Have you ever wondered why coffee roasters slurp coffee so loudly from a spoon? It's not a lack of manners; it's actually the most precise way to evaluate coffee. Welcome to the world of cupping.
Cupping is the universal language of the coffee industry. It's the method we use to quality-assure beans, detect defects, and articulate the complex flavor profiles that make each coffee unique. Best of all? You don't need to be a certified "Q-grader" to do it. It works just as well at home in your kitchen as it does in a coffee shop.
Why cupping, specifically?
When we brew coffee, whether it's with an AeroPress or a V60, the result is affected by filters, pouring technique, and equipment. With cupping, we strip away all these variables. The coffee steeps directly in the cup, and we taste the raw product exactly as it is.
To set up a proper tasting table, we recommend the following equipment:
- The coffee: Preferably 4-7 days after roasting. Grind it finely, similar to V60.
- Typica cupping bowls: It's important to have equal volume (approx. 2 dl) so all cups are comparable.
- Typica cupping spoons: A good spoon is deep enough to hold enough liquid for a perfect slurp.
- Kettle: Fellow Clyde is our favorite for cupping. It's powerful, holds 1.5 liters, and has a wide spout that pours quickly, which is critical when filling many bowls simultaneously.
- Scale and stopwatch: Without control of time, you lose control of flavor.
Step-by-step process
- Weigh out the coffee (approx. 12g per 2dl water) and place it in the bowls. Start by smelling the dry, freshly ground coffee. Is it floral, nutty, or perhaps dark and spicy? This is your first encounter with the coffee's character.
- Pour water at approx. 96°C over the coffee. Fill the bowls to the brim and start the clock. Let the coffee steep undisturbed for 4 minutes. A "crust" of coffee grounds will form on top.
- After 4 minutes, use the spoon to break the surface. Gently push the grounds back three times while bending down to smell. This is where you get the most intense aroma profile.
- Use two spoons to remove the foam and floating residues. Now comes the hardest part: the waiting. The coffee is far too hot to taste yet. Wait until the coffee has cooled down a bit (4-6 minutes). It's only when the coffee approaches body temperature that the true flavors and sweetness emerge.
- Fill the spoon and quickly slurp the coffee into your mouth with a good slurp. The goal is to atomize the coffee across your entire tongue and to the back of your palate.
Taste: Think about the balance. Is it sweet, acidic, or bitter?
Mouthfeel: Does the coffee feel light like tea, or does it have a heavier, creamy texture?
Contactless cupping
After the pandemic, we've changed our cupping routine here at the facility when we have many people or guests. To avoid contamination and bacterial transmission, especially during flu season, we now conduct what we call contactless cupping.
Instead of slurping directly from the cupping spoon, we use the spoon only to retrieve coffee from the bowl. This is then poured into a separate small cup, such as a Hario V60 Mini Tasting Cup or a small espresso cup. This way, all participants can taste the same samples in a completely safe manner. This also makes it much easier to organize cuppings for larger groups and customers.
Make an event out of it
Cupping is social. For those of you who run a café or roastery, this is an excellent way to invite customers on a "flavor journey." It's low-threshold, educational, and puts coffee at the center.
If you have a cupping table with 5 different coffees, you can present a wide range of coffee characteristics.
- Washed Central/South America (light roast)
- Natural Processed Brazil (light roast)
- Washed Kenya (light roast)
- Natural Processed Ethiopia (light roast)
- Espresso blend (dark roast)
Arrange the cups so that the least intense coffees are early on the table. It's often good to place the more elegant, typically wet-processed coffees early in the tasting, while the more "funky" processing methods (natural, anaerobic fermented, etc.) follow. You can finish with dark roasts and espresso. If you start with an intense or dark coffee, it can easily overwhelm the more elegant notes in many cups.
Also, remember that there is no right or wrong answer during a cupping; it's all about your experience of the coffee. And this will likely change over time with experience.
A tip: The fun Hario mini tasting cups are perfect for small samples or as part of contactless cupping. The notebooks 33 cups of coffee are perfect for jotting down observations.
Ready to organize a cupping? Ask your coffee supplier if they can help.
You can find the equipment you need at typica.no here.