Can't Taste the Specific Flavors in Coffee? Should the Coffee Flavor Wheel Be Localized?

The Struggle of Identifying Coffee Flavors

A few days ago during my break, I overheard this conversation:

Barista: "This sun-processed Yirgacheffe coffee bean has flavors of raspberry, grapefruit, orange blossom, and oolong tea..."

Customer A: "Ah! Why can't I taste any of these at all! What is raspberry?"

(So the barista brought out the SCA Flavor Wheel): "Um... it's probably something between blueberry and blackberry."

Customer A's friend: "It can be understood as a sour and unfragrant strawberry + pomelo peel + diluted jasmine tea."

Barista: "...It's grapefruit..."

Many friends who are new to single-origin/specialty coffee often feel overwhelmed by the flavors described on coffee bean packaging or mentioned by baristas. They start searching online for information about how to identify flavors just by looking at coffee, and when they open it up, wow! Out of 10 flavor descriptions, 7 are completely unfamiliar...

They start forcing themselves to taste some of these flavors, but still can't sense them, even beginning to wonder if the flavor wheel is deceptive, or questioning whether they're unworthy of drinking single-origin/specialty coffee because they can't identify these flavors. Of course not! There's no crime in not being able to taste the flavors from the flavor wheel, so why would you be unworthy...

Not everyone can distinguish the subtle flavors in coffee~ It's not excluding those with gifted senses of taste and smell who can clearly distinguish various flavors in coffee. However, most coffee drinkers are ordinary people who can tell that flavors A and B are different, but can't identify the specific characteristics of A and B. So as long as you feel comfortable drinking the coffee yourself, that's fine - don't force yourself too much to taste the flavors.

The Purpose and Limitations of the SCA Coffee Flavor Wheel

The significance of the SCA Coffee Flavor Wheel is to help coffee enthusiasts and professionals understand and explain the sour, sweet, and bitter tastes they experience, as well as the aromas perceived by their nasal cavity. Its purpose is to reduce differences in how people describe flavors to each other. However, this flavor wheel also has what could be considered both a strength and a weakness - its lack of inclusivity.

The first-generation coffee flavor wheel was published by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) in 1995. At that time, it served as a standard reference measurement, reducing situations where coffee baristas from different countries were talking past each other when describing coffee flavors. However, the first-generation flavor wheel was quite simple in its flavors and couldn't meet the later development trends of improved coffee bean quality and more refined and rich coffee flavors.

So SCA, together with World Coffee Research, Kansas State University, Germany's University of Agricultural Sciences, and coffee representatives, compiled the "World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon" as the foundation for the new flavor wheel. They collected data from 29 local Americans who hadn't received sensory training but were long-term coffee drinkers, along with 43 coffee industry experts, conducting cognitive tests about the relationships between flavors. Finally, in 2016, they published the new coffee flavor wheel.

Although the new coffee flavor wheel provides more detailed flavor descriptions, many of these flavor descriptions are not unfamiliar to coffee enthusiasts/professionals in the Americas/Europe, but this doesn't mean that coffee enthusiasts/professionals across all seven continents globally will have exposure to and knowledge of these flavors.

Although the coffee flavor wheel has been translated into multiple language versions, allowing everyone from different regions to discuss coffee flavors on the same page when tasting the same coffee, in reality, many flavors cannot resonate with everyone. So the coffee flavor wheel is for reference/determining flavor ranges, not necessarily indicating that one specific flavor. For example, there are many types of citrus fruits - as long as the sour aroma you taste gives you the feeling of eating citrus fruits, it can be defined as citrus, without forcing yourself to distinguish between orange, tangerine, pomelo, or lemon.

Localized Flavor Wheels and Cultural Considerations

Can the flavor wheel be adapted into localized versions based on different regions? This is possible, but it can only be used for local consumers' communication and judgment of coffee flavors. If professional discussion is needed, it's still necessary to follow the SCA-published coffee flavor wheel.

In recent years, Taiwan and Indonesia have begun researching localized flavor wheels and have published flavors that resonate with local coffee consumers, enthusiasts, and professionals.

Building on the SCA flavor wheel, Taiwan has added some flavors familiar to local people, such as dried longan, roselle, ginseng varieties, cedar, and pine flavors, while removing some flavors that don't resonate with Taiwanese people, creating a Taiwan-localized coffee flavor wheel with 95 flavors.

Indonesia, as a famous coffee-producing country, aims to cultivate and improve local farmers' judgment of flavors with their localized flavor wheel, enabling more effective improvement of coffee bean quality. The Gayo Cuppers team that developed Indonesia's localized coffee flavor wheel stated that only those who grow coffee can understand the needs of specialty coffee consumers, know how to improve coffee bean quality through cultivation and processing, and also get higher purchase prices for coffee beans. Indonesia's localized coffee flavor wheel contains 118 coffee flavors, adding more descriptions of plant and spice flavors to the original SCA flavor wheel.

The Question of a Chinese Localized Flavor Wheel

"Should the entire China region also create a localized flavor wheel?" This is a question raised by a netizen some time ago - yes, I still remember! Let me answer you now: Actually, having one or not isn't important.

Flavors have cultural biases, and too many localized flavor wheels can easily lead to "conflicting judgments." For example, in Indonesia's localized flavor wheel, coffee pulp flavor is defined in the fermented sour category, while the SCA flavor wheel defines it as a defect flavor. At the same time, localized flavor wheels don't clearly distinguish defect flavors. While they can improve coffee consumers' recognition of good flavors, they reduce the identification of defect flavors.

As mentioned above, the definition of good or bad taste varies across different cultures. China has many food cultures, and the flavors familiar to people in different regions also vary. Creating a localized flavor wheel would likely not be an easy task.

So having one would certainly be a good thing, as it would prove that specialty coffee has wide coverage in China and is becoming increasingly inclusive and diverse. Not having one doesn't matter either - in any situation, drinking and sharing coffee is a happy thing, an opportunity to create topics, and sharing the joy experienced during the coffee tasting process with each other.

Encouragement and Conclusion

When someone can't taste the flavors in coffee, we can encourage them to have more exposure to foods/smells, to feel and remember the flavors left behind after swallowing food or in the nasal cavity. Rather than emphasizing that they should be able to taste this flavor, or making a series of unfriendly remarks.

Coffee is just an ordinary beverage that everyone can enjoy freely. Not everyone needs to distinguish the flavors within it, nor should they give up the joy of drinking coffee because of others' unfriendly attitudes.

Image source: Internet

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