Which Words That Describe Coffee Come From the Flavor Wheel?

The SCA coffee flavor wheel works as a flavor dictionary for specialty coffee. It organizes every aroma and taste a bean might show, from floral and fruity to nutty, sweet, spicy, sour, fermented, roasted and defective, so cuppers can attach precise words to vague impressions instead of guessing.

Cupping with the wheel starts from the four basic tastes of sour, sweet, bitter and salty, then narrows into categories and representative beans. Because sensory memory is personal, the descriptors are only close to familiar things in life rather than identical. Building a flavor memory bank from daily smells and tastes makes recognition faster.

The coffee flavor wheel is known as the "flavor dictionary" of specialty coffee and is an indispensable professional tool in cupping and quality control. Based on Front Street Coffee's cupping practice, this article systematically breaks down the structure of the SCA coffee flavor wheel, starting from the four major taste spectra of sour, sweet, bitter, and salty, analyzing the causes and representative beans of each flavor category, covering all categories including floral, fruity, nutty/cocoa, sweet, spicy, sour and fermented, alcoholic fermentation, roasted, and defective flavors, and provides practical methods for building a flavor memory bank from daily life and improving sensory recognition ability, helping coffee enthusiasts more accurately describe the flavor characteristics and taste categories of pour-over coffee.

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Many friends have asked Front Street's baristas: Can you really taste so many flavors in the beans? How exactly do you taste them out?

After all, sensory perception is a very personal matter. The smells and tastes each person encounters from childhood to adulthood are all different, and the flavors described in coffee are, in most cases, only close to certain familiar things in life, not completely identical. When Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) baristas encounter some vaguely defined flavor perceptions during cupping, they use the coffee flavor wheel to describe them. The coffee flavor wheel can be called the "flavor dictionary" of specialty coffee. It encompasses all the flavors that specialty coffee may present, some concrete and some abstract, and is an indispensable tool in the cupping process. As a commonly used reference in cupping, it helps Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) baristas find more precise descriptors. Cupping itself is a quality control task that requires professional knowledge, aimed at discovering problems in coffee beans and providing important guidance for adjusting roasting curves and developing flavors. Therefore, Front Street has always believed that the coffee flavor wheel is an indispensable professional auxiliary tool in the cupping process.

"What are coffee flavors?"

When tasting coffee, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) focuses on the expression of the four basic tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, and salty. They are closely related to the degree of roasting, so the [flavor wheel] is classified according to light-medium roast and dark-deep roast. Interestingly, the "sour and sweet" taste substances in the light-medium roast stage have smaller molecular weights, higher polarity, and better water solubility, and usually dissolve in the first half of extraction; while the "bitter and salty" taste substances have larger molecular weights, lower polarity, and poorer water solubility, and often only appear in the second half of extraction.

For coffee beans roasted from light to medium, the taste is mainly low-molecular-weight and medium-molecular-weight sour and sweet flavors. However, if there are too many defective beans or improper roasting, even light-medium roast can bring out unpleasant bitter and salty flavors. Dark roast is mainly dominated by high-molecular-weight bitterness and saltiness. Of course, dark roast is not entirely without merits. The most precious dark roast flavor spectrum is "rich but not bitter, sweet and mellow, soothing to the throat."

"Proportion of water-soluble flavor substances in coffee"

The above data shows the weight proportions of soluble sour, sweet, bitter, and salty taste substances in roasted coffee beans. Sweet components are the most abundant, accounting for 39% of soluble substances; bitter substances come 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 rest not listed should be taste substances present in smaller amounts. But do not assume that just because sweetness accounts for a high proportion, coffee will be as sweet as honey. That is not the case. The bitterness, sourness, or saltiness in black coffee can easily interfere with the original sweetness, and there are complex mutual counteracting and complementary relationships among the four tastes. Follow Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) to look at a complete coffee flavor wheel.

Does it look dazzling? Do not worry. Next, Front Street will break it down one by one and explain in detail exactly what flavors are in the flavor wheel.

"The four major flavor spectra in the coffee flavor wheel"

Front Street first divides the coffee flavor wheel into four taste spectra: sour, sweet, bitter, and salty, to discuss the overall flavor direction. Why is there no spicy? Because spiciness belongs to pain perception, not taste.

1. Sour spectrum

Sourness is originally the most prominent characteristic of light-medium roasted coffee. Coffee beans contain various organic acids, among which phenolic acids, aliphatic acids, and amino acids have the greatest impact on taste. In addition, sucrose degrades during roasting. From light roast to medium roast, sucrose gradually degrades, and the concentrations of acetic acid and lactic acid rise accordingly, but after reaching a certain point they drop sharply all at once, so light-medium roasted coffee usually has a relatively obvious sour taste.

