Use the latest version
This article has been superseded, use the updated and enhanced version.
This guide is best read with a cup of coffee. Ideally, brew a distinctive, single-estate coffee. This framework works across all brewing methods, but we’ll assume you’re drinking filter coffee. You’ll also need a copy of the Coffee Tasting Assessment Sheet. And it helps to view the Coffee Aroma Map and Coffee Flavour Wheel.
Coffee preparation
- Brew at least 250 ml of filter coffee to SCA standards, using around 60 grams of ground coffee per litre of water.
- Serve the coffee in a glass tumbler to assess colour and transparency. A white porcelain cup is also acceptable. Place the tumbler on a light surface (a white tablecloth or sheet of paper works well if your tabletop is dark or textured).
- Begin tasting once the coffee cools to 75°C (you can assess the visual characteristics while the brew is hotter). Finish before it drops below 50°C.
Coffee Assessment
External
Visual Appearance
What colour is the brew? How transparent is it?
Brewed coffees range in hue: some are reddish, others yellowish or greenish. Transparency varies too. Some brews are completely opaque; others let the light pass through.
Consider
• How do colour and opacity shape your expectations of aroma, mouthfeel and flavour?
Aromas
What does the coffee smell like?
Use the Coffee Aroma Map to identify key primary aromas. Primary aromas should be distinct and readily identifiable.
Are there specific second-tier aromas? For example, does a strawberry note smell ripe or unripe?
Do aromas combine into compound aromas? For example, do a strawberry and vegetative note evoke a strawberry patch? Does strawberry plus sweetness suggest jam?
Specialty coffees should have at least one readily-identifiable, distinct aroma from the top loop and from the bottom loop. Better coffees benefit from a greater number of distinct aromas.
Consider
• Do aroma and colour correlate, or diverge, noticeably?
• How does the aroma shape your expectations of the flavour?
Imbibe
Coffee’s flavour evolves as it cools. Different compounds volatilise at different temperatures. Many coffees are easier to taste – and more expressive – below 70°C. We recommend tasting between 50°C and 75°C to reflect real-world drinking experiences.
Mouthfeel
How does the coffee feel in your mouth? Is it light, medium or heavy?
Does it have a distinctive texture? For example is it effervescence, viscous or astringent?
The coffee’s body can be categorised as light, medium or heavy. The ‘weight’ is important when it is notable. For example, is the coffee particularly, or unexpectedly, light or heavy?
Some coffees have a distinctive feel on the palate, this is typically called ‘texture’. For example, some coffees have lightly sparkling sensation, despite not being carbonated. Others are particularly syrupy on the inside of your mouth and can be labelled as viscous. Texture describes only the feel. For example, a coffee could be both light bodied and viscous.
Astringency, where the coffee makes your mouth feel dry, is often mislabelled as ‘dry’, which is a wine term referring to lack of sweetness. Coffee tasters should use the term ‘astringency’ to avoid consumer confusion.
Mouthfeel is a critical, yet under-appreciated, quality. Even consumers with limited tasting experience instinctively respond to it. People generally prefer a soft, silky or viscous mouthfeels and dislike thin or astringent brews.
Consider
• Is mouthfeel aligned with colour or aroma?
• Is the mouthfeel pleasant?
Taste
Which basic tastes are present? Is the coffee balanced?
There are just five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. These attributes are detected on the tongue.
Acids are present in all coffees and are perceived as sour and all coffees have some bitterness. Well-roasted coffees have some sweetness. Saltiness is rare. Umami is becoming more common with the increased prevalence of fermentation processing methods.
If you are struggling to distinguish between bitterness and sourness, swirl the coffee around your mouth, swallow, then look at your feet and open your mouth. If saliva would drip out, it’s acidity.
Consider
• Is there a correlation between aroma and taste?
• Are the tastes harmoniously balanced?
Flavours
What are this coffee’s defining flavours?
Use the Coffee Flavour Wheel to identify key primary flavours. Good coffees have at least one readily identifiable flavours; great coffees often have four or more.
Are there more specific second-tier flavours? For example, might a peach flavour be unripe or ripe? Or even a particular variety?
Do flavours and tastes combine into compound impressions? Might cocoa plus sweetness evoke chocolate?
Do flavours linger? A long, pleasant finish is more tasty.
Don’t overreach for flavours. If a note is faint or dull, it’s not worth recording. It’s best to only log attributes you’d want reflected in final tasting notes.
Consider
• Do colour, aroma and flavour align?
• Are tastes and flavours aligned? For example, is there proportionate sweetness and sourness with the key flavours?
• If not, is the divergence still somehow pleasing?
Defining ‘Tasty’
Some coffees taste better than others. Using the characterises you’ve identified, you can understand why by considering three qualities:
Mouthfeel
A pleasant mouthfeel has appropriate weight and is free of unpleasant textures. Some common pleasant textures include silky and viscous. The mouthfeel should also align with taste. For example, astringency is quite common in coffee and is typically unpleasant; it is only agreeable when it aligns with a pleasant and harmonious bitterness.
