Tag: how to taste coffee

Perfect partners: how to pair coffee with other foods

Posted on by Sara Walker
Coffee is surprisingly versatile as a drink. Photo credit: Pixabay

Coffee and cake, anyone? Coffee and full English breakfast? As well as these traditional partners, coffee goes surprisingly well with a wide range of other foods, and taste-savvy consumers are pairing it just like wine. We find out how it’s done.

What to look for in your coffee

The trick to getting the right food/coffee pairing is to understand the subtleties of the coffee flavour. Coffee can vary in acidity, which affects the taste, ranging from smooth and rich to bright and crisp. Broadly speaking, if you can identify certain taste notes in your coffee (chocolate, red fruit, citrus) then that particular blend should pair well with that same food. Avoid food that’s too over powering, such as anything too garlicky or spicy.

Each country tends to specialise in producing a different coffee blend, as the flavour is affected so much by soil types, climate and growing conditions. Beans from South America tend to have smooth, chocolatey flavours, while those from Africa have lighter, more floral tones.

Before you can decide, you may have to teach yourself ‘coffee tasting’, in a similar way to wine tasting. Breathe in the aroma first, without tasting – that will give you an idea of the acidity levels in what you’re about to drink. Next, draw a little of the coffee into your mouth and slosh it around. Wait for the flavours to develop – they could be sweet or sour, fruity or nutty. If you taste a range of different coffees and beans of different origins, you’ll soon develop the ability to differentiate between the flavours.

At the Wholesale Coffee Company, we specialise in supplying great quality beans and coffee accessories at wholesale prices. To take a look at our range, just visit our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

 

 

Coffee tasting notes

Posted on by Sara Walker

coffee-beans-healthMost large commercial coffee companies employer a professional ‘cupper’, or taster, or even a team of people. As coffee is an organic product and subject to variation caused by a number of factors including weather, the taster’s job is to evaluate and assess each batch for consistency, and also to assess new blends. Tasters have very sophisticated, sensitive palates, and they can differentiate between acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma and aftertaste to get a complete sense of the coffee flavour. As just as much of the flavour of coffee is perceived via the olfactory membranes as via the taste buds, they also need an excellent sense of smell!

To be objective, tasters have to work in surroundings that are free of any odours that might interfere with the tasting process. They’re always served with freshly-ground and freshly-brewed coffee, as this offers the maximum of fragrance, and they evaluate every part of the drink from the aroma to the crema, the fine layer of foam that sits on top, caused by the release of the natural oils in the beans. When it comes to actually tasting, the process is rather like wine tasting with the cupper swirling the drink round to release the flavours then swilling it round their mouths before finally evaluating the aftertaste.

When the process is finished, the result is the ‘tasting notes’ that appear on a retail bag of coffee – for example, a strength factor, then notes such as ‘rich, toffee notes’ or ‘well-balanced, smooth and chocolaty’. Other descriptions you might see include ‘butterscotch notes’, ‘red wine’, ‘fruity’ (especially berry or citrus notes) or ‘mellow’. There may also be more complex and delicate top notes, all of which help to give coffee its rounded flavour.

 

 

 

Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company, we’ve got a range of top quality beans for you to discover, all at great wholesale prices. To find out more, visit our main website.

What is coffee cupping?

Posted on by Sara Walker

800px-Coffee-Beans“Coffee cupping” isn’t, as you may expect, the art of putting coffee in cups. It’s actually the art of tasting coffee, and experts train their palates in the same way as wine tasters to pick up nuances and overtones in the drink.

Coffee buyers and blenders use cupping to evaluate different coffee beans, and to understand what goes into making the perfect blend. It’s also used to help decide what beans will be suitable for what type of brew or drink, for example to differentiate espresso beans from a milder tasting bean.

As with any type of evaluation, consistency is key so it’s important you use the same approach each time. As coffee changes according to geographical region, climate, season and a range of other factors, commercial cuppers taste the coffee beans from each crop to ensure consistency in their blends.

Professional cuppers prefer all their samples to be roasted lightly, so that the taste isn’t masked by strong flavours, and may also insist on having samples of green, roasted and ground beans to help assess quality.

The tasting table will look similar to a wine tasting table, with samples of beans set out in individual bowls and glasses of water to clear the palate between tastings. Tasters will often brew the coffee by the simplest method possible, infusion, then taste the fresh coffee sparingly and take detailed notes before moving on to the next sample.

Although few of us need to go to such lengths to find out what we enjoy, this method of comparing coffee encourages thought and may help you appreciate the more subtle qualities of what’s in the cup.

If you’d like to try something a little different, we offer sample packs of all our coffee beans. For more information, visit our coffee beans page at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.