How Does the Coffee Flavor Wheel Help Describe Coffee?

The SCAA coffee flavor wheel organizes tasting language into nine groups, including floral and fruity, green or vegetative, nutty and cocoa, sweet, spices, sour or fermented, alcoholic or fermented, roasted, and other. It also maps the four basic tastes of sour, sweet, bitter and salty against roast level.

Descriptors only become useful through repeated calibration. Cupping the same bean alongside reference samples trains the link between aroma and memory, so terms like citrus, berry, nut or chocolate come to mind faster. Regional beans then anchor each descriptor, from the citrus-lemon acidity of Yirgacheffe to the chocolate and nut notes of Brazil.

The coffee flavor wheel is a recognized tasting tool in the specialty coffee community, but faced with descriptors like citrus, berry, nut, and chocolate, many people don't know how to match them. This article starts from the SCAA's latest high-definition flavor wheel and systematically sorts out the logic behind coffee flavor composition: the relationship between the four basic tastes of sour, sweet, bitter, and salty and roast level, the percentage data of each taste substance, the subdivision of the sour taste spectrum, bitter taste spectrum, sweet taste spectrum, and salty taste spectrum, as well as item-by-item analysis of the nine major flavor groups: floral and fruity, green/vegetative, nutty/cocoa, sweet, spices, sour/fermented, alcoholic/fermented, roasted, and other. The article also intersperses Front Street Coffee's daily training methods and representative bean recommendations to help readers build a complete tasting framework from aroma to sip.

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When it comes to coffee flavor, everyone is probably familiar with it, but once you need to specify which one it is, such as citrus, berry, nut, or chocolate, many people cannot answer. Every time before customers order, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) first asks about their taste preferences. If they prefer acidity, it recommends Front Street Yirgacheffe with citrus-lemon acidity; if they want stronger acidity, it brings out Front Street Kenya Little Tomato. If the customer values body more, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends Front Street Brazil Red Bourbon, with rich chocolate and nut notes; for something even heavier, it recommends Front Street Indonesia Mandheling coffee beans, with a solid herbal aroma and quite good sweetness on the finish.

Behind these coffee beans with distinct regional character are specific descriptors. So after drinking a cup of coffee, how can these words quickly come to mind? This requires repeated flavor calibration and training. Taking daily training as an example, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) helps everyone understand what expressions coffee flavor actually has.

What is coffee flavor? During tasting, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) focuses on the expression of the four major tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, and salty, and these are closely related to roast level, so the [flavor wheel] is classified according to light-medium roast and dark-heavy roast. One coincidence is worth noting: the "sour" and "sweet" taste substances in light-medium roasts have relatively small molecular weights, higher polarity, and good water solubility, and often dissolve in the first half of extraction; while "bitter" and "salty" taste substances have relatively large molecular weights, lower polarity, and poor water solubility, usually appearing only in the second half of extraction.

The tastes of light to medium roast are mainly low-molecular-weight and medium-molecular-weight sour and sweet notes, but if there are too many defective beans or improper roasting, even light-medium roast may produce unpleasant bitter and salty notes. As for dark roast, it is mainly high-molecular-weight bitterness and saltiness. Of course, dark roast is not without merits; the most rare dark roast flavor spectrum is "strong but not bitter, sweet and smooth in the throat." Proportion of water-soluble flavor substances in coffee

The above set of data is the weight proportion of sour, sweet, bitter, and salty soluble taste substances in roasted coffee beans: sweet components are the most abundant, accounting for 39% of soluble substances; bitter substances are next at 26.4%; salty ranks third at 14%; sour has the lowest proportion, no more than 5.4%. Together they total 84.8%, and the remaining unlisted portion should be taste substances present in smaller amounts. Don't assume that just because the proportion of sweetness is high, coffee will be as sweet as honey. That is not the case. In black coffee, bitterness, sourness, or saltiness can easily interfere with the original sweetness, and there are complex relationships of mutual offsetting and complementing among the four tastes. The four major flavor spectrums We divide sour, sweet, bitter, and salty into four flavor spectrums to examine.

1. Sour taste spectrum Sourness was originally the greatest characteristic of light-medium roasted coffee. Coffee beans contain many organic acids, among which phenolic acids, aliphatic acids, and amino acids have the greatest influence on taste. In addition, during roasting, sucrose degradation products change accordingly: from light roast to medium roast, sucrose gradually degrades, so acetic acid and lactic acid concentrations rise, but at a certain point they drop sharply. Therefore, generally speaking, light-medium roasted coffee has a more obvious sour taste. 2. Bitter taste spectrum The bitter taste of coffee can be divided into two categories: smooth and harsh. The former refers to the natural slight bitterness brought by caffeine, trigonelline, aliphatic acids, and quinine lactones; the latter, harsh bitterness, refers to the heavy bitterness from chlorogenic acid lactones, defective beans, and carbonized particles.

