How to Describe and Express Coffee Flavors, Evaluate Coffee Texture, and Properly Taste Pour-Over Single-Origin Black Coffee

The Mystery of Coffee Flavor Perception

Have you ever experienced this scenario:

"Wow! Let me tell you! This pour-over coffee is amazing! It has notes of ginger flower, jasmine, lemon, honey, and Tieguanyin tea!!!" Meanwhile, you're left completely bewildered. While you recognize all these flavors, you simply can't taste them... And then you can only respond with confusion.

Is coffee flavor perceived by the taste buds?

No, it needs a partner—the sense of smell.

That's right, coffee flavors cannot be fully perceived by taste buds alone. In fact, when it comes to identifying flavors, taste buds play a "supporting role." Our taste buds can only detect five basic taste sensations—sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. Coffee doesn't contain the "umami" taste, and under normal circumstances, saltiness is completely masked by sweet, sour, and bitter flavors.

Have you noticed that when we take the first sip of coffee, we first taste sweet and sour flavors before experiencing bitterness? This is because our tongue has its own "workflow" for distinguishing tastes. The tip of the tongue detects sourness, the sides near the tip detect saltiness, the sides near the back detect sourness again, and the back of the tongue detects bitterness.

Real flavor identification relies on our sense of smell. (Can we still smell the aroma of food once it's in our mouth?) Yes! The throat and nasal cavity are interconnected. After coffee extraction, some flavor molecules are encapsulated by oils, making them difficult to perceive when smelling directly. When these oils carrying aromas enter the mouth, taste buds first judge the coffee's taste, then the oils melt on the tongue, releasing aromas. These aromas travel to the nasal cavity during swallowing—this is called retronasal olfaction, while our ability to directly detect smells is orthonasal olfaction.

When our taste buds perceive tastes combined with smells detected by our olfactory system, our brain associates them with specific items. So why can some people associate specific items while others cannot? This is related to our personal flavor memory. Moreover, coffee flavor itself is a very broad concept. For example: when tasting a coffee's acidity, some people might detect lemon while others might notice pomelo—this is completely normal. The joy of coffee tasting lies in sharing and discussing the flavors you perceive with those around you.

From what angles do we discuss coffee flavors?

Aroma, sweetness, acidity, mouthfeel, flavor, aftertaste, and balance.

Aroma — Orthonasal Olfaction

Coffee aroma is divided into dry fragrance and wet aroma. Dry fragrance refers to the aroma released when coffee beans are ground into particles; wet aroma refers to the aroma released from coffee liquid extracted with water. The same coffee bean may release different dry and wet aromas because many specific aromatic compounds require certain temperatures to volatilize. For example, when FrontStreet Coffee's barista smelled the Emerald Estate Green Label Geisha coffee, they detected the fresh fragrance of sugarcane in the dry aroma and the aroma of ginger flowers in the wet aroma.

Cleanliness — Retronasal Olfaction

Cleanliness refers to coffee having no defective or unpleasant flavors. For example, some low-quality coffee beans may have earthy or woody flavors after brewing, or other unpleasant miscellaneous tastes.

Sweetness — Taste Buds

Sweetness refers to the perception of taste. Good sweetness in a coffee can improve people's evaluation of it. Of course, this sweetness isn't as obvious as sucrose; in many cases, sweetness is reflected in the sweet aftertaste.

Acidity — Taste Buds

We can distinguish the intensity of coffee's acidity by the amount of saliva secreted on both sides of the tongue—the stronger the acidity, the more saliva is secreted. The acidity in high-quality coffee typically leans toward fruit acidity (fresh, gentle sourness), while low-quality coffee may exhibit vinegar-like acidity (strong, pungent sourness).

Mouthfeel — Oral Tactile Sensation

The body, smoothness, and astringency of coffee are all perceived through oral tactile sensation. We can describe body as light-full-rich. This sensation is like drinking skim milk-whole milk-cream—your tongue experiences different degrees of "tongue-pressing sensation." Astringency is a rough texture produced by polyphenol compounds in coffee, opposite to smoothness. The presence of astringency directly lowers your evaluation of that coffee.

Flavor and Aftertaste — Taste Buds + Retronasal Olfaction

Flavor refers to our overall experience of drinking the coffee, combining various sensations from smell and taste. This requires connecting with our personal flavor memories and seeing if we can make associations after tasting the coffee. Aftertaste refers to the various tastes and aromas remaining in the mouth after drinking coffee. If pleasant aromas linger in the nasal cavity for a long time, we can describe this coffee as having a long aftertaste. Like the Green Label Geisha coffee mentioned above by FrontStreet Coffee, its aftertaste is a light floral fragrance and green tea aroma.

Balance — Taste Buds

Balance refers to the degree to which various indicators of coffee are balanced, such as whether it's too acidic or has prominent bitterness.

Important Notice :

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