A few years ago, another coffee company and mine exchanged espresso blends (and I think some other coffees) for a little review. Ya know, you show me yours and I'll show you mine?
I think it was either Nick or Andy Barefoot Newbom that started the whole thing, but let's not get into that.
After about a week, we got an email with cupping notes… which really threw us for a loop. All kinds of crazy nuance was found, "daunting with notes of jungle and an evasive Frankenberry cereal finish. We tasted bitter mace and a broccoli cheddar baked spud blah blah blah." Okay, maybe I don't quite remember the email exactly, but it was a lot like that. After a bunch of this to read, we were kinda left wondering. What the hell? How did it score? We had no idea whether they even liked the coffee. And that's my subject today.
DOOOOOdes, get some score sheets and look at a flavor wheel so I know what the heck you're on about!
At a most incredible meeting of the minds in Oaxaca last week, roasters from USA and Canada cupped along side producers, exporters, and coop quality control folks. Some of the young women that run the coop cupping rooms started cupping at 15. Now they're all around 23 and so knowledgeable and confident. It's a discipline for them. Unlike me at their age, they can and will tell you when you're full of shit.
Sevan - the bad ass from Montreal- says in one of the cuppings, "Blah blah blah, and distinct yellow rose aromatics." Yellow rose. That killed me. And the producers and cupping chicks all look at each other like... what the hell with the "yellow rose?" It just about killed me.
And then Haiashi-san ('scuz the misspelling) was leery of all scores because we didn't have intensity of acidity on the score sheets, and no sweetness or uniformity.
Then Ric Rhinehart had a box of Fruit Loops on the table next to the dried peaches. "Smell it! It's the Geisha!!" he exclaimed.
One grower was confused, "Just tell us what you want, because we are finding a lot of defect in the flavors and aromas you are showing us. At this point, just tell us what you want."
So weird, but interesting. Makes me wonder... what's so bad about starting with a score sheet? Give me fragrance, aroma, flavor, acidity, body, aftertaste, overall, and then some nuance. Thanks a bunch you blabbers (and you know who you are).
Andi Trindle-Walker (of Volcafe Specialty) has a thing about recording intensity as well AND using the flavor wheel. She is on a mission to bring back the wheel and I'm all for it. Call me old fashioned - and I like single shots, too
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Taste is fundamentally subjective.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is the key to all of this. If we can begin at a common point at least, we are far better off.
ReplyDeleteWe all tasted a lot of fruity coffees in Oaxaca. Good stuff, but it was beginning to turn my stomach. If I tasted anymore blueberry I was going to barf.
But then, this amazing Costa Rica appeared...totally elegant and balanced. Oh my god, it was georgeous. I seriously wondered if anyone else was going to love it after so much flashy fruit. I shouldn't have wondered...Sevan called it "orgasmic".
trish-
ReplyDeleterather than just write it off with a snarky little reply, i'll say this:
i think that scoresheets and flavor wheels are great tools, when used properly, and when the people using them have been trained how to use them. (this relates back to my whole "panel of experts" argument for the roastmaster challenge at retreat...but i digress.)
when we do our cuppings at counter culture, we don't do numerical scores. we've found that people get hung up on trying to figure out whether a coffee has a brightness worth 7.5 points or if it's only worth 7...they get bogged down in numbers because numbers by their nature are absolute. absoluteness implies a right and a wrong. when we're cupping with the public, we don't want people to think of things as being right or wrong, we jsut want to get people into a mindset where they are talking about the coffee; focusing on what they are experiencing. there are no wrong answers. if you taste a baby ruth candy bar, that's what you taste. after everyone has finished with their notes we have the wrap-up session, where we discuss our various experiences and create parallels and links betwenn the different desciptors. it builds a nice bit of temporary community, and offers up support to those that are less experienced and keeps everyone involved.
this is not the case necessarily in a more competitive cupping situation. since you have a panel of experts, all the experts need to be calibrated and talking the same language. the language should be simple, concise, and universal. you can't tell a mexican coffee grower that his coffee tastes like count chocula...there's no frame of reference. you can however say that you detect chocolate, and some oats...this is within the sphere of experience. by using this, and a professionally scored cupping form, the producer will have a pretty good idea of how much you liked the coffee (he has a score, which tells him on a scale of 1 to 100 how he ranks) and what via descriptors you liked about it.
so, while i agree that sheets and wheels are great tools to have, i don't think they're necessarily useful as an educational tool when cupping with the public. when you have a group of pros talking however, i think they're great.
awesome post.
Gee, you so and so
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment wholeheartedly....proof that a full response is always better than a snarky remark. (though I generally enjoy snarky even when directed at me).
Another thing Sevan told me when I detected "pipe tabacco". He said,
"You cannot say 'pipe tabacco', what you are tasting is tabacco and fruit and spice. You must not group them together."
And so with the count chocula, you are correct (by Sevan's standard)that you found chocolate and oats...which further bolsters the idea of the wheel.
so there
Yeah well. POKE POKE POKE
ReplyDeleteThe real difference here is between cupping with professionals and amatuers. Taste is subjective when it comes to likes and dislikes and you are just beginning on your road to sensory discovery. But the tastes are very real--So exactly. When someone says Count Chocula there are ways to more accurately describe that flavor sensation using the cupping wheel. Fact is, that taste really is not subjective. Perhaps different folks would describe it differently, using a variety of words and phrases that usually add up to the same thing. But as pros--we need to be using that wheel so we can communicate with each other and of course with producers to accurately identify the tastes we are experiencing.
Count Chocula, Fruit Loops, Shredded Spoonfuls--these are all just signposts set up along our sensory highway that point to very specific points on the flavor wheel.
My question is--was the blueberry taste you were getting in fact, a defect?
Great post Ms Trish.
I pick Keith for my team in this game of "Red Rover, Red Rover.. send PeterG right over...".
ReplyDeletemy question is, can i continue to use beer as a reference for body descriptors? technically the wheel is only for flavors and smells...
ReplyDeletedo we need a body wheel? (if i can get on the committee for that, beer descriptors are a shoe-in..."porteresque", "stoutish", "alelike")
how about and acidity wheel?
isn't it funny that professionals have to break it down to make it simple to communicate to one another, while communicating with the public they're allowed true expression?
dig 'em
Among professionals, a common language and vocabulary is mission-critical. It's necessary to facilitate a dialogue and exchange of ideas.
ReplyDeleteTo the "general public," it's more one-directional... we're teaching them. As long as they're learning, the words and vocabulary are somewhat irrelevant.
My 2.5 year old says, "I don't want strawberries," when she, in fact does want them. It's just one of those language-quirks that we're trying to work through. For now, when she says she doesn't want them, we just give them to her (when appropriate), and everyone walks away happy. When she's older, and we're talking about issues more critical than berries, knowing exactly what she means becomes more important.
"I don't want to go to college."
Ugh.
Beer and milk references are fine when speaking to folks that drink those things.
ReplyDeleteRound here, you may make comparisons between skim milk and Whole milk and get the "im lactose intolerant" response. "Well ya know the diff between Vitasoy creamy and Rice Dream?" And they nod.
Gee and I may be able to compare the bodies of Dogfish Immort'ale and Anderson Valley Barney Flatts Oatmeal Stout, but most folks cant. (especially at origin)
I might be able to say "this Yirgi has the crisp, floral acidity of a Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA" but most no one will know what the hell im talking about.
I think its fine, among us, to geek out on our palates, and discuss these things. But they really make it hard to communicate clearly in a professional setting.
Sooo...Was the blueberry a defect????