What Does "Slurping" Mean in Coffee Tasting? What Is Coffee Cupping?

If you're someone who enjoys spending time in coffee shops or frequently visits various coffee exhibitions, FrontStreet Coffee believes you must have witnessed many strange coffee cultures in these places. For example, some customers deliberately make strange "whooshing" sounds while drinking coffee; baristas might "steal a sip" of the pour-over coffee that was meant for you; or several coffee enthusiasts gather together to share the same cup of coffee...

Although these behaviors are considered perfectly normal among industry insiders, for beginners or people outside the industry, these are indeed very strange "coffee cultures" (behaviors that are hard to understand). So today, FrontStreet Coffee will take you through these peculiar behaviors and explain the purposes behind them.

Why do people make "whooshing" sounds when drinking coffee?

This is a very common phenomenon that we often hear in various coffee shops, coffee exhibitions, or cupping sessions. Many friends often associate this phenomenon with ramen noodles because in Japanese culture, the louder the sound made while eating ramen, the more delicious the ramen is, representing a silent praise to the chef. Unfortunately, making sounds while drinking coffee is not meant to praise the barista! Its main purpose is to better capture the coffee's flavors and more comprehensively experience the current cup of coffee. This behavior of triggering sounds has a professional term in the industry - slurping.

Pursing your lips and then quickly drawing the coffee delivered to your lips along with air - this is the process of slurping. Because air and coffee liquid pass through the narrow gap at high speed during inhalation, creating turbulence, it forms a "whistling" airflow sound, which is the "whooshing" sound we hear on site. The reason why slurping allows us to better experience coffee is that it can quickly lower the coffee's temperature while increasing the volatilization speed and contact area of aromas.

High temperatures can reduce sensory sensitivity, which affects our perception of coffee's taste and aroma. Therefore, people usually wait for the coffee to cool to a temperature that doesn't significantly affect sensory perception before formally tasting the coffee. When we use slurping to taste coffee, we can eliminate this waiting period and experience the deliciousness of coffee more quickly. Because we inhale air along with the coffee during slurping, the coffee gets cooled during the inhalation process to a temperature that won't affect sensory perception. The impact during inhalation instantly atomizes the coffee liquid into countless tiny droplets, which directly increases the surface area of the coffee liquid. This not only provides a wider contact surface but also accelerates the volatilization speed of aromas, making flavor perception more evident.

So many friends often use this seemingly uncouth method to taste coffee, with the purpose of experiencing the coffee's performance earlier and more comprehensively. It's worth mentioning that some clever friends have thought of an advanced tasting method through the behavior of slurping:

Why do baristas "steal a sip" of your coffee?

Compared to slurping, this phenomenon is even more common. Most baristas will take a small portion of the pour-over coffee before serving it, taste it, and then serve the coffee to you. Many friends find this behavior very difficult to understand, so FrontStreet Coffee specially shared a tweet about it.

First, we need to know that the barista's purpose for this behavior is definitely not to sneak a sip of coffee!

The reason why baristas pour a cup for themselves to taste before serving pour-over coffee is to ensure consistency in their offerings. Because many factors can affect the taste of a cup of coffee. The state of the coffee beans themselves, the production environment, the water pouring method - these are all factors that affect extraction and are difficult to control beyond extraction parameters. Take the example FrontStreet Coffee mentioned the day before yesterday. With the same parameters, the taste of our extracted coffee can vary due to the carbon dioxide content of the coffee beans themselves. If extraction is done when the coffee beans have a very high carbon dioxide content, the coffee can even easily suffer from under-extraction.

So if the barista hasn't brewed this particular coffee that day and doesn't know the current state of the coffee beans, they will separate a small portion from the pour-over coffee to taste, assess whether the coffee meets the serving standards, and then decide whether to present it to the customer. If it doesn't meet the standards, the barista will choose to remake it until the coffee reaches serving standards.

Why do several people share the same cup of coffee?

In coffee shops, we often see baristas gathered together to taste the same cup of coffee, but the sharing method isn't one cup for each person - it's one spoon for each person. Even when there are multiple cups, the method of sharing tasting remains the same.

We can often see this behavior at cupping sessions! But besides cupping, daily coffee sharing within coffee shops is often like this too. So many friends find it puzzling - why use such a format to taste coffee?

The reason is very simple - it ensures that everyone can quickly taste the same cup of coffee. Usually, the premise for such sharing is that there are many samples that need to be tested. If making the same coffee separately for each person or dividing a small cup of coffee for everyone, the time and material costs required would be very high. Additionally, considering the various factors mentioned earlier that affect coffee extraction, adopting this method to jointly taste a cup of coffee is more reliable. It not only saves various costs but also ensures the consistency of the coffee being tasted.

So these are some "coffee cultures" that FrontStreet Coffee can think of which might be difficult for outsiders to understand. If you've had similar experiences, why not leave a comment and share with everyone~

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