In this simple and fun procedure, you can easily compare a sample of both of your new coffees, as well as doing a comparison of your new coffee to your old coffee.  It is most important to measure both the coffee and the water carefully, so you are comparing “apples to apples” not “apples to oranges.” 

 

You will need a measuring cup for hot water, a teaspoon measurer, a soup spoon, a glass of clean cool water, and enough cups of the same size for each sample.  B e careful if using untempered glass, or it will break when you add the hot water.  Short, wide cups work best.  (Cupping kits are available on our website in case you have difficulty finding the cups.)

 

First, put one tablespoon of coarsely ground coffee in each cup.  B e sure to label the cups! Then, add 6 ounces of very hot (190°) water to each.  ( B oil the water, then let it sit for a minute or so to cool down to 190.)  The coffee will develop a foam on top.  Wait a minute, then “break” the cup, meaning split the foam with a spoon, being careful not to agitate the foam. B e sure not to stir the coffee!  If you stir the coffee, the grounds will settle out of the foam into the coffee, and you’ll wind up drinking coffee grounds, a most unpleasant experience! The cupper then "noses" the brew to experience its aroma, an integral step in the evaluation of the coffee's quality.

 

Wait a few more minutes, and skim the grounds off the top and throw them away.  Now for the fun part!  Take a spoonful of the coffee from the top, and slurp the coffee from the spoon, making as much noise as you can!  That’s the easiest way to describe the technique.  The objective is to aerate the coffee, so you get the full flavor characteristics.  Professional tasters then spit the coffee out, but that’s up to you!

 

As you gain experience in cupping coffee, you will begin to notice more subtle differences, but at the beginning you should be able to notice differences in body and acidity.  B ody is a word describing the “fullness” of the coffee.  One of the coffees should have more body than the other.  Acidity is another characteristic to look for.  Acidity is hard to describe, but the best way is “effervescence.”  A high acidity coffee will taste like sparkling water, for comparison’s sake, and a low acidity coffee will taste like flat water.  In coffee, acidity is a prized quality. 

 

At a roaster or importer, samples from a variety of batches and different beans are tasted daily. Coffees are not only analyzed this way for their inherent characteristics and flaws, but also for the purpose of blending different beans or determining the proper roast. An expert cupper can taste hundreds of samples of coffee a day and still taste the subtle differences between them. When coffee is professionally cupped, the samples are only roasted to a very light cinnamon roast, which makes the coffee reveal more characteristics for comparison, but also makes it somewhat unsuitable for drinking.  So, although you’ll need to cup coffee that has been roasted to its best flavor characteristics for drinking, you’ll still be able to taste the subtle differences and learn from the cupping experience.

 

At the end of the book, we have enclosed a sample coffee cupping worksheet, which you can make copies of and use in your cupping.  As you perform more cuppings, you will become more familiar with the different tastes and aromas, and be more able to distinguish a high acidity coffee from a low acidity coffee, for example.  One thing we’ve found helpful is to have a standard coffee, a Colombian, for example, as one of the samples each time.  That way, you are always comparing your coffee to a standard, which will help you in defining and comparing the coffees.  As you become more experienced, and your tongue becomes “calibrated,” you won’t need the reference coffee anymore.

 

Enjoy your coffee!