Cupping Coffee

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Cupping is the technique used by cuppers to evaluate the flavor profile of a coffee. To understand the minor differences between coffee growing regions, it is important to cup coffees from around the world side-by-side. Cupping is also used to evaluate a coffee for defects or to create coffee blends.

Cupping Technique

Table Preparation: In a cupping session the table is usually set up with 6 to 10 cups per coffee. These are fashioned in a triangular manner. At the top of this triangle you should place a sample of the roasted coffee and a sample of the green coffee. In the center of the table place a cup of room temperature water and an empty cup containing the cupping spoons. I heavily recommend covering both the green sample and roasted sample until the cupping session is over and the fragrance, aroma, and flavor profile have been documented. After this time the samples could be uncovered and additional comments can be written based on appearance. This method will help reduce the common "eye cupping" technique.

Sample Preparation: To prepare the samples place 2 tablespoons of freshly roasted and freshly ground coffee in a 6 oz cup. Ideally one should use 55g of coffee per liter of water. The grind should be between a French press size and a drip coffee size. The coffee should be roasted light (Agtron 65). In the industry we often stop the roast about 30 seconds into the first crack long before the start of the second crack. This allows us to fully evaluate the coffee for defects and for the sweetness and aroma that are burned off at darker roasts. The roast should be similar for all of the coffees evaluated. During an important cupping session the roast similarity can be verified visually by grinding a portion of each sample and lining the samples up next to each other on a black sheet of paper.

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