How to Taste Coffee Like a Professional

When drinking coffee, both our mouth and nose process different parts of the taste. In our mouth, our tongue initially tastes the most obvious aspects of the coffee, such as acidity, sweetness, or bitterness. Flavors such as chocolate or berries are detected rather by smelling the coffee.

It's important to separate these two methods of tasting coffee, especially for beginners. This is the sure way to experience fully the taste of the coffee you are drinking.

Tasting Traits

When drinking coffee, both our mouth and nose process different parts of the taste. In our mouth, our tongue initially tastes the most obvious aspects of the coffee, such as acidity, sweetness, or bitterness. Flavors such as chocolate or berries are detected rather by smelling the coffee.

It's important to separate these two methods of tasting coffee, especially for beginners. This is the sure way to experience fully the taste of the coffee you are drinking.

There are five traits that are the most relevant to how you experience the taste.

Sweetness - Is your coffee sweet? Or is it very bitter? Better coffees will generally be sweeter.

Acidity - A trait that's taken both ways, acidity can provide crispness to a cup of coffee, but also make it very sour. To less experienced people acidity may sound like a trait that isn't desirable, but professionals have a preference for high acidity. An example of how acidity can be desirable is an apple, which its acidity provides a refreshing quality.

Mouthfeel - When drinking a cup of coffee, you want the coffee to have a light, delicate mouthfeel. A heavy, creamy mouthfeel is generally less pleasant to drink.

Flavor - This can divide into two things, what aroma and flavor the coffee is, but also does the person drinking the cup of coffee enjoy that particular taste.

Balance - The most difficult thing to determine, a balanced coffee has every tasting trait working together to deliver the best taste possible, not one trait overshadowing the other.

Professional Tasters

Generally speaking, companies have their coffee go through many tasters before the coffee actually reaches the consumer. Very often this can be a longer process as it's common to split up tastings to specific traits. For example, one coffee tasting might be to determine the mouthfeel of the coffee, and then later on another tasting is performed to determine the acidity.

Professional tasters get a high awareness of how a good coffee should taste through years of experience of determine the taste of different coffees. To truly be great at understanding the quality of the coffee, you would have to practice some of these tasting techniques at home.

Tasting coffee at home

1. Buy different coffees - If you drink one coffee, you have nothing to compare that coffee to. Try to find another coffee to complement the taste of the first, ideally a coffee that is different in flavor.

2. Brew small batches of coffee - When tasting coffee, you don't want to drink too much of each coffee you taste.

3. Don't drink the coffee when it's too hot! It is much more difficult to determine the taste of a drink that almost burns your mouth. It's much better to wait until the coffee cools a bit after initially pouring it.

4. Alternate between the coffees. Don't just drink one coffee, then move on to the next one. Take turns sipping each coffee to understand the ins and outs of each one.

5. Focus on the different tasting traits. Each time you take a sip of a coffee, try to focus on one trait, ignoring the rest of them. This way you can be sure about your opinion on the individual aspects of the coffee.

6. The best way to improve your tasting is to write down your thoughts on each coffee. During the tasting write about the individual traits, but after your tasting describe how each coffee made you feel, how your experience with it was.

Describing the coffee

When talking about the taste of your coffee, it's important to use descriptive words. Terms ashy, earthy, and nutty, are great examples. Here are some other examples of descriptive terms you can use:

- Baked

- Bitter

- Bright

- Citrusy

- Fruity

- Malty

- Scorched

There are many other great terms to describe your coffee, the most important part of this is you expressing how the coffee tasted.