What is Coffee Cupping?

How do we come up with the flavors attached to our coffee blends?

It's through a process called cupping. I'll try to give you a very simple explanation to a very complicated and highly skilled process here.

Coffee is repeatedly tested for quality and taste. This process is referred to as "cupping" and usually takes place in a room specifically designed to facilitate this process. 

• First, the taster — usually called the cupper — evaluates the beans for their overall visual quality. The beans are then roasted in a small laboratory roaster, immediately ground and infused in boiling water with carefully-controlled temperature. The cupper noses the brew to experience its aroma, an essential step in judging the coffee's quality. 

• After letting the coffee rest for several minutes, the cupper breaks the crust by pushing aside the grounds at the top of the cup. Again, the coffee is nosed before the tasting begins.

• To taste the coffee, the cupper slurps a spoonful with a quick inhalation. The objective is to spray the coffee evenly over the cupper's taste buds, and then weigh it on the tongue before spitting it out. 

Samples from a variety of batches and different beans are tasted daily. Coffees are not only analyzed to determine their characteristics and flaws, but also for the purpose of blending different beans or creating the proper roast. An expert cupper can taste hundreds of samples of coffee a day and still taste the subtle differences between them. 

Below is the flavor wheel that is used to match the cupping flavor, body and other attributes. Again this is a very simple explanation. For further information you can go to the Specialty coffee association’s web page.