Cupping is how we ‘taste’ coffee in the industry. This standardised sensory evaluation method is used by everyone from roasters to producers and importers. It’s how we assess the aroma, flavour, acidity, body and aftertaste of a coffee as well as to spot taints or defects.
The cupping process itself involves a strict standardised procedure, but this is really quite simple and it is something you can do at home.
What you'll need:
- You’ll need to find several glasses or cups of equal size roughly able to hold anything between 200ml to 350ml of water. (you’ll need two cups for each coffee you intend to cup.
- A cupping spoon, or any round spoon such as a soup spoon will do the trick!
- Freshly boiled water
- Freshly roasted coffee
- A grinder
- Scales
- A timer
The brewing ratio for coffee to water for cupping is 8.25g coffee to 150ml of water. So for example a 240ml cup will need 13.2g coffee.
Method:
- Weigh out the desired amount of coffee into each cup. Grind the beans to a medium grind (we like to do ours a little finer than our filter grind) into the cup making sure to flush a little bit of the same coffee through the grinder first so the sample isn't contaminated with another coffee.
- Smell the freshly ground coffee and make notes of the fragrance.
- Pour boiling water to the top of each of the cups and set the timer for four minutes. After four minutes, ‘break the crust’ of coffee that has formed on the top of each cup by gently pushing the back of your spoon three times through each cup. Make sure you dip your spoon into a clean glass of water before moving onto the next cup. This is also a very good time to get down close and smell the aroma of the wet coffee.
- Wait another four or five minutes until the coffee is cool enough to taste. Put a small amount of coffee into your spoon and slurp it making sure to aerate as much as possible throughout your mouth. Think about getting the coffee off your spoon without tilting it!
- Continue this process over the next 20 minutes or so working through all the coffees and going back and forth making notes of the acidity, the body, the flavour and the aftertaste.
Check out this James Hoffman video on how to cup.
