Does the Coffee Association Flavor Wheel Require Every Note?

Not tasting the flavors listed on a bag or described by a barista is common and not a sign of poor taste. The SCA Flavor Wheel from the coffee association is a reference range, not a checklist. Many drinkers can tell that two coffees differ without naming raspberry, grapefruit or orange blossom, and that is normal.

The wheel was revised in 2016, and localization efforts have appeared in Taiwan and Indonesia, raising the question of whether other markets need their own version. A naturally processed Yirgacheffe might be described with four or five notes, yet most people taste sourness, sweetness and body instead. The tool exists to guide vocabulary, not to gatekeep single-origin coffee.

When many people first encounter specialty coffee, they are often baffled by the flavors described on the packaging or by baristas, and may even wonder whether they are simply not suited to drinking single-origin coffee. In fact, it is not strange at all to be unable to taste specific flavors. The purpose of the SCA Flavor Wheel is to provide a reference range, not to require you to identify every item one by one. This article discusses the origin of the Flavor Wheel, the 2016 revision, localization attempts in Taiwan and Indonesia, and whether China needs its own local flavor wheel, to help coffee lovers let go of anxiety and return to the joy of drinking coffee itself.

A few days ago, while resting, I happened to overhear this conversation:

Barista: "This naturally processed Yirgacheffe has flavors of raspberry, grapefruit, orange blossom, and oolong tea..."

Customer A: "Huh? I can't taste any of that at all! What exactly does raspberry taste like?"

(The barista had no choice but to pull out the SCA Flavor Wheel): "Hmm... roughly somewhere between blueberry and blackberry."

Customer A's friend: "Could it be understood as sour and not fragrant enough strawberry + pomelo peel + diluted jasmine tea?"

Barista: "...It's grapefruit..."

Many friends who are new to single-origin or specialty coffee get completely confused by the flavor descriptions on the bean bags or the flavors mentioned by baristas. So they go online to look up information, hear that they can identify flavors by consulting the coffee flavor wheel, and then open it—only to find that, good grief, seven of the ten descriptions on it are things they have never encountered at all.

Then they start forcing themselves to taste certain flavors, still fail to perceive them, and even suspect that the flavor wheel is lying, or that if they cannot taste the flavors, they do not deserve to drink single-origin or specialty coffee. Of course that is not true! There is nothing wrong with not being able to taste the flavors on the flavor wheel—how could that mean you do not deserve to drink it?

Not everyone can distinguish the subtle tastes in coffee. It is possible that some people with exceptional taste and smell can clearly identify various flavors in coffee. But most ordinary coffee drinkers can tell that flavor A and flavor B are different, yet cannot name exactly what A and B are, and this situation is everywhere. So as long as you enjoy drinking your coffee, that is enough; there is no need to force yourself too hard to taste the flavors.

The significance of the SCA Coffee Flavor Wheel is to help coffee lovers and professionals understand and explain the sourness, sweetness, bitterness, and aromas they taste and perceive in the nasal cavity, with the aim of reducing disagreements in how people describe flavors. But this flavor wheel also has a point that could be seen as either good or insufficient, namely that it is not inclusive enough.

The first-generation coffee flavor wheel was released by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) in 1995. At the time, it served as a standard reference and reduced the situation in which baristas from different countries talked past each other when describing flavors. However, the flavors in the first-generation flavor wheel were relatively simple and could not keep up with the later trend of improving coffee bean quality and increasingly refined and rich flavors.

So SCA, together with the World Coffee Research Institute, Kansas State University, the German Agricultural University, and coffee representatives, jointly compiled the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon as the basis for the new version of the flavor wheel, and collected 29 people in the United States who had not received sensory training but had long consumed coffee, as well as 43 coffee industry experts, to conduct cognitive tests on the relationships among tastes. The new version of the coffee flavor wheel was finally published in 2016.

Although the new flavor wheel is more detailed in its flavor descriptions, many of these flavor descriptions are familiar to coffee lovers or professionals in the Americas and Europe. That does not mean that coffee lovers or professionals across all seven continents have encountered and know these flavors.

Although the coffee flavor wheel has been translated into multiple language versions, allowing people from different regions to discuss flavors in the same context when tasting the same coffee, in reality many flavors do not resonate. So the coffee flavor wheel is used for reference and for determining a flavor range; it does not mean that the flavor must be exactly that. For example, there are many types of citrus. As long as the acidity and aroma you taste feel like eating citrus fruit, it can be defined as citrus. You do not have to force yourself to distinguish whether it is orange, mandarin, pomelo, or lemon.

So can localized versions of the flavor wheel be made according to different regions? Yes, but they can only be used for local consumers to communicate about and judge coffee flavors. If professionalism is required, it is still necessary to follow the coffee flavor wheel published by SCA.

In recent years, Taiwan, China, and Indonesia have already begun researching localized flavor wheels and have published flavors that resonate with local coffee consumers, enthusiasts, and professionals.

Based on the SCA flavor wheel, Taiwan added some flavors familiar to local people, such as dried longan, roselle, ginseng-type roots, cedar, and pine and cypress, and removed some flavors that do not resonate with Taiwanese people, drawing a Taiwanese local coffee flavor wheel containing 95 flavors.

As a famous coffee-producing country, Indonesia's purpose in creating a localized flavor wheel was to cultivate and improve local coffee farmers' judgment of flavors and more effectively improve coffee bean quality. The Gayo Cuppers team, which formulated Indonesia's local coffee flavor wheel, said that only when the people who grow coffee understand the needs of specialty coffee consumers can they know how to improve coffee bean quality through cultivation and processing, and also enable coffee beans to command a higher purchase price. Indonesia's local flavor wheel contains 118 coffee flavors, adding more descriptions of plant and spice flavors to the original SCA flavor wheel.

"Does the entire China region also need to create a localized flavor wheel?" This is a question a netizen raised a long time ago. Yes, I still remember! Now let me answer you: whether there is one or not does not really matter.

Flavor carries cultural bias. If too many localized flavor wheels appear, it is very easy for "conflicting judgments" to occur. For example, in Indonesia's local flavor wheel, the taste of coffee pulp is defined under the fermented acidity category, while in the SCA flavor wheel it is defined under defective flavors. At the same time, localized flavor wheels do not clearly distinguish defective flavors. Although they can improve coffee consumers' recognition of good flavors, they reduce recognition of defective flavors.

As mentioned above, the definition of whether a taste is good or bad is influenced by different cultures and therefore varies. Domestic food culture is diverse, and the flavors people are familiar with differ from place to place, so creating a local flavor wheel should also be no easy task.

So having one is of course a good thing, because it also proves that specialty coffee already has wide coverage in the country and is becoming increasingly inclusive and diverse. Not having one is also perfectly fine. Under any circumstances, drinking coffee and sharing coffee are happy things, an opportunity to create conversation, and a chance to share the joy each person feels in the process of drinking coffee.

When someone cannot taste coffee flavors, you can encourage them to experience more foods and smells, and to feel and remember the tastes left after food is swallowed or the scents left in the nasal cavity. Rather than emphasizing that you just can taste this flavor, or making a series of unfriendly remarks.

Coffee is just an ordinary beverage. Everyone can enjoy it freely. There is no need for everyone to distinguish its flavors, and there is no need to give up the pleasure of drinking coffee because of others' unfriendly remarks.

Image source: Internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.