Balance
Pleasant tasting coffees have a harmonious balance between two or more tastes. The balance might be between any of bitterness, sourness, saltiness, sweetness and umami.
The tastes don’t need to be of equal intensity, but they must work together and the dominant tastes should be supported by aligned flavours to be perceived as pleasant. A useful rule of thumb is that good coffees balance at least two tastes; great coffees balance at least three.
Alignment
When mouthfeel, taste and flavour align with one another, the coffee is easier to appreciate.
Is the intensity of the sweetness correlated with the intensity of flavours that are naturally sweet? And are the acids, and their intensity, aligned with their natural flavours? It’s odd to detect malic acid, for example, and not have fruit flavours such as apples or peaches. Alignment applies to all dominant tastes.
The better aligned a coffee is, as a general rule of thumb, the tastier it is. Delicious coffees almost always benefit from a strong alignment, especially between taste and flavour.
Complexity
The more distinct aromas and flavours a coffee has, the more interesting, and usually the more tasty, the coffee is. High-quality coffees often also benefit from a long finish.
As a rule of thumb, good coffees have at least two readily identifiable aromas and flavours. Great tasting coffee have many more.
Thinking about tastiness
Despite all the aroma and flavour possibilities, tasty coffees share three traits: a pleasant mouthfeel, a harmonious balance of tastes and good ‘alignment’ between the taste and the flavour. Once this baseline criteria is met, complexity adds to the tastiness.
By contrast, coffees with no distinct flavours, or flavours that are not on the Coffee Flavour Wheel, are either inadequately tasty or unpleasant.
The trickiest coffees to appreciate are complex, well-balanced, but poorly aligned coffees. Some are delicious; many are disgusting; and even high scoring ones are often not liked by consumers. To understand what’s going on we need to examine coffee drinkers’ expectations.
Understanding Expectations
People drink coffee with various ‘expectations’. There are three distinct expectations. Some customers have fixed expectations, others change their expectation by occasion and others are willing to be led by an informed coffee communicator.
It is important to match a consumer with a suitable coffee, because what they are really looking for is ‘satisfaction’. In fact, much of the time, ‘satisfaction’ is more important to consumers than ‘quality’.
Comforting
These drinkers want reassurance and often value routine. Steer them toward sweet, low-acidity coffees with pleasant body and good alignment. Many comforting coffees have a heavier, pleasant mouthfeel and feature aromas and flavours from the centre and bottom of the Coffee Aroma Map and Coffee Flavour Wheel.
Classic
This group seeks clarity and recognisability. They happily enjoy coffees with a wide range of tastes and flavours, but the tastes must be well-balanced have good alignment with the flavours. Some classic coffees are basic and some can be very sophisticated. These coffee drinkers often appreciate textbook examples of known origins; equally, most quality archetypical coffees have evolved to be well-aligned.
Curious
Curious drinkers seek novelty. They enjoy surprises and appreciate coffees that challenge their preconceptions. While the majority of these coffees are well-aligned, this is the only segment of coffee drinkers that takes satisfaction in complex, well-balanced, but poorly-aligned coffees.
Matching expectations
As a coffee communicator, it’s important to clearly convey flavours and set up expectations so consumers can navigate towards coffees that they find pleasurable. And if you sell coffee, it’s useful to be able to identify consumers’ expectations.
Additionally, when assessing a coffee, you must be impartial. Be aware that your own expectations will shape how ‘tasty’ you think a coffee is. Part of the skill of a coffee taster is to consider each coffee from the perspective of your customers. Appraising a coffee from comfort, classic and curious expectations is useful for understanding its appeal.
Assessing Quality
Of course, some coffees are more tasty than others. For simplicity, we suggest dividing specialty coffees into four grades: good, very good, excellent and outstanding.
Good
Fault-free, well-roasted coffee with balanced taste and basic alignment between taste and flavour. Should have at least two readily identifiable aromas or flavours. *
Very good
Multiple aromas and flavours, plus good alignment between mouthfeel, taste and flavour. Less well-aligned coffees can included if they have notable aroma, mouthfeel or flavour qualities that more-than-compensate. This also approximates the minimum grade of coffee a barista would wish to drink as a filter coffee.
Excellent
Distinctive, balanced, multi-flavoured coffees that are well-aligned.
Outstanding
Complex array of aromas and flavours, a harmonious balance of tastes and generally with excellent alignment across mouthfeel, taste and flavour. You’d wholeheartedly share a cup with someone who loves coffee.
Assess in prose, campaign in poetry
Assessing coffee is easier with an open mind and a clear-eyed appraisal. Coffee tasters can build their mental catalogue of colours, aromas, mouthfeel and flavours, enabling them to better see each coffee in context. Tasting is a skill that gets stronger with practice.
In the next article, we’ll explore how to write effective, evocative tasting notes. But first, take a break and change locations if you can. Tasting and writing are different skills – and demand different states of mind.
Writing tasting notes is a creative act. It’s an opportunity to invoke emotion, trigger memories and deploy storytelling to turn the reader into a buyer. It’s also great fun. But to be effective, your tasting notes must always be grounded in accuracy.
