Cupping is one of the core tasks of coffee industry professionals, and it is a way to help people evaluate coffee flavors and characteristics in a relatively fair and systematic manner. Cupping occurs throughout the entire coffee supply chain, not only at the consumer end in coffee shops, but also at the production end in mid- to upstream roasting plants, at the origin, and so on. So how is cupping done?
The significance of cupping
Cupping is a method used by coffee professionals to evaluate coffee flavors and characteristics. Cupping can be said to have a wide range of uses. In producing regions, bean hunters judge the quality of green coffee beans through cupping. In the roasting stage, roasters use cupping to help adjust roasting curves. In coffee shops, baristas use cupping to control the final output quality of coffee beans.
At Front Street Coffee, cupping has always been one of the core parts of our work. We use cupping to test roasting curves and then make adjustments, and we also use cupping to control store output. This is because the extraction mode of cupping strives for simplicity and is an immersion-style extraction, with the fewest human influencing factors, and it can best reflect the quality of the coffee itself.
During the cupping process, one action of the participants is very noticeable: the cupper uses a cupping spoon to scoop out the coffee liquid and take it into the mouth, making a sound like drinking soup or a sharp sound. We call this slurping. Today's article will talk about slurping and how to slurp.
Why slurp
Although the loud sound of slurping during cupping always feels slightly inelegant, the action of slurping can atomize the coffee liquid, which on the one hand increases speed, and on the other hand enhances retronasal smell and taste perception of the coffee flavors.
In coffee tasting, flavor mainly refers to the sensation produced by the combination of taste and smell. Taste can be considered as several sensations felt through receptors on the tongue, namely sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami.
Smell, however, refers to aroma and odor perceived through the nasal cavity. Unlike taste, which can only perceive five kinds, smell can perceive thousands of different aromas, but these aromas need to be volatile. If a substance does not release molecules from its surface into the air, it is equivalent to having no aroma. For example, when we eat a strawberry, the tongue's sense of taste tastes sour and sweet, while retronasal smell detects the aroma of the strawberry, and these two combine into the experience of eating a strawberry.
The same applies to coffee, so the purpose of slurping is to atomize the coffee liquid, increase the surface area of the coffee liquid, and improve the perception of coffee flavors by taste and smell.Many friends say they cannot taste the flavor descriptions written on coffee bean packaging. Perhaps the method of slurping can help you further perceive the more subtle flavors of coffee.
The method of slurping
First, use a cupping spoon to scoop an appropriate amount of coffee liquid, keeping the cupping spoon as parallel as possible, and take the coffee liquid into your mouth.Press the cupping spoon against your teeth, and keep your lower lip pressed against the cupping spoon with no gap.Let only the coffee liquid be slurped from the upper lip area. When slurping, use the muscles in the neck area to exert force, and strive for a continuous, fast motion without pausing.
At this time, a relatively sharp sound will be made, similar to the principle of whistling, but Front Street Coffee needs to emphasize that the purpose of slurping is to atomize the coffee liquid, not to make a sharp sound. If the purpose of atomization can be achieved, even a quieter sound is acceptable.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
