You may have seen some pictures of the Redber team around a table of glasses, slurping Coffee from a spoon...in case you are not familiar with this curious activity, it is known as 'cupping'.
Cupping is an absolutely critical tool across the entire Coffee industry; whether on the farm itself, at the auctions where Coffees are tested and valued, for exporters and importers to check quality, for roasters like us, and for Coffee shops!
Today we are cupping four coffees all in medium-dark roast, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Sumatra Mandheling, Costa Rica Amapola Tarrazu and Colombia Finca Sofia.
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To start, we need to grind the coffees.We grind 8.25g of coffee per sample.
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The temperature of hot water is 93C when poured. We pour 150ml of water per sample (0.055g coffee/1ml water).
After 4 minutes, when the grinds have settled, we can 'break the crust'. The crust is a layer of floating coffee grinds that have formed on the top of the coffee sample. With a cupping spoon we break the crust with pushing the grinds to the rim of the glass and inhale the aroma coming from the coffee sample.
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We repeat the process for each sample cup. Before we start tasting we remove the grinds with two cupping spoons.
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After 4 minutes, we start tasting. We fill the spoon and slurp the coffee while inhaling. The coffee should coat the whole tongue. After tasting each sample we record all the tasting notes and compare afterwards.
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SUMATRA MANDHELING Aroma: woody, spicy Flavour: cocoa, sweet, Body: full-bodied Acidity: low |
COSTA RICA AMAPOLA TARRAZU Aroma: floral, sweet, Flavour: nutty, sweet, apple Body: medium Acidity: high, |
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ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE Aroma: fruity, flowery Flavour: Citrusy, tea-like, Body: medium, Acidity: high
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COLOMBIA SOFIA Aroma: chocolatey Flavour: sweet, dark chocolate, greapefruit Body: smooth, Acidity: mild
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Make sure you keep an eye our for our next coffee tasting findings!
