Are Coffee Tasting Cups Worth Buying? Can Aroma Cups Really Enhance Coffee Aroma? How to Improve Your Flavor Perception for Pour-Over Coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee: A True "Cup Connoisseur"

It must be said, FrontStreet Coffee is also a complete "cup connoisseur"! Friends visiting the store can see various bone china coffee cups on the shelves at FrontStreet Coffee's shop. That's right! These are all cups that FrontStreet Coffee purchased, captivated by their beauty, for serving hot pour-over coffee.

Until one day, a customer friend raised such a question. He asked FrontStreet Coffee why they don't use dedicated tasting cups. Wouldn't tasting cups better express the flavor profile of coffee? Could it be that tasting cups are an "intelligence tax"?

What Are Coffee Tasting Cups?

Perhaps many friends don't quite understand what tasting cups are, so FrontStreet Coffee will give a brief introduction first! Coffee tasting cups are a special type of cup that has emerged in recent years, specifically designed for coffee tasting. Their materials and cup shapes are all specially designed to better appreciate coffee.

Although they have only become popular in recent years, this is just in the coffee field. In the 20th century, tasting cups already appeared in the wine industry, and to showcase the characteristics of different wines, tasting cups would vary according to different types of wine and different brewing materials.

Are Tasting Cups an "Intelligence Tax"?

So returning to the question, are tasting cups really an "intelligence tax"? Putting aside the price, they truly are not, because these cups do indeed play a role in assisting with tasting! As early as before 2020, many papers about tasting cups clearly pointed out that cups do have a certain impact on our tasting experience. The coffee experience from drinking with different designed cups is completely different, not just tasting cups, but all cups follow this principle. The source of this impact mainly comes from the cup's design and the material it uses.

But we need to know that the change brought by the cup is not the coffee itself, but our tasting direction. For example: if we have a cup of light-roasted coffee in front of us, then the experience from drinking with cup A might be a coffee with acidity as the main note, sweetness as a secondary note, and a relatively rich body; while the experience from drinking with cup B might be a coffee with sweetness as the main note, acidity as a secondary note, and a relatively light texture. The reason why cups change our perception comes down to two factors: material and shape. They bring us certain physical and psychological effects when tasting coffee.

How Do Cups Affect Our Senses?

The factors that cause psychological effects mainly include the cup's material, weight, thickness, and color. Let's first talk about the cup's material! Currently, common coffee cup materials on the market mainly include: plastic, ceramic, glass, metal, and so on. Different materials have completely different tactile sensations. Some materials feel silky and delicate, while others feel rough.

These differences in tactile sensation give us a psychological effect called "sensory transfer." According to relevant research, a small portion of our thoughts or feelings about one item will transfer to another item. For example: when the cup's tactile sensation is very smooth, we psychologically get the idea that the coffee's texture will also be very smooth; and when the cup's tactile sensation is rougher, we psychologically think the coffee's texture will be equally rough. Because our focus on coffee changes with the change in cup material. Perhaps many friends don't think this makes a big difference between materials. But we can imagine an extreme example: a glass cup for dine-in and a paper cup for takeout!

Divide the same cup of coffee into two portions, pouring into a glass cup and a paper cup respectively! Although it's the same flavor, because of the different cups, we will have the idea that the paper cup coffee is not as delicious or smooth as the glass cup coffee. This is the impact brought by material! This is also why many dine-in customers will not accept using takeout paper cups for serving. Besides material, the cup's weight also gives us similar psychological effects. When the cup is heavier, our subconscious will think that this cup of coffee has higher quality. Although it doesn't bring any change in taste, because in life, items that use heavier containers are associated with high quality, so we automatically associate coffee in heavy cups with high quality. The thickness of the cup wall follows the same principle: when the cup wall is thicker, we subconsciously think the coffee's texture is relatively rich, while when the cup's thickness is thinner, we think the coffee's texture tends toward being light. Color is the same - the visual effects provided by the cup color and coffee liquid color also have the ability to change psychological thoughts, so FrontStreet Coffee won't elaborate further.

Cup Shape and Mouth Design

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will focus on the cup's shape and mouth design, as they have a significant impact on our flavor perception. Coffee flavor is mainly perceived through the combined action of smell and taste buds, while the cup's mouth and body design changes the distribution of coffee liquid, affecting the amount of aroma released and the coffee liquid we come into contact with, which is why some cups allow us to better perceive aroma or flavor.

Common tasting cups mainly have three types of openings: open mouth, narrow mouth, and straight body! As mentioned above, they don't all enhance flavor perception. For example, the straight body cup.

Straight Body Cup

As the name suggests, this type of cup's structure is completely vertical, with straight walls from the belly to the rim. Although this type of cup gives us slightly weaker aroma perception compared to the other two types, its vertical design allows the liquid to flow more concentratedly into the mouth, bringing greater impact to the oral senses.

Simply put, at the same tilt angle, it can pour out more coffee liquid, and because there's more coffee in the mouth, it brings us a fuller coffee flavor, richer texture, and more solid experience. This type of cup is very suitable for tasting balanced types of coffee!

Open Mouth Cup

The open mouth cup is also known as an expanded mouth cup, named for its larger mouth diameter. The cup mouth is tilted outward at about 45 degrees, like a bamboo hat. Generally, tasting cups with expanded mouth design are paired with a slightly protruding belly shape, as this allows coffee to have more surface area in contact with air, thereby emitting more aroma.

The expanded mouth shape increases the flow path of the coffee liquid, making the coffee liquid more dispersed after entering the mouth. Because the coffee liquid is not concentrated like in a straight body cup, the coffee with less impact will first flow over the sides and tip of the tongue, then quickly spread to all areas. This flow trend allows the taste buds to more directly capture the sweet and sour taste of the coffee (see the diagram below for details). And because the liquid is dispersed, the concentration will be scattered, making the acidity brighter.

At the same time, because of the large opening, our nose can be located above the cup while drinking coffee. This allows us to smell more aroma while drinking, making it easier to connect with hard-to-capture coffee flavors. This type of cup is more suitable for tasting light-roasted coffee with bright fruit acidity.

Narrow Mouth Cup

Finally, there's the narrow mouth cup! The narrow mouth cup is also known as a Luohan cup, with an inward-curving mouth. Usually, this type of cup's body will bulge outward, with only the bottom and mouth in a contracted state.

Like the open mouth cup, the wide body design allows the coffee aroma to be released to the maximum extent. The difference is that because the mouth is very narrow, the aroma will gather in the upper layer, which is very beneficial for smelling the aroma. And because of the narrow mouth, we need to lift the cup to a greater extent when drinking coffee, while also raising our jaw, making our mouth assume a state similar to sipping, forward and concentrated. Its effect is naturally the same as sipping, allowing the liquid to be evenly distributed in the mouth in an instant, better feeling the flavor profile of the coffee itself. This type of cup is more suitable for coffee types with more prominent flavors, such as anaerobically processed coffee!

Conclusion

So we can know that tasting cups are not an "intelligence tax," because they do indeed bring certain improvements to our coffee tasting. But the key is that the price cannot be ignored, so this can be said to be its biggest disadvantage: not being affordable enough~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473