Coffee cupping is the go-to method for evaluating coffee quality across the industry, making it an invaluable experience for everyone from consumers and roasters to traders and coffee farmers. However, stepping into a cupping session for the first time can feel overwhelming, especially for beginners.
I spoke with Chris Kornman, Lab and Education Manager at The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room, where Coffee cupping is regularly offered to both professionals and the general public. From avoiding typical mistakes to refining your cupping skills, here’s what he suggests for making the most of your experience.
The Vital Role of Coffee cupping in the Industry
Coffee cupping is a precise and widely adopted method for evaluating everything from a coffee’s overall quality to its unique traits, such as acidity, body, and flavor notes. As Chris Kornman, Lab and Education Manager at The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room, explains, “Cupping is just one of many ways to taste coffee, but it’s an exceptionally efficient way to compare a variety of coffees side by side.”
In a typical cupping session, you’ll encounter several coffee samples—these might be from different farms in the same region, feature various processing methods, or even come from different countries. This variety is essential, whether you’re buying, selling, or simply eager to expand your coffee knowledge.
Originally used to detect defects in coffee samples, Coffee cupping has evolved within the specialty coffee industry to help describe a coffee’s flavor profile. According to Chris, cupping began in the late 1800s when merchants would sample different coffees to assess quality and consistency. By 1999, it had become a key tool in Cup of Excellence competitions, prompting the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) to establish international cupping standards, which are still widely used today.
Now, the coffee industry relies on cupping in much the same way it did over a century ago—to evaluate characteristics, ensure consistency, and make informed purchasing decisions. “Cupping offers a standardized methodology and shared language that can be applied globally,” Chris adds. This allows supply chain partners—farmers, exporters, roasters, and baristas—to communicate more effectively, creating a feedback loop that drives quality and value improvements.
Beyond quality control and buying decisions, Coffee cupping can also be instrumental in determining optimal roast profiles and brewing techniques. Chris describes cupping as “a window into a coffee’s potential.” By analyzing core elements like sweetness, acidity, and aftertaste, as well as more nuanced flavor characteristics, we can better showcase the coffee’s strengths—whether through different roasting styles or brewing methods such as pour-over or espresso.
Coffee cupping: A Step-by-Step Guide to a Consistent Tasting Experience
The Coffee cupping process may seem straightforward, but maintaining consistency is crucial for accurate results. Your goal is to observe the distinct qualities of each coffee, not the variations caused by inconsistent preparation. Follow these steps to ensure success:
Gather the Right Equipment
Chris Kornman, Lab and Education Manager at The Crown, outlines the essentials: “You’ll need a scale, grinder, water, kettles, cups or bowls, spoons, timers, towels, pens or pencils, cupping forms, spittoons, and a generous amount of workspace.”
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) advises conducting Coffee cupping sessions in a well-lit, spacious environment, free from distractions and any lingering aromas that could interfere with tasting. A quiet, calm room allows tasters to focus fully on each sample.
Consistency in your setup is key to producing reliable results. The SCA recommends using cups of identical size, volume, and material (preferably glass or ceramic) to ensure uniform coffee-to-water ratios and consistent heat retention during extraction. This uniformity allows the true characteristics of each coffee to shine, unaffected by external variables.
Mastering the Coffee Cupping Evaluation: A Key to Precision Tasting
Understanding the evaluation form is crucial to accurately assess coffee during a Coffee cupping session. While the SCA cupping form is widely used, different sessions may adopt alternative systems depending on their objectives. For instance, The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room follows SCA protocols for certain cuppings, but as Chris Kornman explains, they sometimes tweak the process “to fit our specific needs.”
At Royal’s Emeryville office, traders often use a simplified evaluation form where coffee is measured by volume rather than weight. In these sessions, traders may issue an “approve” or “decline” alongside a modified cup score, with cuppings typically not conducted blind.
Meanwhile, at The Crown, a custom production roast evaluation form is used, designed by Director of Roasting Candice Madison. This method involves comparing new roasts to a vacuum-sealed “control” sample from previous sessions, enabling quick and accurate assessments for coffee quality before it’s served.
Before participating in a Coffee cupping session, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with the evaluation form being used. Know what each criterion means, what to look for, and how scoring is handled to ensure your tasting experience is both accurate and meaningful.
