Episode 7: Tasting Coffee - What Makes the Best Cup?
The Story
Hemisphere Coffee Roasters has been roasting here in Champaign County for 24 years. In the early days, most of our customers were not familiar with coffee as a product of “place.” Single-origin titles such as Guatemala or Sumatra were a bit of a put-off.
I remember one morning a semi pulled up and parked out front of our shop on Main Street in Mechanicsburg. The driver came in to get a cup of coffee. He looked at our labels — Kenya AA and Burg Blend — and said,
“I just want a cup of coffee. None of this fancy stuff, just plain coffee.”
I told him they were both plain cups of coffee — this is what we had. He got irritated immediately and walked out, mumbling,
“I just want a plain old cup of coffee.”
The Evolution of Taste
Today, the coffee-drinking public is much more tuned into the origins and nuances of the coffee they’re drinking. In fact, many of our customers want to see our cupping notes — how we describe the coffee and how it differentiates one from another.
Factors like:
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Altitude (bean density)
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Variety
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Annual weather conditions
...all impact the flavor characteristics of the green (unroasted) bean — even before roasting.
Once in the roaster, we make careful decisions about roast level and heat curve (rate of rise). We’ve discovered how each of our coffees wants to be roasted to deliver the smoothness and sweetness that is latent in the green bean.
Developing a Palate for Coffee
We host tasting events here at our roastery to encourage customers to develop the art of tasting coffee. When we describe a roast as lemony or chocolatey, it’s not that we’re tasting lemon or chocolate directly but just for a moment, the same taste sensation you get with a lemon or a bite of chocolate is there — then gone.
Allowing the coffee to stay on your palate a bit longer can help in sensing flavors that might otherwise be missed.
Coffee that has cooled down usually has a much clearer taste. If a freshly brewed cup of coffee is of low quality, the quality can be masked. We have thousands of taste receptors on our tongues. With extreme heat (170 degrees and above), three-quarters of these receptors are not functioning. As the beverage cools, it allows more of these receptors to activate and give feedback as to what it is tasting.
The Best Coffee? It’s Personal.
I am often asked,
“What’s the best coffee?”
My response is usually,
“What’s the best color?”
It all depends on what you like. It is very personal. We usually drink coffee that we were given as youngsters. My grandma made weakly brewed coffee; my mother made very weak coffee. That is what I used to drink too—and I liked it. As I started roasting and trying many variations, I have trained my taste preference to enjoy very strongly brewed coffee.
While discussing the strength of coffee, all coffee can be brewed strong. We have customers who come in and say this or that coffee was too strong. If you get a coffee that is too strong for you, brew it weaker or—better yet—brew it and add hot water. Strength is an issue of ratio. When talking ratios, I’m referring to how many grams of coffee to water.
I prefer:
28g of coffee
340g of water
(Or: 2 heaping tablespoons per 12 oz cup)
This is a fairly strong ratio. If I add some hot water, it retains its flavor, is mild and sweet—just not as strong. By doing this, not all the water went through the grounds. Over-extraction tends to bring out a bitter note. My encouragement is to brew strong (creating an extract of sorts), then thin down to taste. This produces a much smoother cup of coffee.
Final Thoughts
👉 Don’t let anyone tell you what coffee you should like.
You like what you like.
It is good to try various origins, blends, roast depth levels, etc. — but in the end, you will gravitate to a coffee taste that you like. That is your best coffee!
☕ Want to Taste the Journey?
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