How to Describe Single-Origin Coffee Flavors? How to Identify Aroma and Flavor Characteristics of Pour-Over Coffee

Many times, when customers at FrontStreet Coffee ask for advice on "how to scientifically learn coffee tasting" and "what are the quick methods to identify coffee flavors," given the time constraints, FrontStreet Coffee can only express one core principle: "be mindful and drink more!"

Today, FrontStreet Coffee will attempt to share some methods on "how to identify coffee flavors" (remember that knowledge becomes effective only through practice).

How We Perceive Flavors

Often, we believe that flavors are tasted, with our sense of taste taking most of the credit. In reality, our sense of taste can only distinguish five basic tastes, while the thousands of coffee flavors are perceived through our sense of smell. Those who have experienced rhinitis or a cold will understand this deeply - when our noses are congested, almost everything tastes bland.

The olfactory receptor cells in our nose perceive aromas, while the taste buds on our tongue perceive tastes. However, they don't identify what these aromas or tastes are on their own. They need to send what they perceive back to the brain's neural pathways, where the brain determines what they are. If the brain hasn't formed a memory of a particular aroma or taste, it naturally cannot identify it. Therefore, when FrontStreet Coffee says "drink more," we're actually referring to building these flavor memories in your brain.

Forming Flavor Memory Points

Think back to your Chinese language classes. When the teacher asked you to memorize a text, you could recite it within just one day. But after a week, only fragmented memories of that text remained. This is because we hadn't grasped the memory points of that text - we were simply rote memorizing. Once the immediate need passed, our brains naturally moved it to the "recycle bin."

The same principle applies to identifying flavors. We need to "tag" each flavor to form memory points. Many light-roasted coffee beans are described as having "citrus" flavors in their descriptions. If you can't taste these citrus notes when drinking coffee, that's okay. Let's start with "citrus" fruits themselves to rebuild these flavor memories.

Citrus fruits, despite their general sweet and sour profile, actually encompass a wide spectrum. For example, "kumquats, sugar tangerines, sumo citrus, gonggan tangerines, navel oranges, and Sunkist oranges" each have distinct characteristics. If you were to eat these citrus fruits while holding your nose, you could only distinguish which ones are sweeter or more sour.

When you release your nose, the aroma becomes apparent. For FrontStreet Coffee, the most striking impression of citrus comes from the fresh fragrance that fills the air when peeling the fruit. As you chew and taste the abundant sweet and sour juice, the retro-nasal olfaction delivers a full fruity aroma. At this moment, we've tagged these citrus fruits with the label of "fresh fruity fragrance." For those wanting to advance, you can further细分 citrus varieties - Sunkist oranges are "zesty, fresh, and juicy," while gonggan tangerines are "light and delicately fragrant."

Here's a relatable example: the cucumber-flavored potato chips. When you taste them, do you really taste cucumber flavor? Think carefully about what labels you've attached to your perception of cucumber.

There are no shortcuts to learning how to identify coffee flavors. This article has briefly shared how to "remember flavors." The next installment will teach you "how to classify flavors like a library and apply them to coffee flavors," and the following one will cover...

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473