Info
About Us
  • Who we are and why we do what we do.
  • How we approach our work.
  • Latest United Baristas news
  • Our coffee shop partnership at King's Cross, London.
  • Recent updates and improvements to United Baristas Services.
  • How people and business use United Baristas.
Articles
Articles
  • Our unique blend of thought-provoking ideas & actionable information.
  • Explore all articles in chronological order.
  • Listen to the latest articles, wherever you get your podcasts.
  • Explore articles from across United Baristas by theme.
  • Follow the development of topics across articles with series.
Community
Connect
  • Explore upcoming United Baristas events.
  • Most weeks Tim opens his office door so coffee people can ask him pretty much anything.
  • Insights, information and encouragement for coffee people. Direct to your inbox.
  • Set up and manage email and notification options.
Industry
Action
Services
Our Services
  • Find people, companies and brands from across the community
  • Identify suaible coffee equipment for your business, plus how to source & service it
  • Join the coffee community at these events
  • Spread payments on new coffee equipment
  • Coffee jobs for people
  • Buy & sell directly with other baristas
  • Purchase coffee equipment from United Baristas, plus merchandise
Support & Contact
Support
  • Tips for using United Baristas.
  • Step-by-step guides for using United Baristas Services, plus contact Support.
  • Press information, resources and media requests.
  • Here’s how to get in touch with United Baristas.
Latest Article
Identifying coffee's distinctive flavours
Reinventing the wheel
Coffee tasting notes are broken because the SCA’s Flavour Wheel is incoherent. We need a new framework that’s accurate, intuitive and grounded in how people actually perceive flavour.
Articles
News
Ideas into action
Let’s meet for coffee at Ensemble
United Baristas is transforming a coffee shop in King's Cross, London. It'll host our events and be a testbed for ideas.
News
Ideas
Identifying coffee's distinctive flavours
Reinventing the wheel
Coffee tasting notes are broken because the SCA’s Flavour Wheel is incoherent. We need a new framework that’s accurate, intuitive and grounded in how people actually perceive flavour.
View
Leaders
The industry’s golden anniversary highlights the need for better market data
Specialty coffee has succeeded, so what’s next for the industry?
50 years on, specialty coffee’s founding ambitions have been realised. As the industry identifies new goals, it stands at a crossroads. Better market data would illuminate the path forward.
View
Guides
Assessing coffee
How to taste coffee: A guide for baristas, roasters and coffee drinkers
Tasting coffee isn’t hard, but doing it well requires a clear structure and an impartial appraisal. With this guide, you’ll learn how to identify a coffee's defining characteristics and understand why some coffees are tastier than others. Brew a single-estate coffee – and let’s begin.
View
Explainers
Ending the sugar rush
Coffee, no sugar please 
Unlike the chains, specialty coffee has dramatically reduced the sugar intake of its customers. Further reductions can increase margins, reduce emissions and enhance health.
View
Services
United Baristas is a suite of interconnected services
Each service connects the specialty coffee community and helps baristas and business do amazing things.
Services
Coffee Tasting
The Coffee Tasting Framework is accurate, intuitive and grounded in how people actually perceive flavour. It will equip you to identify a coffee’s defining characteristics, appreciate its appeal and identify the coffee drinkers that will enjoy it.
Coffee Tasting Framework
Services

Connecting the community

Coffee Events

Be empowered & inspired

Equipment

Source & service coffee equipment

Finance

Boost productivity, pay later

Jobs

Connecting people with coffee jobs

Marketplace

Buy & sell directly with other baristas

Directory

Coffee businesses & people

Store

Equipment & merchandise
Articles

Thought-provoking ideas & actionable information

Identifying coffee's distinctive flavours

Reinventing the wheel

Coffee tasting notes are broken because the SCA’s Flavour Wheel is incoherent. We need a new framework that’s accurate, intuitive and grounded in how people actually perceive flavour.
Audio
Assessing coffee

How to taste coffee: A guide for baristas, roasters and coffee drinkers

Tasting coffee isn’t hard, but doing it well requires a clear structure and an impartial appraisal. With this guide, you’ll learn how to identify a coffee's defining characteristics and understand why some coffees are tastier than others. Brew a single-estate coffee – and let’s begin.
Communicating coffee's flavours

How to write coffee tasting notes that sell, guide and delight

Tasting notes are simultaneously marketing copy to encourage sales, a promise to the consumer and a translation of a sensory experience into a narrative. Good tasting notes typically combine factual information and accurate descriptors combined with evocative descriptions.
Ending the sugar rush

Coffee, no sugar please 

Unlike the chains, specialty coffee has dramatically reduced the sugar intake of its customers. Further reductions can increase margins, reduce emissions and enhance health.
Coffee Tasting framework

Better communicate coffee's distinctive flavours

Systematically assess colour, aroma, mouthfeel, taste and flavour to understand why some coffees are tastier than others.
Indentify each coffee's defining characteristics with the Coffee Assessment Sheet. Plus learn how to communicate each coffee's distinctive flavours and write tasting notes that sell, guide and delight. 
Coffee Tasting Framework
Action

Building a viable and vibrant industry

United Baristas started as a project to keep used coffee equipment in use for its full working life. Today, our suite of services are used by much of the specialty coffee community and our work extends from crop to cup.

Community

Join United Baristas

Use United Baristas

United Baristas connects the coffee community. Discover how our Services can support your objectives.  

Our Services

Join Us

Not yet part of the United Baristas community?
Find out how United Baristas helps coffee people to do amazing things.

Join United Baristas
Sustainability
We are working with like-minded baristas and coffee companies to equip the industry to acheive the UN's 17 sustainability goals.
Sustainable Development
Industry Viability
Our services support commercial viability, plus we're working to boost industry acumen and enhance market efficiency to help coffee businesses trade viably.
Supporting commercial viability
Management & Leadership
Drawing on research, over a decade of coffee experience and extensive industry networks, we helping coffee people better manage their teams and business.
Boosting management
People & Community
Work in coffee is both rewarding and fulfilling. We're exploring the community's experience to support meaningful jobs and share employment opportunities.
People & community
Climate Change
Our work to cut coffee’s carbon footprint continues. Key changes can viably reduce a cup's carbon footprint by over 50 percent. Plus, we're cutting our own emissions.
Tackling climate change