Too Much Coffee

At the weekend, a friend is coming over to do some cupping. We're trying to decide on a blend or two for him to serve out of his newly equipped van. In the course of time, I don't doubt he'll pop up on TMC and say hello in person.

I've done a bit of home-cupping before. Just me. Just two or three coffees.

This time, there's two or three of us doing the cupping, and about 8 coffees. I'm clear on the process of one person cupping one coffee, but I'm less clear how to go about setting a cupping table that makes for a useful comparison between several different ones.

Do you do one bean at a time, then move on to the next bean, (other than to return to the earlier one once it's cooled)? Or is it: Hot water onto all 8 beans. Wait. Break all 8 crusts. Wait. Slurp all 8. Keep rotating as they cool.

I'd be grateful for some pointers from folk who have done cupping on a slightly larger scale than just two coffees at home.

A number of us were fortunate enough to take part in a cupping with Steve at Hasbean a few years ago. If I remember correctly there were 6 different coffees and Steve set 6 cups in a line, added the 6 relatively coarsely ground coffees, one to a cup and then added the hot water to all the cups. After 3 minutes (IIRC) we then began breaking the crusts as we tried them, each person with his own spoon. This allowed a direct comparison of the various beans and the possibility to retry individual ones. A bucket next to the table is important. If you start swallowing each sip you tend to become wired enough that it is difficult to remain at all objective about the coffees. Have fun and enjoy!

Thanks Bruce

So it sounds like you each only got to break one crust, but you all got to taste all the coffees as much as you wanted.

It's the "do all 6 at once" bit that's helpful for me to know

Oooooooh, my memory is worse than I thought it was. I just found some pictures and I see that we actually had 12 coffees! What's more, I roasted them on Steve's sample roaster. Oh well, good that I took some pix. For a more formal tasting we would each have had a note block with a form to write down our subjective opinions/observations of the individual coffees.

Nice pics.

When did Steve get that smurf-red sofa? Good to see the trusty dustbins in the background, too. One of the things I miss having moved from Staffordshire...

Did you not find that, with 12 coffees on the table, it took too long to get down the line, so that the latter ones had cooled too much by the time you reached them? That's what I'm wary of

jameso wrote:Did you not find that, with 12 coffees on the table, it took too long to get down the line, so that the latter ones had cooled too much by the time you reached them? That's what I'm wary of

No, not really. In fact, our taste receptors are much more sensitive at lower temperatures than at 90+°C. Of course, perception changes as the liquid cools down as well. I found that even at the end of the tasting (30 minutes?) some of the coffees were still excellent, even though they were only luke warm.

Have all your coffees ready, 2-4 samples per coffee if you're looking for defects, not necessary if it's just for fun, though 1 sample per person allows each of you to break each coffee.

Smell the dry grounds and note the aroma. Have enough water ready then start the timer and pour the cups in order. When the timer beeps break each cup in turn then go back to the start and skim the tops. Now you're ready to taste. Taste all samples of each coffee for variations and note how the coffee develops as it cools, all the way to cold. Be sure to spit.

A cup of excellence cupping form can help to quantify results if you want to get really geeky
http://www.cupofexcellence.org/WhatisCO ... fault.aspx

where can one actually buy those cups and spoons?
(this funny coffee hobby(habit) of mine keeps sucking me in deeper and deeper...)

Steve had them for sale on his site a few years back but I'm not sure if they are still available.

Thought I'd post an update. (I've been away, so it's taken a while).

We chose 6 beans to cup. Put a sample of roasted beans (we didn't have the greens) and grounds on a small plate behind each cup. Put 19g grit-ground coffee in each cup. Smelt them. Added hot water. Broke crusts one at a time and smelt, then tasted round and round as it cooled.

What was interesting was how little difference there was between them. Previously, when I've done cupping, the coffees stood out from one another. I think this was because we bought coffees from commercial micro-roasters that were roasted for espresso extraction, and (therefore in their judgement) properly into second crack in every case. The roast obscured the bean, so there were bitter tastes in there that made it hard to distinguish the qualities of each bean.

Two things did stand out, though, which made the cupping stage useful. First, smelling dry and wet grounds seemed to let the flavours of each bean come through in a way that wasn't muted by the dark roast. Some were fruity, some bright, some winey. At least while the cup was hot, it was then very hard to pick up those same flavours in the taste. Second, some had some very unpleasant notes in them, which allowed us to rule them out without every putting them near a portafilter.

Lots of fun! I wish the roasters we used had gathered that we wanted the samples for cupping, and offered to send us some that were roasted for the purpose rather than just offering us their usual darker profile. That would have helped.

He's now selected a coffee to start trading with. There are at least two roasteries we haven't even tried yet, so once things are up and running the quest for the ideal coffee can continue.

Bit late now but coffeehit sells plenty of cupping paraphernalia including bowls trays and spoons.

not late at all, that was exactly what i was after...
i think jameso is equipped there already anyway.

thanks