Step-by-Step Guide to Coffee Tasting! The Universal Formula for Coffee Tasting! How to Drink Pour-Over Coffee? What Are the Five Steps of Coffee Tasting?

Understanding Coffee Tasting: From Simple Descriptions to Expert Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee believes that many friends, when first exploring specialty coffee, might think that coffee shops are gathering places for literary masters. This is because whether it's the customers in the café or friends around us, they can always deliver eloquent and lengthy descriptions about a cup of coffee. In contrast, when FrontStreet Coffee first started exploring coffee, the highest praise we could give a cup was simply: delicious... sweet... or: this coffee has a lot of coffee flavor...

Regarding this situation, FrontStreet Coffee has actually shared this several times before. This isn't because we lack vocabulary, but rather because we hadn't yet learned how to "taste coffee" properly, so we couldn't grasp the patterns for describing it.

Coffee tasting might sound difficult, but it's actually quite simple. There's a universal formula that, when followed, allows us to determine the quality of a cup of coffee. Simultaneously, when we transform our tasting experience into words or language, we can describe a cup of coffee eloquently. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the five steps of coffee tasting, hoping to help everyone become a coffee tasting/description master more quickly!

Step One: Aroma

Coffee generates a large amount of aromatic substances during the roasting process due to chemical reactions. These substances aren't only extracted by water. When coffee beans are ground, numerous aromatic compounds are released as the bean structure breaks down. Therefore, coffee tasting begins the moment coffee beans are ground. Our first step is to capture and feel these aromas diffused in the air through our sense of smell before tasting. Simply put: smelling the aroma!

Smelling is mainly divided into two steps: smelling dry aroma and wet aroma. Dry aroma refers to the fragrance emitted by coffee grounds after grinding but before brewing—this is when the aroma concentration is most intense. Wet aroma, on the other hand, refers to the fragrance released after coffee grounds come into contact with hot water. Compared to dry aroma, wet aroma will be much weaker, but due to the decreased concentration, we might capture different aromatic characteristics.

Generally, light to medium roasted beans mainly exhibit fresh aromas like floral and fruity notes; while medium to dark roasted beans display heavier aromas like caramel, chocolate, and spices. Then, based on their respective aromatic profiles, we can add corresponding adjectives to create descriptions. Take floral aroma as an example—there are many adjectives to describe it, such as rich, delicate... you can use them according to the aroma's character~

Step Two: Taste

After smelling, we come to the most important part: tasting! We need to experience the coffee in our mouths from three different angles. Since these happen simultaneously, FrontStreet Coffee will explain them one by one. First is: the taste of coffee. In coffee, we can perceive four basic tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, and salty.

However, we don't just perceive what flavors exist in this cup of coffee, but also identify their concentration levels and quality. FrontStreet Coffee will use acidity as an example (since it's predominant). There's good and bad acidity in coffee, which we commonly refer to as "acidity quality." Excellent acidity makes coffee pleasant to drink, with related descriptors like: smooth, bright, lively... Conversely, poor acidity makes coffee difficult to swallow, with related descriptors like: sharp, dull, harsh...

Step Three: Flavor

Flavor perception is the most popular aspect in specialty coffee tasting. It involves combining the aromas released from the coffee in our mouths with the tastes, then associating them with flavors of foods we commonly encounter in daily life. This is the greatest joy of coffee tasting but also the most challenging part. The reason many friends cannot describe coffee is mainly because they cannot associate coffee flavors, remaining only at the second step of taste perception. For such cases, FrontStreet Coffee suggests first understanding flavor perception through the article "Is Coffee Flavor a Mystery?"

When we successfully master flavor perception, we can combine it with taste to create simple sentences. For example: if you perceive citrus flavors in the coffee, and the coffee's acidity feels bright to you, then the description could be: bright citrus acidity.

Step Four: Mouthfeel

Mouthfeel refers to the tactile sensation coffee provides us. The term "body" often heard in coffee circles mainly describes the richness or thickness of coffee. Coffee body refers to the "weight" felt by the tongue when coffee enters the mouth. Let me use an example that FrontStreet Coffee often mentions: skim milk, whole milk, and cream—these three different dairy products provide completely different mouthfeels. Skim milk feels light and thin like water; whole milk feels thicker, fuller, and smoother; while cream is very thick and heavy. The same principle applies to coffee!

When coffee has a higher body, the weight felt by the tongue is heavier; when coffee has a lower body, it's the opposite. (For more details about body, you can refer to the article → "Coffee Body")

Step Five: Aftertaste

After experiencing coffee from the above three angles, we can swallow. After swallowing, there's still one aspect we need to perceive—the coffee's aftertaste. In other words, coffee tasting should only be considered complete after experiencing the aftertaste. Aftertaste,通俗理解的话就是在吞下咖啡以后，停留在口腔里的香气，或者是口腔里还能够感受到明显的咖啡香气在不断冒出。

The aftertaste of coffee mainly comes from the retronasal olfaction's "capture" of coffee aromas. The principle is simple: coffee contains many oil-soluble aromatic substances. After drinking coffee, some coffee oils remain in the mouth without being swallowed. As these oils gradually break down, the aromatic substances hidden within them volatilize and are captured by our retronasal olfaction, allowing us to perceive the aroma—this is aftertaste! The evaluation of aftertaste also has two aspects: duration length and aroma quality. Excellent aftertaste has a longer lingering time, which indicates higher coffee content and sufficient extraction (the aftertaste duration varies for different extraction methods); while judging aftertaste quality from an aroma perspective is similar to flavor assessment—mainly looking at whether the released flavor characteristics are positive or negative.

FrontStreet Coffee takes lightly roasted pour-over coffee as an example. In lightly roasted pour-over coffee, quality aftertaste typically lasts more than ten seconds, with flavor characteristics like light floral notes, tea-like qualities, honey, etc.; while poor aftertaste is very short or even nonexistent. Flavor manifestations include: astringency, bitterness, or other uncomfortable flavors.

Summary

Through the five steps above, we've completed tasting a cup of coffee. Next, we just need to describe what we experienced during the tasting process! Now, FrontStreet Coffee will share an example of a tasting description for green label Geisha: In the aroma stage, we can clearly perceive green tea and citrus aromas, followed by rich jasmine floral notes. After tasting, we can capture bright berry sweetness and acidity, melon fragrance, and jasmine. The mouthfeel is round and silky, and finally, there's a long aftertaste of green tea aroma!

But this is just an example. As everyone knows, FrontStreet Coffee doesn't usually speak like this~ Friends who have visited FrontStreet Coffee's store know that FrontStreet Coffee typically gives descriptions like: Hmm! This Geisha really has that Geisha flavor!

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