We’re complete coffee geeks around here. We’re not apologizing for that…..
The SCAA Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel
We just want to make sure we’re all talking the same language. We understand that we can get a little…. let’s just say…. passionate…. about what we do. Sometimes we start talking a bunch of gibberish and it’s not at all helpful to you.
To fix that problem, we thought we’d mention a few coffee terms we tend to use a lot. No sense in us jabbering and you not understanding, right?
When we’re talking about the taste of coffee we might say….
“A very full body” – Make this comment to a person and you may get punched. With coffee, it’s a good thing. It’s the heaviness of coffee when you taste it. Our Growers First Honduras Coffee is a very full bodied coffee. Coffee can also have a “heavy”, “medium” or “weak” body – just like people. Kinda.
“A nice, bright acidity” – HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH pH or making your stomach churn! Acidity can be bright, winey, clear, snappy. Acidity is to coffee what dryness is to wine. Our Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Medium Roast coffee has a very bright acidity. Acidity is what makes a coffee “pop” and not fall flat when you taste it. If your stomach churns when you drink coffee it’s because you’re drinking coffee with a very high caffeine content which is probably mostly cheap robusta coffee beans (see below….)
“It has a deep complexity” – the presence of multiple aromas and flavors in a coffee where one particular aspect does not overwhelm all of the others, resulting in a very interesting taste and aroma sensation. Complexity in coffee, unlike life, is a good thing.
“A clean tasting cup” – Something like the opposite of complexity. A “clean” taste is one where the individual flavors of the coffee stand out. Sometimes it also has to do with the fact that it is a “washed” coffee. Most Central American coffees are washed and, often, have a very “clean” taste to them.
