JASON SMITH, Just Love Coffee
Posted: Thursday, December 8, 2011 9:52 am

When you take that next sip of your favorite coffee, you taste one of the most complex flavors in the world of food.

Currently, there are more than 800 identified compounds in coffee and more are being discovered each year!

That makes coffee more complex that wine.

It’s no surprise hearing coffee connoisseurs discussing coffee using the same terms as wine aficionados.

In fact, the coffee industry has adopted a 100-point scale used by the wine industry to grade coffees.

I won’t go into the finer points of that system, but we can delve into the three basic characteristics we consider when we’re cupping a coffee.

Fragrance and Aroma
OK, so you’re probably saying “Well, duh.”

However, it’s important to understand that the fragrance is the smell of the dry grounds, whereas the aroma is the smell of the grounds after they have been soaked with hot water.

While both aroma and fragrance are olfactory sensations they can register differently as the water will release different aromatics through the brewing process.  

Coffee Body
The body of a coffee is the sensation of weight on the tongue.

It’s similar to the difference of milk on your tongue versus water.

This sense of weight is due to the fats and solids that are dissolved in the brew.

Darker roasted coffees, such as Sumatra or Ethiopian Harrar, are typically heavier in body than their lighter siblings like Costa Rican, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, or Tanzanian Peaberry.

Acidity
Acidity is generally assessed once the coffee has cooled down.

Coffee is full of tartaric, malic and citric acids that are also found in fruits such as grapes, apples or oranges.

These acidity notes will give a noticeable zing on the sides of your tongue that will vary in intensity depending on the coffee.

Additionally, you can get notes of the stone fruits like apricots, cherries or plums, which tend to be less acidic tasting and more juicy in nature.

The stone fruit notes come out in coffees that have gone through a natural process of removing the pulp and peel from the coffee cherry.

How do you get to a point where you can identify these characteristics and distinguish a malic acidity from a tartaric acidity?

Practice, practice and more practice.

Eat the actual fruits, nuts and other foods that you are attempting to identify in your coffee, noticing where on the tongue you are tasting the food.

Then find coffees that are known to be a strong representation of a certain characteristic.

Want a good sense of a coffee’s body?

Compare a Sumatra with a Costa Rican.

For acidity compare a Yirgacheffe (strong citrus notes) with a Rwandan (muted acidity). These extremes will allow you to really notice the far ends of the range and can help the development of your palate.

So the next time you’re sipping your favorite coffee roast, stop and focus on the playground your taste buds are playing on in that complex world of coffee.

Send me your coffee questions to Jason@JustLoveCoffee.com.

I’d love to hear from you.