When professionals taste and rate coffees they do so through a technique called cupping. To learn about the process of cupping click here. In order to insure consistency throughout all of their ratings, there is specific criteria that they examine: Fragrance, Flavor, Acidity, Body, After-taste, Balance, Uniformity, Sweetness, Clean Cup, and Overall. Although Uniformity, Sweetness, and Clean are mostly geared towards determining a coffee’s consistency and will generally not be used at home, the rest of the criteria can be. Below are the definitions for the terminology. Please feel free to give it a try yourself at home!

Hint: Try slurping your coffee when tasting it. It combines oxygen with the coffee and allows you to taste more.

Fragrance- A product of the acidity and flavor of a coffee. Different coffees have differences in fragrances that tend to reflect the flavor of a coffee. For example, a very rich coffee would tend to have a rich aroma. In some coffees a light floral aroma may be found. The full fragrance can usually only be experienced before tasting a coffee because of how the olfactory and taste senses interact.

Acidity- Sharp snappy taste that is not sour or bitter. Deals with the sharpness and brightness of flavor and helps give coffee a lively flavor. Is analogous to the term dry in wine. Can be described as bright, sharp, lively, snap, tang, vibrant, etc.

Flavor- A term that describes the interaction of all the other terms with the exception of after-taste. For this reason flavor can become slightly ambiguous. Professional tastes tend to use three terms to describe flavor: Richness, Complexity, and Balance.

Richness- Describes the fullness of taste that one gets as body in an Indonesian, or as the winy acidity of a good Ethiopian.

Complexity- The interaction between acidity, body, and aroma. In good coffees   these should combine to create an ever-changing taste.

Balance- The balance between all the different flavor characteristics, one   characteristic shouldn’t over ride all of the others.

Balance- When no single aspect overpowers the other, which does not necessarily mean that it is a good tasting coffee. Note: Balance is a separate category as well an aspect of flavor. In reference to flavor balance only pertains to the balance of flavors. As a separate category it refers to the balance of all the aspects.

Body- The mouth-feel experienced on the back of the tongue. Literally is the parts per million of the coffee. Can be described as heavy, rich, thick, etc. One of the easiest coffee terms to experience.

After-taste- The taste that remains on the palate after the coffee has left. Should be fairly strong and pleasant, like a good memory in your mouth. Similar to the after-taste left by good chocolate and how that is considered a positive thing.

Overall- With all aspects considered, the impression that coffee makes on you as a whole.