How Should You Taste Coffee in a Systematic Way?

Tasting pour-over coffee comes down to three core dimensions: volatile aroma, taste, and mouthfeel. Aroma splits into dry and wet aroma, retronasal olfaction carries much of the flavor, the taste buds cover a limited range of basic tastes, and the aftertaste after swallowing shapes the overall impression.

Preference stays subjective: from the same pot, one drinker finds a cup full and sweet, another finds the acidity too prominent, and a third frowns at the bitterness. Judging coffee quality objectively instead relies on shared sensory systems such as SCA, COE, and CQI, which give flavor language unified terminology for discussion.

Faced with a cup of pour-over coffee, many people are momentarily at a loss as to where to begin tasting. In fact, coffee tasting has both a subjective side of personal preference and objective standards that can be shared and discussed. This article starts from a daily question at a Front Street store and outlines the three core dimensions of tasting specialty coffee: volatile aroma, taste, and mouthfeel. It also explains the difference between dry aroma and wet aroma, the role of retronasal olfaction, the range of tastes the taste buds can perceive, and the impact of the aftertaste on the overall experience after swallowing. Whether you are new to specialty coffee or currently learning to taste, you can use this to build your own sensory framework and expand your flavor memory bank through daily accumulation.

Just as the title says, a customer who does not usually drink coffee walked into a Front Street store, picked up the cup and was about to drink, then suddenly stopped and asked, "Boss, how exactly should this cup of coffee be tasted?" So today Front Street will talk with everyone about how to taste a cup of coffee.

First, one point: preference is very subjective

Whether a cup of coffee tastes good has no universally applicable answer. How bitter it is, how strong the acidity is, and how the sweetness comes through first depend on each person's own dietary preferences. For example, every time Front Street shares pour-over coffee samples, from the same pot, some people find it full and sweet, some find the acidity too prominent, and others frown at the bitterness. In this case, so-called "good coffee" really equals "coffee I like."

But when judging coffee quality, objectivity is needed

Precisely because everyone's tastes differ, people naturally bring their own standards when drinking coffee. If you want to sit together and discuss and exchange views, you cannot do without a sensory evaluation system recognized by most people (such as SCA, COE, CQI). Although these mainstream standards differ slightly in details, they give coffee's flavor language a unified terminology, so everyone can judge a cup of coffee's strengths and weaknesses relatively objectively.

For beginners new to specialty coffee, or coffee enthusiasts who are currently learning, if you want to learn to taste coffee, Front Street suggests starting with these three aspects: volatile aroma, taste, and mouthfeel.

Volatile aroma

There is a saying, "The nose smells fragrance and stench, the tongue tastes the five flavors." In fact, the nose is the most critical organ when tasting coffee flavor. When we eat, taste and smell work simultaneously, and drinking coffee is no exception. Once smell is absent, food's aroma disappears, leaving only monotonous sour, sweet, bitter, and salty. When you have a cold, everything seems tasteless because the nasal mucosa is inflamed and swollen, and odor molecules cannot move smoothly in and out of the nasal cavity.

Volatile aroma can be roughly divided into two parts: dry aroma and wet aroma. The scent that can be smelled directly after grinding into powder is called dry aroma, while the scent released only after contact with hot water is called wet aroma. For example, when Front Street tastes the aroma of Kenya Asalia coffee, the dry aroma shows berry and cherry tomato notes, and after pouring water it gives off notes of smoked plum and snow pear.

In addition to smelling directly with the nose, some aromatic substances "slip" from the oral cavity into the nasal cavity during swallowing and are perceived by us. For example, after Front Street drinks Red Label Geisha, it can perceive quiet floral notes and cantaloupe fruit notes. This is not a sensation brought by the taste buds (the tongue itself cannot distinguish odors), but an odor captured by retronasal olfaction. When we smell a pleasant aroma in coffee, we unconsciously give it extra points in our impression.

Taste

Our taste buds can only perceive five taste substances: sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami. Theoretically, "umami" hardly exists in coffee, and saltiness is usually masked by other tastes under normal circumstances. Therefore, when tasting coffee, we usually focus on the three taste expressions of sour, sweet, and bitter.

If a cup of coffee has a slight bitterness, soft acidity, good sweetness, and moderate strength, then it is certainly a good cup of coffee. When taste combines with the odor perceived by smell, the brain immediately associates it with a specific food in its memory bank, which is the so-called flavor description. As coffee enthusiasts, we can follow our own preferences and find coffee that tastes smoother to us.

Mouthfeel

It can be understood as the overall sensation the coffee liquid brings to the oral cavity, also called the coffee's body, which is actually the coffee's volume sensation (texture). For example, if it feels similar to water when drunk, it will be described as "watery, thin mouthfeel"; if it feels obstructive and astringent when drunk, it will be described as "rough mouthfeel, astringency." Coffee mouthfeel is usually described as rough, smooth, thin, mellow, and full, and is relatively easy to perceive.

The oral sensation after swallowing coffee is also something to notice when tasting. A bitter mouth, or a lingering strong fermented or acetic acid taste, are uncomfortable expressions and should lose points. If there is no sensation at all in the mouth after drinking coffee, it is neither good nor bad. If the mouth has a sweet aftertaste after drinking coffee, or gives off a light, comfortable tea aroma, then the aftertaste of this cup is very good, and it is a complete experience.

Finally, if you truly want to learn to drink coffee and taste coffee, it depends on continuously accumulating effective flavor information in coffee in daily life, thereby expanding your corresponding memory bank. There is no shortcut. In other words, just drink more coffee!

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