A common persons guide to the “perfect cup of coffee”

Author: Scott Best

If you are, you are not alone in that pursuit. According to a recent CBS News report over half of the U.S. population drinks coffee everyday. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 155 million people drinking coffee every day. The U.S. is the largest buyer of coffee of any country in the world. Coffee has Americans hooked. We spend more per capita on coffee then any other country. Coffee is a multi-billion dollar a year business ranging from the largest of coffee importers to the smallest one man coffee vendor wagon on the street.

 Tucked away inside those figures are a large percentage of coffee drinkers that are in search of a new drug. Yes, I called it a drug. Coffee is not just a beverage, it’s a drug. Hundreds of thousands of law abiding citizens are physically addicted to coffee. Our addiction has taken a large percentage of us in search of the perfect cup of coffee. No need to become alarmed by my use of the words of drug and addiction in the same paragraph when talking about coffee. Coffee is an enjoyable beverage world wide which is morally and socially acceptable. For many has turned into a life long passion.

 There are literally thousands of coffee roasters in the United States, touting their blend or roast of a particular bean as the best there is. Who am I to say it isn’t true. There is no way I could possibly try each and every roast of a particular type of coffee from every roasting company to make a true comparison. I am not sure that I would want to.

 All of this leads us back to our title question. Are you enjoying the coffee you drink less these days? Are you one of the millions in search of that perfect cup of coffee? I know I am. So where can it be found and how do we go about finding it? This is a very complex question indeed. There is no simple solution, so be weary because there are many who are unscrupulous in their attempts to sway you to one brand, one roaster, one method of brewing over the other in order to make the sale They want to get your money first.

 As has been said, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Like wise the quest for the perfect cup of coffee is subjective to individual taste. The right blends or fullness of flavor I seek in a cup of coffee may be miles removed from that of someone else. The variables are too great to place a particular distinction on one specific coffee variety, roast or blend and be able to say with positive assertion that it is the best or as close as one will ever come to the perfect cup.

 So then how do we pursue the personal quest of finding the coffee that matches best our palate and fulfills our subjective qualifications of the perfect cup of coffee? I have read copious amounts of professional coffee reviewer’s compilations of words and adjectives they use to describe a particular coffee. Here is an example of a professional review:

 “A rich aroma settled by nut and blackberry notes that deepen resoundingly in the cup, adding hints of tart lemon, red wine, flowers, and Chocolate. Poised and balanced acidity, roundly lavish finish, shimmers of flowers.” Reviews like this for a long time sounded like a bit much to me, kind of over the top. So much so, that for a long time, I just didn’t get it. That was until I started to preform my own tastings or cupping.

 I know I am not as much of a coffee sophisticate as those who write professional reviews about coffee. I would be more prone to simple descriptions, and I am betting the vast majority of the coffee drinking public would agree with me. The language used to describe a cup of coffee in most, but not all, reviews is a bit over the top. Not that we don’t relate to those kinds of descriptive terms, but rather we don’t want to think that hard about how to apply those types of descriptions to a cup of coffee.

 But not to go unnoticed, these people who do cup coffee and do write coffee reviews get paid the big bucks to do so. Having said that, then there must be some validity to the kinds of reviews they give other than the number ratings which most often accompany the reviews.

 Keying on that very thought, I sat out to find a common persons’ way … a less intense way, if you will, to the personal perfect cup of coffee. In doing so, I believe it is necessary to look at and try to understand a bit more about how coffee is graded by these professionals. After all, they have the advantage of hundreds of years of experience to draw from for coffee has been selectively appraised and graded in this method to one degree or another since around the 6^th century.

 The reason it becomes important to understand more about cupping, the way professionals do it, is not to make you into a coffee snob or to set your feet on the road to becoming a professional coffee aficionado. But rather to help you distinguish the characteristics of any particular coffee that you find personally appealing. By virtue of professional reviews already written about a particular coffee roast and or blend you can more quickly and accurately select types, roasts and blends that match your desired taste. This knowledge most certainly will help you once you learn to identify the characteristics you find pleasing about the coffee you now or have in the past enjoyed.

 Most people start their journey on the road to the perfect cup of coffee from the coffee aisle at the local supermarket. From one of those pre-ground pre-packaged nationally advertised brands. Then they try coffee offered by a friend who grinds their own or from a local coffee shop. Finally, they decide they want a better cup of coffee at home.

