The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

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The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

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The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

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The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

 

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When you hear of a coffee being described with flavor notes such as peach and pineapple, the coffee isn’t necessarily flavored that way. Flavor notes are usually very subtle hints of identifiable tastes in the Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel (above). Here are a few things to do to start tasting flavor notes in coffee:

1. Empty your mind

We drink coffee so often that we tend to filter out what it actually tastes like, similar to how the air in your home is only detectable after you have been gone a while. Begin to actually pull apart the flavors as if every cup of coffee is your first by attempting to forget what coffee tastes like altogether.

 

2. Familiarize yourself with other foods and flavors

In order to properly taste complex flavor notes such as coriander and rose, you have to actually be able to identify them. When you enter a restaurant or room that has a certain scent, try your best to identify exactly what you’re smelling.

 

3. Skip the cream and sugar

Although cream and sugar will certainly add flavor characteristics to your coffee, it will completely mask the flavors that naturally come out of the coffee bean. If sugar is necessary for you to enjoy a coffee, be sure that you’re using the same ratio each time, but it is not recommended to add anything at all.

 

4. Important: Try coffees against each other

More than what a coffee tastes like on it’s own, flavor notes are more easily detected when compared to other coffees. The best way to pull flavor notes from coffee are by using immersion brewing methods. Immersion methods require coffee grounds to be fully immersed in water for all or most of brew time, then filtered. 

There are complicated guides to cupping with specific equipment for immersion brewing, but the easiest way is to use a French Press. When comparing two or more coffees, be sure that:

  • The same coffee to water ratio and water tempurature is used for all varieties
  • The immersion time is consistent (around four minutes)
  • The coffee is tasted consecutively and at a similar tempurature

 

5. Keep notes of what you taste

Even if the flavor notes begin as simple as “fruity”, jot down your thoughts and you will soon be able to move into more specific flavors and notes. Record the country of origin, what it smells like, and your best descriptor–whatever pops into your head. 

 

 

What flavor notes do you taste in Death Wish Coffee? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

 

The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

The Easiest Way to Taste Flavor Notes in Coffee

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