Why Cup
To talk intelligently about coffee, develop a tasting vocabulary and determine what you like it’s a good idea to try and compare different coffees. One way to do this is a time tested exercise that even the experts abide by. Much like a wine tasting, it’s called a cupping.
Cupping is best done in a group, where you can compare and contrast notes, opinions and thoughts on what you are sampling. For many beginning cuppers, evaluating coffee with others will open your eyes and your tastebuds to nuances in a coffee you might have otherwise missed.
How To
You’ll want to pick at least three different coffees to cup. If you’re new to cupping you may want to pick coffees from different regions of the world (one from the Americas, one from Africa and one from Indonesia). If you want to refine your palate, you may want to choose from the same region and see if you can differentiate.
Once you’ve decided on your coffees, you’ll want an even playing field so you can compare apples to apples. This means that they should all have the same roast, grind, water, temperature and brewing method. To ensure that the brewing method doesn’t get in the way, true cupping is done without a brewer of any type.
Per person, you should have a 6-12 ounce glass per type of coffee, some paper for notes, a slurping spoon and one cup of water for rinsing out your spoon. Spoon in 2 tablespoons of ground coffee of each type into the cups. It sometimes helps to label (or post-it note the bottom) the cups, it’s even fun to have a blind or secret one.
