How to Properly Use the Coffee Flavor Wheel and Understand the Differences Between Old and New Versions

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Introduction

When you visit FrontStreet Coffee, you'll notice two versions of the coffee flavor wheel displayed on the walls.

One is the 1995 edition of the coffee flavor wheel.

The other is the 2016 edition of the coffee flavor wheel.

Comparing the two versions of the coffee flavor wheel, you'll notice that the 2016 version offers more detailed flavor descriptions. So what are the differences between these two editions?

The Birth of the Coffee Flavor Wheel

When it comes to defining taste, everyone has different perspectives. Before 1995, people couldn't reach a consensus on defining coffee flavors, leading to conflicting viewpoints. Or perhaps when tasting a flavor, you might suddenly forget what it resembles, falling into deep thought.

To address this problem, Mr. Ted Lingle, then director of SCAA, released the first edition of the coffee flavor wheel in 1995, providing everyone with a reference for basic coffee flavors and helping determine whether such flavors in coffee are good or bad.

How to Read the Old Coffee Flavor Wheel

The old coffee flavor wheel is divided into two parts. The left side is the negative flavor wheel (commonly known as defect flavors), which explains the defect flavors that arise when coffee beans are contaminated by external factors, internal factors, aromatic contamination, and taste defects. This helps everyone identify which step went wrong when coffee exhibits defect flavors.

The right side is the positive flavor wheel, divided into taste (flavor components) and aroma (wet aroma components). Looking at both sections from top to bottom, you can observe that flavors are arranged from light to heavy. There are three stages that change coffee flavors: enzymatic reactions occur during coffee cultivation and green bean processing, caramelization occurs after first crack, and dry distillation occurs after second crack. Therefore, from the old flavor wheel, we can directly understand how flavors manifest when the roast degree goes from light to dark and when extraction levels go from low to high.

Why Study the New Coffee Flavor Wheel?

After looking at the old coffee flavor wheel and then the new one, don't you think the new version looks more crowded and dazzling? Observant readers might also notice that in the new coffee flavor wheel, there are varying degrees of gaps between flavors. Why is this?

The new coffee flavor wheel optimizes the old version's inability to clearly explain the relationship between aromas and tastes, as well as the connection between defect flavors and positive flavors in a single diagram. Therefore, SCAA first collaborated with World Coffee Research (WCR), Kansas State University, German Agricultural University, and coffee industry representatives to analyze and test the flavors of 105 different samples from 13 coffee-producing countries, compiling them into the "World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon" as the foundation for the new coffee flavor wheel.

Then, 29 members without sensory training but with long-term coffee drinking experience and 43 coffee industry experts were invited to participate in cognitive tests about flavor relationships. Ultimately, coffee flavors were categorized into 9 major categories: floral, fruity, acid/fermented, green/herbaceous, other, roasted, spices, nuts/cocoa, and sweet. Among these, the "other" category and floral were polarized, while sweet, fruity, and floral were considered most similar by most people.

How to Read the New Coffee Flavor Wheel

The new coffee flavor wheel allows us to more intuitively understand the relationship between aromas and tastes, as well as the connection between defect flavors and positive flavors, with more detailed orientation for both taste and aroma. Therefore, when tasting/cupping a coffee, we can refer to the new coffee flavor wheel, first looking at the inner circle to determine the major flavor category, then moving outward to determine the flavor subcategory, and finally looking at the outer layer to identify the specific flavor.

As mentioned above, in the new coffee flavor wheel, there are varying degrees of gaps between flavors. The size of these gaps indicates the sensory similarity between the two. The smaller the gap, the higher the similarity between the two, while larger gaps indicate clear differences between them.

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Important Notice :

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