 The next step is to go out and buy the first whole bean coffee recommended to them or they buy the first whole bean coffee they think sounds good. Then they buy their first coffee grinder. More times than not they buy a blade grinder, because they are A: readily available or B: because they are cheap. Next they go home and make their first pot of fresh ground coffee. They think to themselves at that moment, how much better this coffee, is than what they had been drinking. Of course they are right, it is better, but usually not that perfect cup. They may go for a long time using the same bean, with the same roast, using the same blade grinder until one day they have a reflective thought somewhere along the lines of the title of this article. And the quest begins.

 Now that the quest has begun, where do we begin? Probably the best place to start is to tell you that if you take to heart the information I intend to pass along, you will need to be willing to commit to adding for a period at least, a small amount of effort, time and possibly even money to your coffee experience. Having said that, let us first begin with a few terms which are commonly used in coffee reviews and what they mean.

 Here are some of the terms, and a brief explanation of each. These are some of the common descriptive terms reviewers use to describe different coffees.

• Fruity – having a citrus or berry scent. Many reviewers will actually specify a fruit such as lemon or blackberry rather than just saying fruity.
• Chocolaty – aftertaste similar to unsweetened chocolate. This term can apply not only to taste but to aroma as well. Many coffees can have quite a chocolate aroma to them.
• Fragrant – aroma can range widely from floral to nutty to spicy.
• Dry or Bright – highly acidic leaving a dry aftertaste, sometimes also referred to as being sharp or crisp.
• Mellow – a smooth taste lacking acidity but not dry or flat.
• Caramelly – caramel-like or referring to the aroma or taste of caramelized sugar not burnt.
• Nutty – having hits of aroma or taste similar to roasted nuts.
• Grassy/Herbal – leaning toward the aroma of freshly cut grass or relating to the flavor or fragrance of green herbs.
• Sweet – a lack of harshness usually denotes low acidity when used to describe a specific taste quality.
• Winy – aftertaste remonisant of mature wine.
• Muddy or earthy – having an aroma or fragrant taste that is akin to soil or freshly turned earth, not always a good characteristic for coffee.
• Woody – aroma or hint of flavor that makes one think of aged wood, again not always a favorable trait for coffee.
• Bitter – aftertaste that is probably the easiest to perceive.
• Harsh – caustic, can be used to denote highly acidic coffee or overly roasted coffee.
• Rubbery – a smell of burnt rubber.

 These are just a few of the more common terms used to describe coffee by reviewers. Any or all of them may be used either to describe aroma or flavor due to the fact that olfactory and taste perceptions are so closely tied together.

 With the above descriptive terms in mind, the following can be determined when cupping coffee, and usually addressed in this order.

 

1. Acidity
2. Body
3. Sweetness
4. Finish

Acidity may be the most important aspect of cupping coffee, for most believe that it is though the acidity of the coffee that the most important flavors are delivered. Acidity can be described as anything from flowery to sharp, mellow to bold, tart, edgy wild, mild, elegant or anything in between any of the above. Usually the acidity is evaluated once the coffee has cooled slightly to a warm, not overly hot temperature.

 Body of a coffee is an evaluation of how it feels in the mouth: is it heavy, or light, smooth or watery. If you have a hard time grasping the concept of body, think about what whole milk feels like in the mouth. This would be full or heavy in body, where as water in the mouth would be the other end of the spectrum.

 Sweetness is a very important aspect of how a coffee is judged. Think of it like this if you start out by tasting a lemon directly, it is very tart, almost dislikable. However, if you squeeze the lemon for its tart juice and then slowly add sugar, there comes a point where the sweetness of the sugar combines with the tartness of the lemon to form a favorable and desirable taste that is quite pleasing. The sweetness of a particular coffee is crucial, allowing the other tastes to surface and be appreciated. Even the most acidic coffees can be judged favorably elegant and lush when they contain enough sweetness to allow a good balance of flavor and allow for a fine finish.

 Finish. While it might be true for some things that first impressions are the most important, for coffee it may not be quite as correct. First impressions are powerful, indeed, but it is more often the lingering memory of flavor that remains after the coffee has left the mouth and been swallowed that will aspire a coffee to greatness. A great finish will affirm the quality of flavor for a lengthy period after the coffee is consumed, without transformation, or change in characteristic, almost to the extent of evoking an emotional appreciation.

