Ahh, coffee! It's practically a religion in science. Cups often fuel a late night working on a proposal or finishing a paper. Carafes are never far at research seminars and conferences. Chances are good that when you last made a new collaborator they were holding it in their hands. While some aren't picky about what they drink, others have very defined preparations and purveyors. For this week's post, PhD student Elisa Dong decided to take a deeper dive and reports back on a coffee cupping event that she recently attended. (see the bottom of the post for a description of the image above)
by Elisa Dong
The best description I have for the act and event that is coffee cupping, is to align it with the better known wine tasting. One sips at the drink at specific temperatures in standardized vessels, makes notes, and repeats this task to compare with another offering. Techniques vary a bit from taster to taster, but for coffee cupping, it is normal to have a shallow spoon that dips into the coffee, and suck it in quickly to aerate the liquid.
I went to my first (and to date, only) coffee cupping event some weeks back. The event details were forwarded from a friend of mine that I had introduced to pour-overs (a way to make coffee) some years ago. I reached out on my dusty instagram account (that definitely has a suspicious sounding fake name) asking to attend, and was informed that I was welcome. So, I showed up to a coffee machine distributor's workplace in the middle of the day and work week somewhere in the east end of Toronto. It took a few minutes to find my way through the building, which was partially office, partially showroom, and partially restaurant. There were maybe 25 of us, including the hosts of the event.
It became apparent very quickly that I was the only one who hadn't "cupped" before, so there was a brief explanation of the general process and what the plans for the day where. Here's what I got out of the process.
Prep:
- there are 14 coffees on the table in similar sized and shaped vessels
- each of the coffees had been ground minutes before, with the same mass and grind size
Sniff round:
- we went around sniffing the freshly ground coffee and agitating the grains within the cups to get a deeper sniff
Bloom:
- each of the coffees was bloomed at the same temperature, and agitated with the same manner
- the foamy surface was removed and we were left with coffee immersing in water, settling to the bottom of the cup
- a water wash cup was available at each coffee to rinse off the sample spoon
Cupping:
- we did three rounds of tastings.
- The first was blind, shortly after the bloom (higher temperature),
- round two/three took place when the coffees cooled to just above room temperature,
- and after we were informed about what it was we were tasting (country, farm, origin, processing, extra details)
Figure 1. Me with a spoon. Circles show placement of coffee cups on a very long table.
My takes:
- I enjoyed samples 1-2 the most from sniffing the pre-soaked grounds, they had a "classic" coffee profile that I enjoy. Chocolatey and nutty
- samples 3-5 smelled like tea and were barely distinguishable from the background
- samples 8-14 smelled like various things, but generally fruity and floral, some more full bodied than others
- unsurprisingly, the chocolatey smelling coffees fell a bit flat on tasting. The complex body and richness went away in the brew
- sample 5 or 6 didn't remind me of cotton candy, as it did to another person, but it was bright and pungent
- samples 7 and 8 tasted extremely similar, one more rounded out than the other in mouth feel. Both more dynamic and berry like
- samples 9 through 12 were all variations on florals and stone fruits, one with a strawberry kick, and another with white florals
- sample 13 was a more muted floral coffee
- our wildhorse, sample 14, was predominantly silt by the time I got to it, but it was quite possibly the most flavourful coffee that wasn't a punch of acid in the mouth
Information (from memory):
- samples 1-2 were Brazilian coffees from a large scale grower. These were grown and processed with the intent of being crowd pleasers. For purchasing purposes, they were the cheapest of the lots
- samples 3-5 were from Rwanda (this was a surprise to many at the event). We received a brief political story discussing the origins of taking back parts of the coffee production from the government
- samples 6 and 7 I have forgotten the origins of, but they were coffees that had undergone various types of microbial treatment as part of someone's PhD thesis. They might have been from Ethiopia
- samples 8 and 9 were coffees from Mexico (another gasp) that had also received inoculation of sorts for various lengths of time
- samples 10-13 were Geishas (alt: Gesha) from various regions in the world. Floral and fruity indeed. I confirmed I didn't see the hype, though I could see the appeal drinking in the range of coffee from time to time
- sample 13 was sourced from Taiwan. The most expensive cup there due to the lack of desire to sell outside of the country
- sample 14 was a guest brought coffee, allegedly from some producer that only sells to one roaster per country, and said roaster has to fly in to pick up the coffee (in Canada, it's Monogram). Regrettably, I cannot remember what farm it was (Elida perhaps, I'm sure someone can correct me)
I highly recommend giving cupping a go! Whether it's for coffee or for something else. Having two cups of liquid brewed under similar conditions and throughout cooling is a fun way to train the palate and perhaps your appreciation for various tasting notes. I, for one, am still on the hunt for the perfect chocolate/nutty/toffee combo that actually tastes like it smells. One day. I left the event only slightly caffeinated and with a list of shops to check out to reduce disappointment in the Toronto coffee scene. We also pulled shots of an experimental espresso that tasted like battery acid + mango. Good stuff. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I also found that some of the individuals there shared similar hobbies and had the same complaints about coffee. Spontaneously attending free events that sound fun is not as difficult as I thought it would be, though it does seem that they are mostly run through social media.
Shout-out to Stealth Coffee Systems and Forward Coffee for running the tasting! And all the nice roasters/buyers/hobbyists that were real friendly and happy to share their thoughts. For a future blog post, I might dig up an ancient report I made on coffee shops and their Yelp rating validity throughout San Francisco that I submitted as my work term report that year. A more detailed version of this post may be available later on my own blog at abstract-ED.me.
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Caption for the image at the top of this article: In slightly unrelated content, I went coffee-hopping with someone I met at the event the next day. Look at this teeny tiny little Hario setup (can be seen at The Library on Dundas St.)! For scale, the carafe is less than 1 inch tall. Apparently you can buy these via gacha machine, or opened on ebay/etsy. If anyone is looking to send me gifts, you know where to go!
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