2. Bitter spectrum

The bitterness of coffee can be divided into two categories: pleasant and unpleasant. The former refers to the natural slight bitterness brought by caffeine, trigonelline, aliphatic acids, and quinine lactones; the latter, unpleasant bitterness, refers to the heavy bitterness caused by chlorogenic acid lactones, the degradation products of chlorogenic acid, defective beans, and carbonized particles.

3. Sweet spectrum

The volatile aroma of caramel is easily enjoyed through retronasal olfaction using the retro-nasal technique, but it is not easy to taste the sweetness of black coffee with the sense of taste, because sweetness is often interfered with by sour, bitter, and salty components and finds it hard to stand out. Unless the sweet components in roasted beans are above average can they break through and let people taste sweetness. In other words, smell is far more likely than taste to perceive the sweetness of coffee.

The sour-sweet taste in the light-medium roast "sweet spectrum" is the taste produced by the interaction of sweetness and sourness, and it most often appears in washed beans grown above 1,300 meters. If the content of citric acid, malic acid, and acetic acid is not low, a sharp sourness will appear; but if the coffee's sugar content is high, it can neutralize part of the fruit acidity, making the sharp sourness softer, lively, and dynamic, presenting fruity flavors and producing an interesting "sweet-sour vibration" taste.

4. Salty spectrum

The saltiness of coffee is actually everywhere, but is often hidden invisibly under the interaction of sourness and sweetness. Once saltiness is tasted in black coffee, it means the organic substances of sourness and sweetness have been almost completely oxidized, and the saltiness of inorganic substances has become prominent. This can be regarded as a warning sign that the coffee has gone off-flavor or is not fresh.

Next, Front Street will break down the flavor wheel to see what flavor descriptions there are and which representative coffee beans correspond to these flavors. | Floral and fruity

Floral: Light, slightly sweet, elegant fragrance. Through cupping, Front Street has found that the most common floral notes are jasmine and rose. Rose — a delicate fragrance type, with a calm and soothing feeling. Another representative floral note is lavender. On the Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) bean list, Front Street Panama Sun-Dried Red Label Geisha has the most prominent rose aroma.

Brewing flavor: bright rose and citrus aromas, genmai, berries, apricot, compound fruit, honey, a thick juicy mouthfeel, rich flavor layers, and obvious sweetness.

Jasmine — a fresh fragrance type, with an uplifting and energetic aroma. Another representative floral note is coffee flower. There are many coffees with this floral type, for example Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Yirgacheffe Gotingding is a jasmine floral type.

Brewing flavor: citrus and black tea on the entry, with cream, caramel, and almond in the aftertaste as the temperature changes, obvious returning sweetness, and a clean, sweet mouthfeel.

Fruity: The slight sweetness among various ripe fruits and a mixture of fruity and floral notes. Through cupping, Front Street has found that the most common fruit aromas are citrus and berry types. Citrus — clean mouthfeel, fresh aroma. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Kochere Washed is the most representative.

Brewing flavor: lemon, floral, orange, sucrose, overall clean and refreshing, with honeyed sweetness in the aftertaste and an oolong tea finish.

Berry — mellow mouthfeel with a smooth juicy feel. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Ethiopia Natural Sidamo is the most representative.

Brewing flavor: creamy strawberry aroma at high temperature, passion fruit sourness and sweetness after slowly cooling, blackcurrant juice sensation, honey finish, and lasting sweetness.

| Green/vegetative

Under-Ripe: Fruit that is not yet ripe on the tree, with a flavor similar to grapefruit peel. Fresh: The smell of freshly cut grass. Dark Green: Cooked green vegetables, such as the canned spinach that instantly transforms Popeye when he eats it. Vegetative: The slightly spicy taste of green vegetables; the reference given is canned asparagus. Peapoo: The taste of beans and bean products. (Although aromatic acids in the sour category are also beans, that one focuses more on sourness.) Herb like: Spice leaves is more appropriate. For example, bay leaf, basil, thyme. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Colombia Cherry Blossom coffee beans are the most representative.

Brewing flavor: a berry-juice-like mouthfeel, strawberry jam, mint tea tea-like sensation, mugwort, and a basil finish.

| Nutty / cocoa

Produced in coffee beans after medium roast due to the [Maillard reaction]. This aroma is relatively common, including: Nutty: Roasted Almonds, Roasted Peanuts, Roaster Hazelnuts, Walnuts. Cocoa: Black Chocolate. The most representative of these two flavors is Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans!

