One of the things that I’m really big on is not only standing behind the coffee machine and serving awesome coffee at events, but getting down and dirty with the coffee process. This week the Coffee On Cue team and I were at Industry Beans when we were invited for an impromptu “cupping”. And no, I’m not talking about the massage variety here: more a process of testing and tasting coffee right at the beginning of the roasting production line.
This blog post is about a part of the process of selecting a coffee that is worthy of the roaster to start working with. It also details the systematic approach to quality assurance that Industry Beans take not only for up and coming coffees they may feature, but continued measurement of production roasted coffee—served daily.
There’s a whole heap of effort that goes into getting a cup of coffee into your hands. By the time you get your strong latte with two sugars from the coffee cart, the coffee itself has been on a huge journey (sometimes right around the globe) with different blends having different countries of origin. The amount of hands that the coffee passes through can be vast too. From the farmer to the importer, wholesaler/distributor, the roaster, then the brewer/us!
For the roaster, it all starts with the distributor sending out a bunch of samples for the roaster to “sample”. They’re all roasted in a similar manner (or much in the same as they have been previously from that origin).
After the sample roasting is complete (let’s say five samples), the next day they are taken in for testing. This is done in a session called cupping. In essence it’s where coffee geeks (roasters) gather round and blind taste-test a number of coffees for quality control and R&D purposes.
The overall objective is to score each coffee individually, bearing in mind that the same bean could be on the table twice—just roasted differently i.e. it could be at a higher temperature, a longer duration, etc.
One of the other reasons that it’s important for a roaster to cup is to compare not only the day’s previous roast, but to compare their efforts against previous days and weeks gone by. This is to ensure that production roasts are the best they can possibly be with all of the kinks and variances ironed out.
Finally another interesting (but obvious when it was pointed out to me) reason is to taste each bean and compare it (sometimes mentally) to the previous year’s crop. With weather and the methods of processing being two key factors that can influence the quality and consistency of the crop, it can account for quite a difference.
Imagine a room with little open containers of coffee beans labelled 1-5 broken up into “sampling stations”. At each station there are two small bowls with approximately 15 grams of the sample coffee ground (coarse) in each. And hot water in a third bowl (more about that later).
The idea here is to “score” each of the five samples on a range of different factors to determine what’s a “keeper”. This is done on a scoring sheet on a clipboard broken into two major categories:the scent of the coffee when dry, and the taste of the coffee when brewed.
So it starts, there are four of us in the room: two professional coffee roasters, one barista, and me (the coffee cart guy). I’m well out of my league, but definitely in for the ride.
The first set of testing is all about the scent of the coffee. We test it dry first, then with 200ml of water at 95 degrees Celsius added. After that, our noses are deep in the cup as we disturb the “crema” and agitate it, increasing the aroma all around. The five samples we look at are all from Brazil in today’s cupping with one from a completely different region altogether.
When the water is added is when it really starts to smell like coffee! Black in colour for the liquid and differing across a range of yellows and browns on top for the crema. All along here I’m encouraged to “smell for” different notes/scents I can glean from this initial sniff. Sample one was really earthy in my opinion. It was a little hazelnut-y (funny how I never thought I was ever going to use this kind of terminology).
The group moves around with similar scents from each of the coffees bar one. Sample five is immensely different! It is in fact floral by comparison to any of the other samples. This one has to be the curly one not from Brazil. I write things like apricot, sweet, and floral.
The next step once the coffee is brewed and at a drinkable temperature (around 12 minutes later) we start the cupping itself. It’s like wine tasting. You’re armed with a spoon, a clipboard (a pen in the right ear never hurt anyone), and your tastebuds.
The roaster and co-owner of Industry Beans (Steve) takes the lead. This is the first round, Steve agitates the now-brewed first sample, scoops up a sample of the coffee and puts it to his lips and slurps! Apparently the idea here is to ingest as much coffee in and around your mouth to enhance your sensual experience. Once the coffee is in his mouth Steve swirls it around in his mouth and then spits it out into his “spit cup”.
Each cup is given a score out of five for sweetness, acidity, body, and finish (respectively). It’s a lot to think about when you first have a go at it. My first round is spent tasting different coffees and initially looking to see if I can taste the difference between them (let alone score each coffee on its acidity, body and balance).
After each of the five samples are cupped I start looking at the other score sheets around me.
The roasters in the room have the most notes on their score sheets, with long descriptions about different fruits that they were getting from each cup. I even see tobacco and licorice written for one sample.
Interestingly, as the session progresses so too does the flavour profile of the coffees. As time kicks on some of the samples improve with brew time and others diminish or become sour in aftertaste. Our session goes for around 30-35 minutes in total with each sample now cupped and scored at least 3 times by each of us. Time progresses and samples of the same coffee change rapidly in flavour profile due to temperature. Where some coffees were abrasive they are now sweet, or where some were floral they’re now sour.
By the end of the session it’s time to compare notes, tastes, and generally share what we’ve discovered. This part I really enjoy.
Comparing notes with the other roasters, the three coffees that stand out for me and the rest of the Coffee On Cue team were those that feature in our blend: the Kenyan (Kichwa Tembo), the Brazilian (Nossa Senhora do Carmo) and the Indian (Kelugar Heights). To me I’m not sure if we are pre-programmed for that response or if that was a genuine taste preference. Astonishing nonetheless. Cupping is something that is not for everyone, nor is it something that I want to be doing everyday, but it's certainly a foundation point of appreciation of the craft and the basis of articulation of what is in the cup we serve every day.