How to taste coffee like a pro

Tasting coffee like a pro isn't about having a special palate. It's about knowing what to look for, slowing down, and comparing. Learn five things to taste for and one simple method, and within a few cups you'll notice far more in your coffee.

At our Brixton roastery we taste every batch before it leaves. Here's how we do it, and how you can do it at home.

The five things professionals taste for

When a roaster or Q grader tastes coffee, they aren't just deciding whether they like it. They're working through the same checklist every time.

1. Aroma. What you smell before and while you drink. Most of what we call flavour is actually smell, so start here.
2. Acidity. The brightness that makes your mouth water, like biting into an apple. Good acidity is lively and juicy, not sour.
3. Sweetness. Caramel, honey, ripe fruit. Well-roasted specialty coffee has plenty of natural sweetness without any sugar added.
4. Body. How the coffee feels in your mouth. Light and tea-like, or heavy and syrupy like whole milk.
5. Finish. What's left after you swallow. A good finish is clean and pleasant and lingers. A poor one is dry, bitter or disappears instantly.

Once you can pick these apart, tasting notes on a bag start to make sense.

How to taste: three habits that change everything

Slurp it. Take a spoonful and suck it in hard and loud, so the coffee sprays across your whole tongue and up towards your nose. It feels silly. It's also the single biggest step up, because it pulls aroma into the back of your nose where most flavour is detected.

Let it cool. Very hot coffee hides flavour. As it cools, sweetness and fruit come forward, and any defects show up too. Taste the same cup at hot, warm and room temperature. Many coffees are at their best lukewarm.

Taste side by side. One coffee on its own is hard to describe. Two next to each other are easy, because the differences jump out. One is brighter, one is heavier, one is sweeter. This is why professionals almost never taste one coffee at a time.

One more thing: drink some water between sips, and avoid strong food, mint or toothpaste for half an hour beforehand.

How to cup coffee at home

Cupping is how roasters and buyers taste coffee professionally. It removes the brew method from the equation, so you taste the coffee and nothing else. All you need is a scale, a kettle, a grinder, some mugs or small bowls, and a soup spoon.

1. Weigh. Use 8g of coffee per 150ml of water. Set up one cup per coffee, and ideally two or three coffees at once.
2. Grind. Grind each coffee medium-coarse, a little coarser than for filter. Smell the dry grounds and note what you get.
3. Pour. Heat water to just off the boil, about 93°C. Pour it straight onto the grounds, fill to the top, and start a timer.
4. Wait 4 minutes. A crust of grounds forms on top. Don't stir.
5. Break the crust. At 4 minutes, push the crust back with your spoon three times, with your nose right over the cup. This is the strongest burst of aroma you'll get.
6. Skim. Use two spoons to lift off the foam and floating grounds.
7. Taste. From about 10 minutes, slurp from each cup in turn, rinsing the spoon in hot water between coffees. Keep going as they cool over the next 15–20 minutes.
8. Write it down. Note aroma, acidity, sweetness, body and finish for each coffee, plus any flavours that come to mind.

You can also taste your normal brew, whether filter, cafetière or espresso, using the same habits. Cupping is just the cleanest comparison.

Building your flavour vocabulary

The hardest part for most people isn't tasting. It's finding the words. The trick is to work from broad to specific.

Start wide: is it fruity, sweet, nutty or chocolatey, floral, or spicy? Then narrow it down. Fruity becomes berry, then blackcurrant. Sweet becomes caramel, then brown sugar. The SCA Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel is laid out exactly this way and is free to find online. Keep it next to you while you taste.

There are no wrong answers. If a coffee reminds you of Ribena or a Bakewell tart, write that down. Professional tasting notes are just agreed versions of the same thing.

To train your memory, taste and smell real things on purpose: a ripe plum, dark chocolate, a lemon, a handful of almonds. The more flavours you've noticed deliberately, the faster you'll recognise them in a cup.

Three tasting exercises to try

• Washed vs natural. Taste a washed and a natural coffee side by side. The washed will be cleaner and brighter, the natural fruitier and heavier. This is the fastest way to understand process.
• Two origins. Compare an East African coffee, from Ethiopia, Kenya or Uganda, with one from Brazil. Notice the difference in acidity and body. Shop single origin.
• One coffee, three temperatures. Taste the same cup hot, warm and cold. Write down how it changes. Most people are surprised how much sweeter it gets.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up acidity and sourness. Acidity is bright and pleasant. Sourness is sharp and thin, and usually means under-extraction: the coffee was ground too coarse or brewed too fast.
• Mixing up bitterness and strength. Harsh bitterness usually means over-extraction or a very dark roast, not "strong" coffee.
• Tasting with milk and sugar. Both hide flavour. Taste black first, then add milk if you like.
• Judging too early. Give a coffee a few sips and a few minutes to cool before you decide.

FAQs

Why do you slurp coffee when tasting? Slurping sprays coffee across your palate and pulls aroma into the back of your nose. That's where most flavour is detected.

What is coffee cupping? The standard professional method for tasting coffee. Ground coffee steeps in hot water, the crust is broken, and the coffee is tasted from a spoon as it cools.

What does acidity mean in coffee? The bright, juicy quality that makes your mouth water, like citrus or apple. It's a sign of quality, not a fault.

Why can't I taste the notes on the bag? Tasting notes describe what a coffee reminds the roaster of, not added flavours. Brew it well, let it cool, and taste it next to another coffee. The notes usually become much clearer.

What is a Q grader? A professional coffee taster certified by the Coffee Quality Institute to score coffees to a set standard.

Keep tasting

Tasting is a skill, and like any skill it improves with practice. Taste two coffees side by side once a week and write down what you notice. Within a month you'll pick up things you'd never have spotted.

Every coffee we roast comes with tasting notes to start from, and a coffee subscription brings a new one to compare each month. If you want to learn it properly, our SCA Intermediate course teaches you to dial in by taste, at our Brixton roastery.