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Learning to cup

PostPosted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:41 am
by lukas
Hey all, I did my first "formal" cupping tonight. Ever since I put that "cupping spoon" to my cart while just shopping for a gasket I wanted to do that ;)

So, I had a "Guatemela Rosel" from Kaffeerösterei Spandau in Berlin, roasted in my cast iron roaster 4 days ago, then a fair-trade "Tatico" bag from langen-kaffee.de with a best-before-date of 18. may 07, so I guess it was roasted sometime in may (got this as a late birthday present). But it has a one-way valve.
And finally a bag with a hand-written "Hawaii Kona" on it which my boss gave me the other day with a comment of "I don't know what's in there, and I don't know how old it is", so it can be something completely different :)

So I sat in the kitchen feeling like a complete idiot when my mate came in and enjoyed three cups of coffee.

What surprises me most is that the Tatico, given the fact that it's at least 4 months old now, tastes so nice. It's a mild coffee, with a very light acidity, and a noticable body. It's also the coffee I'm drinking currently. Never imagined that the one-way-valve-bags keep the coffee good for so long. I can notice that it's old (ie, can imagine how it would have taste if it was fresh), but it's not as unpleasant as other old coffees I had so far.

The "Hawaii Kona"-labeled coffee was quite unpleasant. It bit on the tongue, was very different from the other two coffees, had a slight baked taste to it (which I associate with the Kenya Rukira Peaberry Estate blend that I todate never got right and always baked). Yesterday I thought of more things I could say about this coffee, but forgot them all ... need to make notes the next time! It was just plain unpleasant. Also a surprise here, because this coffee is also quite old and had no one-way valve, so I thought all the good and all the bad flavours would have been long gone ...

My homeroast was okay. It had a nice body, was well balanced, but had nothing really special to it. Perhaps I just had too much of it, cause that's the only coffee I had for the last 4 days and it got quite boring 'cause I drank much of it.

Monsooned_Bean and I and perhaps a friend of mine are going to have a small cupping hopefully in the next month which should be fun and a very nice learning experience :), and this for me was a kind of preparation for it :). I first doubted it would be of any use, given that I had just three coffees that differed not only in origin but also in roast and freshness, but it's well worth it.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:56 pm
by Andretti
Good for you! Did you forget your cupping spoon at Joris's?

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 12:12 am
by Aadje
is the cupping held in muenster at any chance? A direct train goes there from my place ;) as I didnt even know that living there for 5 years :oops:

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 12:17 am
by Gadders
Ahh... i remember mine and Breakos "formal" cupping session...

Matt : "Wow... i've never noticed this before, this one is quite mushroomy"...

Me... " ..... :shock: "

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 12:21 am
by Aadje
:lol::lol:

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 1:58 pm
by Beanie
:lol: Gadders :lol: ...but have you tried cupping any coffees since? :)

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 5:36 pm
by espressomattic
Gadders wrote:Ahh... i remember mine and Breakos "formal" cupping session...

Matt : "Wow... i've never noticed this before, this one is quite mushroomy"...

Me... " ..... :shock: "


Me: *thinks* Believe anything I say

Gadders: So you're saying you WON'T break Brewtus? :P

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:51 pm
by Gadders
:lol: :D

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:37 pm
by lukas
Joris? Andretti? Did I? I don't know ... haven't seen it, but I also haven't searched for it yet.

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:31 pm
by Aadje
well joris had 1 spoon too many after you left . . .

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 10:22 pm
by lukas
Whoops ...

PostPosted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:05 am
by Joris
Yep, it's still here... I completely forgot about it but Aadje or Beany found it at the end of the evening if I remember correctly. PM me your address and I'll mail it to you.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 12:30 am
by Beanie
Well I have my 2 spoons ;) I didn't know who the 3rd one belonged to :) Woohooo maybe Joris has a new used cupping spoon? ;) ;) I mean Lukas didn't even notice he didn't have it :shock: How could you Lukas? :P Your insensitivity mustn't go unpunished... I vote for Joris retaining the 'abandoned cupping spoon' as a hospitality gift :P :drink: :twisted: