[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Intro” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n
Having \u201cgood taste\u201d in coffee is a little different from, say, having good taste in art. For coffee-industry professionals who are doing high-risk sourcing, buying, or selling of beans (either green or roasted), it simply doesn\u2019t cut the mustard to toss around the old line: \u201cI don\u2019t know much, but I know what I like.\u201d<\/strong> That\u2019s the average consumers\u2019 job: To focus solely on seeking out and enjoying flavors that are pleasant to them, without any concern about whether they are being objective. The objective stuff, well, that\u2019s our<\/em> job, right?<\/p>\n At Cafe Imports, we are especially curious about how tasting works: Is that really<\/em> nuts we\u2019re tasting in that Brazil, and if so, well\u2026 why? And if I\u2019m tasting peanuts and you\u2019re tasting almonds, is that close enough or is one of us off-base? How do we know?? Good grief, we thought coffee was supposed to be easy.<\/p>\n Being able to identify and describe the flavors in coffee is a significant part of what we do every day: Accuracy in tasting allows us to source coffees that fit our standards and mission, and it also allows us to accurately describe a coffee\u2019s full potential to our roaster clients, who need that information in order to make their buying and profiling decisions.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.86″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/IMG_2895.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.86″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/IMG_3118.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.86″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/IMG_3145.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”What was the Flavor Station?” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n Knowing that we spend so much time thinking about taste, analysis, and calibration, we wonder what other coffee tasters\u2014everyone from farmers to exporters, green-coffee buyers, roasters, and baristas\u2014experience and understand flavor. Probably every one of us has been at a coffee tasting where listening to other people describe the coffees on the table made us go, \u201cUh\u2026is everyone else faking it, or am I?\u201d<\/p>\n This year at SCA Expo, we wanted to have a little fun with flavor, while also gathering data about a (very) random sample of coffee professionals in order to continue asking ourselves about our competency as tasters, and how we can improve\u2014both within our ranks at Cafe Imports, of course, but also how we can help others improve, especially the folks we work with all along the supply chain.<\/strong><\/p>\n For the three days of SCA Expo 2018 in Seattle, we set up a Flavor Station<\/strong><\/span> at the Cafe Imports booth, with different things to taste each day. The idea was to offer show-goers an opportunity to stop for just a minute, taste something other<\/em> than coffee for a change of pace, and maybe get a small sense of what we are doing when we taste coffee in the cupping lab\u2014something a bit more nuanced and hopefully more constructive and practical than a simple \u201cLoved it,\u201d \u201cHated it.\u201d<\/p>\n Below is a quick summary of each day\u2019s tasting experience, as well as how well we did, collectively. At the bottom of the post, there is information about how the tasting stations were created: Feel free to use this type of exercise to test, teach, and calibrate with your colleagues or employees. It\u2019s easy, fun, and it can be extremely insightful for everyone.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_divider=”on” color=”#000000″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Day 1 instructions” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n Starting off with the basics seemed like the best way to ease into a long weekend of taste overload, and we also wanted to establish a base expectation for how easily most of the participants could identify the five primary tastes: Sweet, salty, sour, bitter and savory.<\/strong><\/p>\n We mixed up six solutions, each one representing the individual tastes. (Sour was represented twice, as it can express itself differently, as tart citric acid, for instance, or pungent acetic acid.) The solutions were unlabeled and, for the most part, colorless: Participants weren\u2019t given any visual clues to guide their experience, and were handed a card with boxes to check\u2014which of these tastes does each solution contain?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.86″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-23-at-8.47.20-AM.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Day 1 results” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n Tabulating the results the next day was eye-opening: Salty and Sour (Acetic) were the only two tastes that were nearly unanimously identified correctly, with 34 out of 35 participants each. Sweet was a close runner-up, with 88 percent of the respondents correct. Two people actually marked the solution, which was just a mixture of simple syrup and purified water, as Bitter, and another said it was Savory.<\/p>\n Bitter was the taste that baffled the most people.<\/strong>\u00a0Only 53 percent of folks got it correctly, with 19 percent confusing it for Sweet and 22 percent for Savory. Since bitterness is one of the most important (and most divisive) elements that make coffee taste like, well, coffee, we were especially interested in those results, especially the seemingly somewhat consistent confusion of Bitter with Sweet. Curious!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_divider=”on” color=”#000000″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Day 2 instructions” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n To build on Day 1\u2019s seemingly simplistic exploration of isolated primary tastes, we took the solutions and blended them in equal parts for Day 2, asking tasters to identify which two tastes were present in each solution. There were only two tastes per solution, but the exercise was noticeably more difficult, if only gauged by how long people lingered over each one. (Which is also really saying something, because none of the solutions tasted very good!)<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.86″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Day-2-Screenshot.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Day 2 results” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n Ultimately, out of 65 tasters, only two identified all of the combinations correctly\u2014only two!\u2014and again it seems like Bitter was one of the things that threw folks for a loop. The two solutions that contained Bitterness had the lowest success rate in the exercise, again with Sweet and Savory being the most common mistaken choices instead.<\/strong> Curiouser and curiouser!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_divider=”on” color=”#000000″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Day 3 instructions” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n Of course the last day of Expo needs to be a doozy, right? Now that we had laid the foundation for attendee\u2019s palates to be expanded and their taste buds challenged on simple tastes, we wanted things to get even more complicated. Using purified drinking water and a handful of pungent essential oils, we made five colorless, textureless solutions, each one containing the flavor of something that we often use when we describe coffee: apricot, lemon, black currant (ah, classic Kenya), chocolate and, believe it or not, coffee!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.86″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Day-3-screenshot.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Day 3 results” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n Again, we were amazed at the results: Three out of 34 respondents got all of them right (or, frankly, came close enough with \u201clemongrass\u201d to the lemon that we\u2019re giving them full credit).<\/strong> While this was arguably the hardest of the three installments, there was some really interesting evidence of calibration: The majority of people who didn\u2019t recognize apricot put down \u201cpeach\u201d instead, and almost everyone got chocolate correct, but coffee was a wild card and a half. Everything from \u201cBBQ\u201d to \u201cbeef,\u201d from \u201cflowers\u201d to \u201csmoke\u201d to \u201cmusty\u201d made it onto the answer cards, along with four guesses of \u201crubber.\u201d<\/p>\n To be fair, the coffee essence was made from roasted Kona coffee\u2014a relatively obscure type\u2014and no account was taken for the extraction of the brew from which the oil itself was drawn. (Again, gee whiz, who said coffee was easy, right?)<\/p>\n The funny thing about the coffee essential oil, though, is that it really did taste coffee-flavored, which might also explain our confusion: Most of us are in specialty coffee in search of the complete opposite thing, after all. We seek out coffees that taste like hibiscus, tea, caramel, cherry, cola, white grape, tamarind\u2014basically anything but plain old \u201ccoffee.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_divider=”on” color=”#000000″ \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Conclusions” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n This highly unscientific exploration of taste competency among an utterly random sample of coffee nerds who were overstimulated, overcaffeinated, food-tired, possibly hungover, probably hungry, and definitely dehydrated in the Washington State Convention Center is, without question, not something we want to submit to academic journals for the annals of history.<\/p>\n What it does do, however, is inspire us to keep wanting to find ways to create opportunities and environments\u2014preferably minus the blaring overhead fluorescent lights\u2014where coffee professionals novice, expert, and everything in between can explore flavor science and sensory analysis, develop a vocabulary for describing what they are tasting, and corroborate with other tasters in the pursuit of accuracy and acuteness.<\/strong><\/p>\n In other words, thanks for playing!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_divider=”on” color=”#000000″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.86″ src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/FAC_7688.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n Instructions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In order to help you use these tasting exercises as a tool or a calibration technique, here are some details about how we put the Flavor Station together.<\/p>\n If you have questions or would like more information, e-mail our Flavor Stationeer, Meister, at meister@cafeimports.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n The Basic Tastes<\/strong><\/p>\n We made our solutions by mixing a small amount of each of the following substances into purified drinking water. Your ratios might vary, so feel free to experiment with the potency, but remember that the less evident the tastes are in the water, the harder the exercises will be.<\/em><\/p>\n Salty \u2013<\/strong> fine table salt [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n Taste+<\/strong><\/p>\n In order to make the second day\u2019s combinations, we simply mixed equal parts of the original solutions in fresh dispensers, being sure to try to match the intensity of each taste in the pair.<\/em><\/p>\n Salty + Savory [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n Name That Flavor<\/strong><\/p>\n Essential oils for tasting exercises are available from various sources online, such as LorAnn<\/a> Oils and Flavors,\u00a0or Organixx<\/a>. We chose oils that represent flavors commonly found in or commonly used to describe coffee. We recommend choosing a floral oil, a few different fruit options, and something to stand in for sweetness and\/or nuts.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This year at SCA Expo, we wanted to have a little fun with flavor, while also gathering data about a (very) random sample of coffee professionals in order to continue asking ourselves about our competency as tasters, and how we can improve\u2014both within our ranks at Cafe Imports, of course, but also how we can help others improve, especially the folks we work with all along the supply chain.<\/p>\n For the three days of SCA Expo 2018 in Seattle, we set up a Flavor Station at the Cafe Imports booth, with different things to taste each day. The idea was to offer show-goers an opportunity to stop for just a minute, taste something other than coffee for a change of pace, and maybe get a small sense of what we are doing when we taste coffee in the cupping lab\u2014something a bit more nuanced and hopefully more constructive and practical than a simple \u201cLoved it,\u201d \u201cHated it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"site_id":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Day 1: The Basic Tastes<\/h1>\n
Day 2: Taste+<\/h1>\n
Day 3: Name that Flavor<\/h1>\n
Conclusions?<\/u><\/strong><\/h1>\n
\nSour: Citric \u2013<\/strong> fresh lemon juice or lemon-juice concentrate
\nSour:<\/strong> Acetic \u2013 white vinegar
\nSweet \u2013<\/strong> simple syrup made from dissolving white sugar in equal parts of boiled water
\nSavory:<\/strong> we used kelp powder<\/a>, but MSG works too, and is colorless (note that some people are allergic or sensitive to MSG)
\nBitter:<\/strong> quassia wood powder<\/a> (use very sparingly)<\/p>\n
\nSour + Bitter
\nSweet + Bitter
\nSweet + Sour
\nSour + Salty<\/p>\n