What is cupping? Expert tasters are the aristocrats of the coffee industry. These coffee masters specialize in sampling small amounts of various coffee beans that are being considered for production and distribution.
Professional coffee tasting is referred to as “cupping.” It is similar to wine tasting, in that these experts can distinguish the very origin in a sample coffee blend, simply by smelling and tasting.
There are however, very few individuals who posses this rare ability. In fact, the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange employs fewer than forty tasters that are responsible for all the coffee imported for entire United States market.
Objective and scientific notes are kept, documenting the tasters’ impressions of each coffee bean sample. The six standard criteria involve all five sense: Presentation, Sight, Aroma, Taste, Body and Acidity.
Professional coffee tasters (known in the trade as “coffee cuppers) are passionate about their special abilities.
They slurp the coffee violently and noisily from a testing spoon. The sample is almost inhaled, projected into the back of the mouth and sprayed in the roof of the palate, and is then rolled and almost chewed before it is professionally spit into a bucket.
Cupping