Preparing Your Samples for an Accurate Coffee Cupping
The preparation of your coffee samples can vary depending on the Coffee cupping protocol you are following. For detailed SCA protocols, consult their official guidelines, while other protocols will have their own specific methodologies.
Start by purging the grinder of any residual coffee that could affect your samples. Use a few grams of the coffee you are about to grind to clean it.
Typically, multiple samples of each coffee are prepared to ensure consistency, and each coffee should be ground individually. As Chris Kornman advises, “We dose 11.5 grams, grind at 8.5 [on a Mahlkönig EK43], and pour 185 grams of filtered water (about a 1:16 ratio) at 95°C [203°F].”
Controlling all variables is crucial for accurate results. Besides grind size, factors like water temperature, coffee-to-water ratio, and agitation need to be consistent. As Chris explains, “Grind size is important, but so is water temperature, ratio of coffee to water, agitation, and many other factors.”
Even before brewing, start your analysis by smelling the dry grounds and noting any aromas. Aim to add water within 15 minutes of grinding to maintain sample integrity.
Set a timer to track the time from adding water to breaking the crust and tasting the coffee. “The crust that forms is a collection of ground coffee and volatile aromatics that are no longer extracting. You need to ‘break’ the crust (and skim the foam) to taste the coffee underneath,” Chris notes.
Break the crust typically three to five minutes into brewing by pushing the back of a cupping spoon through the layer of grounds. A cupping spoon, similar in shape to a soup spoon but deeper, allows you to taste enough coffee to evaluate its qualities. When breaking the crust, be careful to avoid disturbing the settled grounds at the bottom of the cup, as this can accelerate extraction.
Chris advises, “Consistency is more important than any one technique. I recommend using the curved edge of the spoon to break the crust with three strokes, without dipping to the bottom of the bowl. If the technique is consistent, breaks the crust completely, and doesn’t over-agitate, the specific style of breaking is less important. Just ensure everyone uses the same method.”
Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Coffee Cupping
Coffee cupping may seem intimidating at first, but mastering the process is manageable with some preparation and awareness. To get the most out of your cupping experience, keep these tips in mind:
Avoid discussing flavor and aroma notes during the cupping session, as this can lead participants to notice similar sensory characteristics they might not have identified on their own. Save discussions for after the cupping to prevent influencing others’ evaluations.
Industry experts, who often taste numerous coffee samples daily, recommend spitting out the samples into separate cups or spittoons. Swallowing large amounts of caffeine can have negative short-term effects on your body and can also dull your palate, making it harder to detect subtle flavors and aromas.
Remember not to get overwhelmed by the potentially complex methodology and terminology associated with Coffee cupping. Focus on maintaining consistency and using your own framework for describing the samples. As you gain more experience, you’ll become more comfortable with the methods and recognize common tasting notes more easily.
Enhancing Your Coffee Cupping Skills
Improving your Coffee cupping skills requires consistent practice, particularly in a collaborative environment. Chris Kornman emphasizes, “Practice makes perfect, and cupping with others is far more beneficial than going solo. You’ll gain valuable insights through observation and repetition that you won’t get from articles or videos alone.”
Engaging in discussions about techniques and sensory experiences with others can refine your skills and expand your flavor vocabulary. “Be methodical and deliberate,” Chris advises. “Go back and forth to confirm or challenge your biases.”
Self-awareness is also crucial. “Cupping is both a mental and physical practice, so being prepared, calm, and open-minded is just as important as understanding how to use the cupping form,” Chris points out. Consider factors like fatigue, previous palate experiences, and personal sensitivities to sweetness or acidity, as these can impact your objectivity.
Studying resources like the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon and the SCA’s Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel will also aid your development. These tools provide detailed descriptions of aromas, flavors, and textures found in coffee.
However, Chris cautions against getting bogged down by minutiae. “Focus on the big-picture elements first, such as sweetness, acidity, body, and aftertaste. Then, refine your attention to more specific flavors.”
Treat every meal and drink as a chance to practice. Chris suggests “tasting different percentages of chocolate side-by-side or sampling various fruits of similar types.” If you’re struggling to identify certain notes, try foods or drinks known for those flavors.
Mastering Coffee cupping is achievable with consistency, familiarity with evaluation forms, and ongoing palate training. And remember, “Don’t hesitate to ask for help!” Chris reassures. “The process can be complex, but no one expects you to know everything from the start.”
