Coffee Connoisseur: What Are the 4 Key Elements of Coffee Tasting?

Photo: NATHAN MULLET / Unsplash

Coffee tasting, or cupping as it’s known by many a coffee connoisseur, is the practice of tasting coffee to better understand its nuances beyond a surface level. To do so, certain key elements must be evaluated: aroma, flavor, acidity, and body.

Cupping should not be practiced on cheaper coffee brands because they simply aren’t complex enough to offer much beyond their initial uninspiring flavors. Coffee tasting should be conducted on high-end coffee beans so you gain a better understanding of what makes a great cup. To that end, we’ve broken down the four key elements of coffee tasting to help you become a true coffee connoisseur.

1. Aroma

Aroma is how your sense of smell perceives the coffee scent. It’s a precursor to taste since taste is heavily influenced by smell. If you can, smell the coffee beans or fresh coffee grounds before brewing. World-class coffee roasters produce delectable-smelling beans that give you a clue as to what the coffee will smell like once it’s brewed.

Coffee scents can be nutty, flowery, fruity, spicy, earthy, citrusy, or herbal. Before taking that first sip of a high-end coffee, take a moment to sniff and analyze the different scents it offers, and then notice how these scents influence the way it tastes.

2. Flavor

As you take your first sip of coffee, try to pick out the individual flavors you taste. Coffee can have a plethora of undernotes, including floral, citrus, cinnamon, herbal, earthy, chocolate, spicy, berry, butter, smokey, nutty, sour, and sweet. It can be difficult for the untrained palate to discern flavor from scent since they’re so closely intertwined, but following the steps below can help you notice a coffee’s unique flavors:

1. Take a small sip with your mouth slightly open to allow air to enter with the liquid.
2. Let the liquid swirl about your tongue.
3. Pay attention to the initial and aftertaste flavors as they combine to create the brew’s unique flavor.

3. Acidity

All coffee is acidic. Coffee can contain many different types of acid, but when cupping, you aren’t really looking for the type of acidity a brew has but the feeling it leaves behind in your mouth because of its acidity. The coffee might be bright and tart, dry and sweet, or oily and bitter.

Acidity is often challenging for the novice coffee taster to discern. More acidic blends offer a full flavor experience with sour, sweet, or bright notes, whereas less acidic coffees allow other flavors to shine, such as floral or smokey notes.

4. Body

The body of a coffee refers to its feel in your mouth. Coffee can be full, light, or lacking body. While no coffee is 100% no-bodied, the term is used to describe thinner, flatter brews. Coffee-tasting connoisseurs often use terms such as full, thick, light, watery, viscous, syrupy, oily, and silky to describe the body of the coffee they are tasting.

Cupping isn’t a skill that’s mastered overnight. You must practice tasting and understanding the high-end coffee you purchase to gain a better appreciation and enjoyment of the brew. If you’re looking to create a great cup of Joe and enjoy it to the fullest, you should commit to coffee-tasting daily.

Coffee tasting isn’t just for coffee snobs. Anyone can learn to discern the complexities of a good cup of coffee. Remember, coffee has many unique notes of flavor and aroma that most drinkers don’t notice, but taking the time to analyze the brews you’re consuming will deliver a better coffee-drinking experience.