabulary" will grow with every cup.