Tasting 101

The big four

Sweetness (good roast, good bean), acidity (the pleasant tang — think fruit, not vinegar), body (skim milk against whole), bitterness (fine in small doses, like an aunt; alarming in bulk).

Sort the notes

Put each note in the box it belongs to.

• Sweetness
  • round, and easy to miss
• Acidity
  • bright and juicy, like fruit
  • makes your mouth water
• Body
  • skim milk against whole milk
  • the oils a press leaves in
• Bitterness
  • drying, after you swallow

Sweetness is round and easy to miss, acidity is the bright start, body is weight rather than flavour, and bitterness lands last.

Tangy, not sour

Acidity in a good cup should read as…

Answer: Bright and juicy, like fruit — not vinegar. Sourness with no sweetness behind it is a different thing, and usually under-extraction.

Slurp, and loudly

Pros slurp because spraying coffee across your whole mouth reaches all your taste buds at once and sends aromas up the back of your nose, where most “taste” actually happens. Etiquette loses this round, gracefully.

Sour or bitter: the one to learn

Sour and thin: under-extracted (grind finer, brew longer). Bitter, harsh and drying: over-extracted (grind coarser, brew shorter).

Which way the needle goes

You grind coarser and brew shorter. Which way does the needle go?

Answer: Toward sour: less comes out of the grounds. It is the same dial that rescues a bitter cup, turned the other way.

The skill that pays for itself

This one skill, reading extraction, cures 90% of bad homemade coffee; no patent remedy does better. Pick what your cup tastes like and the fix follows.