My First Coffee Cupping

         Last year, I had the opportunity to tour the facility of Roast Magazine's 2012 Macro Roaster of the Year, Portland Roasting Coffee.  Andy Davis of PRC not only took me on a great tour of the roastery, but educated me on PRC's award-winning product and international contributions to coffee growing regions.Read: Profile - Portland Roasting CoffeeRead: Profile - Roast Magazine[ad#Google Adsense - use me]One of the most educational portions of the tour and discussion was the coffee cupping that Andy and I did.What is coffee cupping?  It's the process of evaluating the flavor and richness of a coffee.  It can be for evaluating a sample of coffee before the roaster commits to a large order.  Or, it can be used by the roaster to help write an insightful description of the coffee for customers.  Cupping allows an appreciation for fine details.  The short explanation is that it's the process for sniffing coffee to determine its aroma characteristics, and slurping the coffee so it reaches the back of the tongue, allowing a thorough evaluation of the coffee's taste.     Samples of coffee are cupped before PRC commits to importing an entire container of it.  A container of coffee contains thousands of pounds of it, so PRC needs to be sure they are confident of its quality.  Cupping is also used by PRC to spot-check coffee from a full container to ensure consistency throughout the container.Step #1: The form of evaluation.PRC adheres to the Specialty Coffee Assocation of America’s standard cupping form.  This allows consistency between cuppers at PRC, as well between the company itself and their peers in the industry, most of whom use the same form.Step #2: Inspect the coffeeAndy looks for bean damage, such as damage caused by insects.  One bad bean will spoil an entire batch of coffee.Step #3: Three trialsAndy heats enough water for three glasses of the same coffee to ensure three separate and independent trials.  Aside from ensuring multiple tests of the same batch, it's also possible that bean damage would be missed if cupping only one or two glasses.Step #4: Smell the dry grindsThis is our first instance of using the cupping form.  While the water is heating, we smelled the dry grinds in each of the three glasses and made note of any aromatic observations.Step #5: Brew the coffeeHot water is added to the three glasses, and each is allowed to brew for a standard four minutes.  As this brewing takes place, the ground coffee rises to the surface, forming a barrier at the top of the glass.Step #6: Smell the wet grindsWhile the coffee is brewing, we smelled the wet grinds.  They will release different aromatic qualities, also to be noted on the cupping form.Step #7: Break the barrierAt the end of the four minute brewing time, we break the grinds that have formed a solid layer at the top of the glass.  We did this using a spoon, and immediately took in the gasses that are released by the coffee into the nose.  Some powerful indicators of the coffee’s quality and flavor will be evident in those first released gasses, so they can't be missed right after the barrier is broken.      Step #8: Slurp the coffeeThis was the part of coffee cupping that I had seen before on TV, and that had discouraged me from taking part in it.  Slurping and spitting is definitely not appealing if you don't understand why it's being done.  With an explanation from Andy of why exactly this is so important to the process of evaluating coffee, I slurped!This is done by clearing off the crust of grinds from the glass, and slurping spoonfuls of the coffee.  The slurping ensures the coffee reaches the back of your tongue for a thorough evaluation of its taste.  Separately, you are evaluating aftertaste, flavor, body, and acidity, all of which noted on the cupping form.This process will allow the evaluator to give the coffee a score out of 100.  I asked Andy how much variance is typical between one evaluator and another, assuming there's as much art to this as science.  Andy estimated that there could be as much variance as 10 points, but between evaluators accustomed to the same standard, those who cup together often, not nearly as much variance.It is cool for me to think that it’s possible to have near-objective evaluation of coffee.  As part of my ongoing coffee education, this was a very important and memorable experience for me.  I can't thank Andy Davis and Portland Roasting Coffee enough!