Coffee Tasting Framework
Free resources for tasting coffee, identifying its distinctive characteristics and writing clearer tasting notes.
The Coffee Tasting Framework
Identify and communicate each coffee’s defining characteristics
The Coffee Tasting Framework helps coffee drinkers, baristas and roasters identify coffee’s defining characteristics and apprecaite its appeal.
- Identify each coffee’s defining characteristics
- Appreciate why some coffees are tastier than others
- Understand the coffee drinkers who will find the coffee appealing
The Coffee Tasting Sheet provides step-by-step guidance for identifying a coffee’s defining characteristics. Plus, use the Aroma Map and Flavour Wheel to identify what makes each coffee unique.
Purpose
We need to better match coffees with coffee drinkers
Coffee drinkers face an overwhelming number of choices, and tasting notes are often the main information available when deciding what to buy.
Current tasting notes are frequently vague, misleading or full of promises that do not help people choose coffee with confidence.
The Coffee Tasting Framework is accurate because it is grounded in how people actually taste. It equips roasters, baristas and coffee drinkers to identify each coffee's defining characteristics and appreciate its appeal.
By better matching coffees with coffee drinkers, the coffee industry can de-risk consumer buying decisions, empower them to try new coffees and maximise the value of each coffee by selling it to coffee drinkers that value it.
Step-by-step
Coffee Tasting Sheet
Your guide to identifying coffee's defining characteristics.
Systematically assess colour, aroma, mouthfeel, taste and flavour to understand why some coffees are tastier than others. There are many aroma and flavour combinations, but tasty coffees share three attributes: a pleasant mouthfeel, a harmonious balance of tastes and strong alignment between taste and flavour.
Use the Coffee Tasting Sheet to identify a coffee's defining characteristics, appreciate its appeal and identify the coffee drinkers that will enjoy it.
Understand Aroma
Coffee Aroma Map
Navigate coffee's beguiling aromas
Use the Coffee Aroma Map to navigate the 101 most common aromas. Each aroma is grouped by category and organised by its dominant aromatic compound. The categories form two loops that combine to create a figure eight.
Explore Flavour
Coffee Flavour Wheel
Identify coffee's distinctive flavours
The Coffee Flavour Wheel groups the 73 most-common flavour descriptors into 14 easy-to-use categories. Each flavour label is naturally occurring and adjacent to similar flavours. It is designed to make tasting notes and coffee communications clearer and more consistent.
Pre-order • Dispatches 1 October 2026
The coffee drinker's guide to enjoying coffee
The Coffee Tasting Handbook is a practical guide to understanding coffee’s aroma, mouthfeel, taste and flavour.
Follow its step-by-step approach to identify what makes each coffee distinctive, understand why you enjoy it and describe it clearly.
Masterclass
Discover each coffee's defining characteristics
Our 90-minute class takes you through coffee tasting techniques so you can systematically assess aroma, mouthfeel, taste and flavour.
Apprecaite why some coffees are tastier than others and understand why you like some coffees more than others. We'll explore coffees from a range of origins, varieties and process methods. Suitable for baristas and coffee drinkers of all levels. Places are limited and booking is essential.
Articles
Specialty coffee is very, very tasty
Exploring how the industry can better communicate speciality coffee’s distinct and vibrant flavours.
Introducing the Coffee Tasting Framework
United Baristas wants to kickstart a community-wide conversation on how we can better communicate coffee's distinctive flavours. Better tasting notes are fundamental for the industry’s viable future. More accurate communication can empower consumers and support specialty coffee’s price premium.
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.
Guide
Write tasting notes that sell, guide and delight
Tasting notes are simultaneously marketing copy, a promise to the drinker and a translation of a sensory experience into a narrative.
Assessing a coffee and writing tasting notes are two completely different skills. This guide takes you through each tasting note component and provides the tools for you to develop your own style and format.
Action
Better communicating coffee's distinctive flavours
It’s coffee drinkers that pay specialty coffee’s price premium and there’s significant room for the industry to improve how it matches coffee with consumers’ expectations.
United Baristas sees better tasting notes as mission-critical. Without consumers being willing to pay a larger price premium for delicious coffee, it’s difficult to see how specialty coffee will have the financial resources to meet its social and environmental objectives, let alone navigate the challenges of the coming decades.
It's time for a flavour revolution.
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