Preparation
Make sure that you have the following before staring your cupping:
• Small ceramic or glass bowl that holds approximately 5-7oz.
• Broad soup spoons (2 per person)
• Separate discard cup
• Separate rinsing cup for spoons
• How water heater
• Quality water
• Quality grinder
• Something to write on/with
To Begin
• Measure out 7 grams of coffee (about 1½ Tbsp)
• Grind the coffee at a coarse setting (almost as coarse as you would grind for French press)
• Pour hot water in rinsing cups
Dry Sniff
Smell the freshly ground coffee. Try to pinpoint what flavors are in the coffee. Use the coffee’s description to help guide you while you are still training your pallet. Write down what you are smelling.
• Next add in hot water, bring the coffee all the way to the top.
• Water should be heated to 195º-205º (A little less than boiling)
• Time out 4 minutes from when the water was added
Wet Sniff
After letting the coffee sit for 4 minutes, the coffee grounds will have formed a crust on top. With one spoon, break through the crust and bring a little coffee up in the spoon. Keep your nose right down by the cup for this process.
Pay attention to what flavors you are smelling. Some will be the same as the dry smell, while others will be new. Also, pay attention as to how some flavors “develop” with the addition of water. Record what you are picking up with the wet sniff.
• With two spoons, skim off the coffee grounds from the cup. Hold the spoons so the concave side is facing you, and is almost perpendicular to the liquid. The spoons should be held one in each hand, and should connect to form a barrier. Drag this across the cup to scoop out all the grounds.
• Discard the grounds in the discard cup.
• Rinse off spoons
Tasting
Once all the grounds have been cleared, fill your spoon with coffee. Try to get as much in your spoon as possible; the tongue needs large doses to be able to properly taste. Slurp the coffee from the spoon, incorporating as much oxygen with the liquid as possible, and coating the tongue quickly. By doing this you maximize the amount of flavors you can taste.
Take note to what flavors carried over from the dry sniff and the wet sniff, and to what flavors are new. Also, think about the following categories:
• Body- the mouth feel of the coffee. How fat or thin it feels. Different coffees will seem to have different “shapes” for the body. Think about the differences between skim milk and cream.
• Acidity- the brightness of the coffee, the perkiness of the coffee, and the dryness experienced on the roof of the mouth. Should be pleasant but not overwhelming.
• Balance- Are all the flavors well balanced with each other, or does one over power. Balance does not mean that all flavors are equally present, since sometimes one flavor is purposely given more prevalence. However, different levels for flavors must be appropriately done and tasteful. As you taste more coffees you will be able to determine whether it is well balanced or not better.
• Complexity- Simplicity and complexity can either be good or bad. Consider how either is employed in the cup and determine whether it is good or not.
• Depth- Generally, coffees should feel like they have some dimension to them. How much is subjective, but no coffee should feel completely flat.
Make sure you write down everything that you are tasting, and compare your results. This should give you a good overview of the cup. Doing cuppings with other people, and comparing results can be useful as well. As you cup more, your pallet will become increasingly more refined, and will be able to taste subtler flavors.