Coffee is a favorite at DAPs Magic and also Geeks Corner. Anyone who has watched Geeks Corner through the years or has followed me on instagram knows… I love coffee. On Geeks Corner, we invited barista Caitie to share with us about how to taste coffee. She brought with her Komodo Dragon coffee and gave a few tips for tasting coffee in a segment we are calling Coffee Tasting 101.
Here are a few simple steps to help you enjoy your coffee more as you do your coffee tasting:
- Smell the coffee – cup the coffee with your hand and get a sniff!
- Slurp the coffee – Yup, make some noise and slurp away! It’ll help get the coffee throughout the different parts of your mouth and help with the next step.
- Locate – Locate the different tastes of coffee in the different parts of your mouth.
- Describe – There are many different flavors or descriptions that can be used to describe coffee tasting. Here are a few things to consider:
- Aroma
- This is the bitter and/or sweet tones, fruit, flower or herbal notes etc
- Acidity
- This is the brightness, dryness of the coffee that brings it to life.
- Body
- This is the weight and texture of the coffee. The body can be light and delicate or heavy and resonant or even thin and disappointing. The texture of the body can be smooth, silky, thin, syrupy, lean, or other adjective of your choice! ;)
- Flavor & Aftertaste
- Flavor & aftertaste allows the taster to dig in deeper to the subtle nuances of the coffee. This is where you can evaluate the balance of sweet, sour, and bitterness. This is where ones vocabulary really gets to be utilized. These can be described utilizing associations with fruits, flowers, senses, feelings, or other descriptive phrases. Do not forget to take time and consider the aftertaste in the same manner!
- Aroma
As you taste your coffee, also experiment with how it tastes when paired with other flavors. For this lesson, Caitie brought croissants that paired beautifully with the Komodo Dragon.
Coffee Tasting is as much an art-form as a science. As with anything like this, it all comes down to practice. Go out and taste some coffee regularly and discover what you like and also what you dislike. Then let us know about your experiences in the comments section below! Then stay tuned to DAPs Magic and Geeks Corner as we dig in deeper to the world of coffee tasting in the future!
