Tasting notes and cupping, made simple.

What a tasting note is

A tasting note is a word for something you notice: a smell, a flavour, or the way the coffee feels in your mouth. “Chocolate” or “citrus” does not mean anything was added. It means the coffee reminds you of that.

Professionals sort notes into three groups: aroma (what you smell), taste (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami) and mouthfeel (light and tea-like, or heavy and syrupy). Starting with those three makes the vocabulary easier.

Finding words without a wheel

Begin broad, then narrow. Is it fruity, nutty, chocolatey, floral or roasty? Then ask which kind: citrus or berry, almond or hazelnut. The World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon is a shared vocabulary that professionals use to describe coffee.

How cupping works

Cupping is the standard way to taste coffees side by side. Under the Specialty Coffee Association’s standard, you weigh 8.25 g of freshly ground coffee for each 150 ml of water, pour water at about 93 °C, and wait four minutes. You then break the crust that forms on top with a spoon, skim off the foam, and taste the coffee with a spoon as it cools, usually about 10 to 15 minutes after pouring. Slurping spreads the coffee across the palate.

Tasting several cups next to each other makes differences easy to notice. It is how coffee professionals taste, how we tasted on our visit to Costa Rica, and the simplest way to compare any coffees at home.

Monte Romo

Monte Romo is a dark roast. We have not published tasting notes for it yet, because the best notes come from many cups tasted by many people. Request a sample and write your own.