Brewing flavor: the fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice, black tea, soft and smooth fruit sweetness, obvious nutty flavor, balanced and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, rich chocolate aroma and nutty flavor, bright and refreshing mouthfeel, and a silky, delicate texture.

| Sweet

During medium roast, sour aromas break down, and caramel aroma is produced by caramelization through the [sugar browning reaction].

1. Toffee, caramel, honey, maple syrup. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry is the most representative. The marker for distinguishing this first major category is its "viscosity." This viscosity is related both to our mouthfeel and to the degree of sweetness, and can also be confirmed through smell. We can simply summarize 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 make you feel cloying? Or relatively light? In addition, honey's smell carries a bit of sourness and fermentation, while maple syrup smells relatively light with a slight woody note.

Brewing flavor: lemon, licorice, citrus, berries, sweet orange, overall high sweetness, with caramel and cream in the returning sweetness, and a black tea aroma in the finish.

2. Black 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 white sugar > yellow sugar > caramel, in coffee we need to add smell, which makes the sweetness in coffee black sugar > yellow sugar > white sugar. The intensity of sweetness differs, and the feeling it gives us is also different. | Spice

Generally produced during dark roast, including: Pungent: A sharp, nose-piercing taste. The reference given is a kind of orange essential oil, with a mouthfeel that has a traditional Chinese medicine aroma. The representative coffee is Front Street Golden Mandheling coffee beans.

Brewing flavor: varied layers, mellow and clean, high balance, rich herbal and spice aromas, with a chocolate note, lasting finish, and obvious sweetness.

| Sour / fermented

Sour Aromatics: Sour products, such as (Bushs Pinto Beans), a kind of canned pinto beans. Citric Acid and Malic Acid: More focused on sourness and astringency, and stronger. Butyric Acid: The taste of certain aged cheeses, such as Parmesan cheese. Isovaleric Acid: Also the taste of certain aged cheeses, such as Romano cheese.

| Alcoholic / fermented

Overripe: Although the reference is banana, it also refers to the sweet, slightly sour, moist, moldy, or earthy taste of other overripe fruits or vegetables. Winey: The reference is Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon. Fermented: The reference is Guinness Extra Stout beer. Whiskey: The reference is Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey Old No. 7. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Honduras Sherry is representative.

Brewing flavor: aromas of vanilla and cream on the nose, whiskey, berries, almond, and dark chocolate on the entry, with a maple syrup sweetness in the finish.

| Roasted

Acrid: Specifically refers to the bitterness after burning. The bitterness usually tasted is the bitterness of caffeine, not necessarily the kind of bitterness after burning. Smoky: The smell of wood ash after burning wood. Brown, Roast: Purely refers to the feeling of having been roasted. | Other (belonging to defective flavors)

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

"How does everyone practice distinguishing smells?"

First, this is the whole process of distinguishing smells: the brain receives information - compares - analyzes - memorizes.

We can smell an odor and taste a flavor, but perhaps we cannot describe it very accurately. The flavor wheel can concretely classify the entire human perceptual taste system, and corresponding to the olfactory system is the odor wheel. By practicing with both together, one can clearly perceive the subtlest differences among all odors.

For example, when we eat a strawberry for the first time, we observe the red appearance and shape of the strawberry through vision, taste its sweet and sour delicious flavor through taste, and at the same time feel the strawberry's aroma through smell, as well as the juicy mouthfeel of the flesh in the mouth. Most importantly, our brain receives this information, and thus we remember a fruit like the strawberry. This is a typical example of how we remember the taste of food.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) believes that sensory ability in coffee is a kind of recognition and descriptive ability. Coffee flavors are so diverse that different origins, varieties, and processing methods also cause coffee to produce different flavors. Building a flavor memory bank means extracting impressions of flavors from our memories, just as we can describe the strawberry flavor in strawberry yogurt because we have eaten strawberries and have a memory of strawberry flavor in our brains.

Baristas can improve their sensory ability through aroma vial calibration. However, aroma vials currently on the market are expensive, and after all, aroma vials are artificially processed, so the smell may differ somewhat from the actual aroma. Is there a cost-effective way to improve? That is to draw from daily life — deliberately eating something with a purpose. Even for those who have aroma vials, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) also recommends always sensing aromas, flavors, and experiences from life. When we eat fruit, we strive to remember the aroma and taste of that fruit in order to build our own flavor memory bank. After all, aroma vials only have 36 scents, but the flavors that can be described in coffee are far more than that. Baristas need to taste extensively, memorize, distinguish, and summarize, again and again, and sensory ability will improve little by little.

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