 Okay, now that you have a better understanding of the type of descriptive language used to describe a coffee cupping, you can cup your own coffees. Side by side and pick out the characteristics you prefer to acquire in a coffee. Here is what you will need. I suggest that you do this with only two different coffees at a time to start.

 Find two distinctly different coffees that you have personally had experience with, even if one of those is the old pre-packaged store brand. One should be as fresh a roast as you can acquire, preferably the coffee you consume at present. If not, then a whole bean from the local coffee emporium you think you might enjoy. The grind of the coffees should be course and as close in that coarseness as possible, but not absolutely necessary for this purpose. It is probably best to stay away from flavored coffees at this point.

 

• You will need two porcelain cups
• Boiling filtered water. (Good clean non-chlorinated filtered water is a must!)
• It is said to use a silver spoon, but if you don’t have one, a regular stainless flatware spoon will work. Do not use plastic or other materials.
• A note pad and pencil

 Place two tablespoons of the first ground coffee in one of the cups and as soon as the water is removed from the boil. Add about 6oz. to that cup. Do not touch the cup. Replace the water to the boil for later use.

 Now notice the coffee in the cup … how dark it is. Gently smell the aroma of the coffee. Make note of it using as closely as you can and as many as you can the descriptors discussed earlier.

 Does it have a chocolate aroma? Is there a discernable fruity or woody aroma, or maybe a flowery or winy characteristic? Trust me … it will have some of them. Chocolate is most commonly noticeable. Do your best, referring to the list of descriptors and check them off one by one if need be, noting that it does or doesn’t have a particular characteristic aroma.

 Once you have given it a good sniffing and marked down what you observe as aroma characteristics, take your spoon and plunge it into the cup all the way to the bottom. As you do, again gather an aroma sampling. When you break the surface of the coffee in the cup, the most intense aromatics will be released at this point. Now the once hidden subtle aroma traits may become very apparent.

 Now the grounds will begin to settle to the bottom of the cup. In about two minutes or so it will be cool enough to begin the taste test. Filling your spoon with the coffee from the cup, press it to your lips and slurp it back into your throat, but don’t swallow it. You want to add as much air as possible to release the aromatics of flavor as it covers the tongue.

 Hold the coffee in your mouth and make your observations as to the body, acidy and sweetness of the coffee. Again, you can use the descriptors mentioned here as a guide. Most don’t recommend that you swallow the coffee, rather to purge and savor. I swallow and as I am reflecting on what I have just sampled, I can record my observations, letting my thoughts flow on how the coffee finished: was it memorable 15 seconds or so later or is the taste that lingers bitter and unworthy of further pursuit?

 The last thing one should record is your passion remarks … meaning did you like it? Ask: was it good? was it great or is it a pass?

 Once you cup your two coffees and recorded your findings, you will have a list. Although it might be a short one, of coffee characteristics from at least one coffee you like. The list will probably one you don’t like or enough information at least to discern which qualities make one better then the other.

 Armed with this small bit of information you are now equipped to begin your quest for that perfect cup of coffee. By reading reviews on coffee already compiled on the internet, or in magazines from professional coffee connoisseurs you can begin to pick coffees which will more likely be the type and quality you are leaning toward. With each new purchase of coffee, you need but cup it once to determine which traits it has you like, and those you don’t. Then move on from that, adding the individual traits to the list, being able to make better selections with each new coffee you add to your cupping information base.

 Who knows, you may make it a new life pursuit, as many have, or you may do as I do. I find a coffee that suits me for a season, then when I tire of it and feel the need for a new coffee experience I look for a coffee with one more desirable trait, and enjoy it then for a season as well. I don’t progress very fast toward the ultimate goal, but I do enjoy life along the way. My love of fine coffee is one indulgence I allow myself, one that I love to share experience with others.

 I have a select group of friends who are lovers of coffee as well. When I find a new coffee that suites my taste, I can’t wait to share and tell them about it so they might have the experience as well.

 Later on we will discuss the importance of proper grinding and brewing techniques and how greatly they impact the overall flavor experience. Who knows, someday you or I may just find that perfect cup of coffee.

 

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