3. Sweet taste spectrum The volatile aroma of caramel is easily enjoyed through retronasal olfaction using the exhale-through-nose technique, but it is not easy for the sense of taste to detect sweetness in black coffee, because sweetness is often interfered with by other sour, bitter, and salty components and is hard to stand out, unless the sweet components in the roasted beans are above average, in which case they may break through and allow a sweet taste to be detected. In other words, smell is far more likely than taste to enjoy coffee's sweetness. The sweet-sour taste in the "sweet taste spectrum" of light-medium roast is the interactive taste of sweetness and sourness, most often appearing in washed beans from high altitudes above 1,300 meters. If citric acid, malic acid, and acetic acid content is not low, there will be sharp acidity; but if the coffee's sugar content is high, it can neutralize part of the fruit acidity, making the sharp acidity become soft and lively with movement, with fruity flavor, and producing the interesting taste of "sweet-sour vibration." 4. Salty taste spectrum Although saltiness in coffee is everywhere, it is often concealed under the interaction of sourness and sweetness. Once saltiness is detected in black coffee, it indicates that the organic substances of sourness and sweetness have been almost completely oxidized, causing the saltiness of inorganic substances to be highlighted, and it can be regarded as a warning sign that the coffee has gone off-flavor or is not fresh. How to look at the coffee flavor wheel? First, let's look at a complete coffee flavor wheel image.

| Floral and Fruity

Floral: light, slightly sweet, elegant fragrance Fruity: the slightly sweet, fruity-floral blend among various ripe fruits In specialty coffee, floral notes are relatively rare, and the most representative are: 1 Chamomile—a closed-aroma type, slightly pungent, initially a bit sharp to the nose; another representative floral note is osmanthus. Osmanthus aroma is more obvious in Guatemala Bourbon.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Guatemala Bourbon coffee beans

2 Rose—a deep, quiet aroma type, giving a calm and soothing feeling; another representative floral note is lavender. Colombia Rose Valley is most prominent for its rose aroma.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Rose Valley coffee beans

3 Jasmine—a fresh aroma type, with an uplifting and energetic fragrance; another representative floral note is coffee flower. There are quite a lot of coffees in this floral aroma category. Panama Blue Label Geisha and Yirgacheffe Aricha are jasmine aroma types.

Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha has aromas of both jasmine and rose.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha coffee beans

The most representative fruit acidity is: 1. Front Street Yirgacheffe Red Cherry exudes an intense fruity aroma, dried fruit, plum, strawberry, lemon.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans

2. Front Street Huakui has a fresh grassy note on entry, with apple and smoked plum acidity, and a berry finish.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Huakui coffee beans

3. Ethiopia Yirgacheffe has citrus acidity and tea aroma, a light acidity, relatively rich texture, plum, kumquat, lemon, dried fruit, caramel.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Yirgacheffe coffee beans

| Green/Vegetative

Starting from this category, the flavors need a little explanation. Under-Ripe: fruit that has not yet ripened on the tree, tasting similar to grapefruit peel. Fresh: the smell of freshly cut grass. Dark Green: cooked green vegetables, such as the canned spinach that turns Popeye into a powerhouse after one bite. Vegetative: the slightly spicy taste of green vegetables, with canned asparagus given as the reference. Herb like: spice leaves is more appropriate. For example, bay leaf, basil, thyme. Peapoo: the taste of beans and bean products. (Although aromatic acids in the sour category are also beans, that one focuses more on sourness.)

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Colombia Sakura coffee beans

Among single-origin coffees, Colombia Finca El Paraiso Sakura coffee beans are representative. After roasting to medium-light, sometimes basil and mint aromas can still be smelled, which is quite unique. | Nutty/Cocoa

Produced in coffee beans after medium roast due to the [Maillard reaction]. This kind of aroma is relatively common, including: Nutty: Roasted Almonds, Roasted Peanuts, Roasted Hazelnuts, Walnuts. Cocoa: Black Chocolate

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans

Brazil Queen Estate is representative. Intense chocolate, smoky, nutty, creamy flavors, with the sweetness of caramel, berry, and pineapple. | Sweet

During medium roast, sour aromas break down, and caramel aroma is produced by [sugar browning reaction] caramelization. We divide coffee's "sugar" into 2 major categories: 1. Toffee, caramel, honey, maple syrup

The marker for distinguishing the first major category is its "viscosity." This viscosity is related both to our mouthfeel and to the degree of sweetness, and it can also be confirmed through smell. We can simply rank it as toffee > caramel > honey > maple syrup. This viscosity can be expressed by smelling the coffee at the bottom of the cup after drinking it: does it feel greasy to you? Or relatively light? In addition, honey's taste has a bit of sourness and fermentation, while maple syrup's smell is relatively light and somewhat woody.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Butterfly coffee beans

Panama sun-dried Butterfly is representative. Floral, citrus, lemon, cane sugar, honey, hazelnut, oolong tea. 2. Dark sugar, yellow sugar, white sugar The second major category is distinguished by sucrose at different levels of purity and sweetness. Although in terms of purity it is white sugar > yellow sugar > caramel, in coffee we need to add smell, which makes the sweetness in coffee dark sugar > yellow sugar > white sugar. The intensity of sweetness differs, and the feeling it gives us differs as well.

| Spices

Generally produced during dark roast, including: Pungent: a sharp, nose-tingling taste, with the reference given as a kind of orange essential oil. For mouthfeel with the medicinal aroma of traditional Chinese medicine, aged Mandheling and Tiger Mandheling are representative.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Tiger Mandheling coffee beans

| Sour/Fermented

Sour Aromatics: sour products, such as (Bush's Pinto Beans), a kind of canned pinto beans. Citric Acid and Malic Acid: more focused on sourness and astringency, and stronger. Butyric Acid: the smell of certain aged cheeses, such as Parmesan. Isovaleric Acid: also the smell of certain aged cheeses, such as Romano Gesha Village CHAKA, with flavors of citrus, lemon, grapefruit, nut, and almond, is representative.

| Alcoholic/Fermented

Overripe: although the reference object is banana, it also refers to the sweet, slightly sour, moist, moldy, or earthy smell of other overripe fruits or vegetables. Winey: the reference object is Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon Whiskey: the reference object is Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey Old No. 7 Fermented: the reference object is Guinness Extra Stout beer

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Honduras Sherry coffee beans

Whiskey barrel-fermented Honduras Sherry is representative. It smells of vanilla and cream, enters with whiskey, berry, almond, and dark chocolate flavors, and has a maple syrup sweetness on the finish.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Honduras Lychee Orchid coffee beans

Brandy barrel-fermented Honduras Lychee Orchid is representative. Beans processed through brandy barrel fermentation have soft lychee and honey sweetness, while also blending the boozy aroma of brandy and the fragrance of oak barrels. | Roasted

Acrid: specifically refers to the bitterness after scorching; the bitterness usually tasted is the bitterness of caffeine, not necessarily that scorched kind of bitterness. Smoky: the smell of wood ash after burning wood. Brown, Roast: purely refers to the feeling of having been roasted. | Other

Stale: lacking a fresh feeling, the smell of fermented bread or expired bread. Moldy/Damp: the damp smell of a basement. Musty/Dusty: wheat germ, similar to the smell of cereal crumbs. Phenolic: this is not a wrongly placed image, nor a still from Fifty Shades of Grey. This is an old-fashioned harness room, a damp space with an animal smell. Among them, woody aroma is produced by the [dry distillation] during dark roasting. This flavor receives mixed reviews: those who like it enjoy the woody charm in coffee, while those who do not feel it affects the coffee's own flavor.

These 85 flavors of coffee do not mean there are 85 kinds of coffee flavors, but rather the different flavors produced by coffee during planting, processing, and roasting under the influence of environment, genes, processing methods, storage and transportation methods, roast level, and the roaster's skill. Coffee flavor is actually complex and multi-layered. To understand coffee, three conditions are needed: First: have you experienced similar taste and smell experiences? If you have never eaten a peach, then of course you cannot taste the flavor of peach. Second: it is recommended that you taste the coffee after it has fully cooled, because usually the fruity character of coffee is only recognized after it cools, and coffee flavors unfold as the temperature drops. Third: the strength of the coffee also affects a cup's character. If it is a light-roasted coffee with floral and fruity character, it is recommended to brew it weaker, spread out the flavor spectrum, and make it easier to find the flavors in it. (This explains very well why the coffee-to-water ratio for cupping is 1:18.18.)

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) How to taste a good cup of coffee 1. Drink coffee in small sips, slowly, and you can even rinse lightly, holding it in your mouth and gently stirring the coffee liquid 2. Each sip unfolds in layers as the temperature changes. The first two sips will be bitter at the back of the tongue; when the coffee cools, it gradually turns from bitter to sour, with a subtle citrus acidity 3. By the time you are halfway through, the coffee turns from sour to sweet, from bitter to sweet, begins to have a sweet aftertaste, with sweetness on the surface of the tongue, and finally returns to caramel sweetness, lingering between mouth and nose, tasting the coffee's finish through retronasal olfaction. 4. After finishing, do not rush to wash the cup; smell the sweet fragrance at the bottom of the cup.

How Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) identifies aromas The whole process of identifying aromas: the brain receives information - compares - analyzes - remembers. We can smell an aroma and taste a flavor, but perhaps we cannot describe it very accurately. The flavor wheel can concretely categorize the entire human perceptual taste system, and corresponding to the olfactory system is the aroma wheel. Practicing the two together allows one to clearly perceive the most subtle differences among all aromas.

When many people encounter coffee, bitter means strong, and strong means aromatic. When meeting such customers, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) patiently explains what flavors there are, that strong is not necessarily aromatic, and bitter is not necessarily either. But for someone who has never studied coffee, they can learn by referring to the flavor wheel introduction above, or they can just take a look. After all, not everyone has this kind of professional perception. The reason for such differences is differences in culture, life, diet, and region, and simply different descriptions of the same compound. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreetCoffee) believes that so-called coffee tasting is most importantly about communication: talk about your personal feelings about this bean. Different cultures and different experiences inevitably lead to different descriptions, and this kind of exchange can bring a lot of fun.

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