Cupping time!

Cupping is a method that is used to taste and evaluate coffee by the different professionals along the entire coffee chain: producers, importers, roasters, baristas. We start by grinding the coffee to a certain size and then smelling the dry coffee to evaluate the aromas. Then we immerse the coffee in water at about 95 degrees. The water has to be hot enough to extract the coffee particles, but not too hot. We wait 4 minutes and then break the crust that has formed on the top of the cup or bowl with a spoon. At this stage we breathe in the scent to assess the wet aromas. We wait a few more minutes to finally put the coffee in our mouth. We then use our taste buds and our olfactory system connected to our mouth. At this stage we evaluate the flavours, the sweetness, the bitterness, the acidity, the defects that the coffee might have, the body (tactile feeling of the liquid in the mouth). As roasters we do cupping at several points. Firstly, when buying new green coffees we receive several samples from our importers which we taste to make a buying decision. Then when we roast, we also taste to control the quality and when we change certain parameters of our roasting process. Roast, taste, roast, taste... What a pleasure! But all this to become better and to please you!