How we taste coffee for the Discovery Club

Here at Vex Coffee we’re not Q Graders (yet) but from trying hundreds of different coffees we know what we like and what our members like. In order to decide whether a coffee makes the cut and gets one of the most exclusive seals of approval in the industry (a place in a vex coffee discovery club box) we go through our own tasting process.

Most coffee is tasted in a traditional cupping - brewing by adding hot water and ground coffee to a cup, then tasting with a spoon to avoid drinking the grounds - this is a fast and simple way to taste and it’s recognised across the industry. But at Vex we like to taste the coffee the way the customers will drink it. All the coffee we taste is objectively good coffee, it’s all speciality and therefore above 80 on the q graders scale, so we don’t need to assess the quality as such we want to assess the experience.

We taste every coffee that goes in the box as V60 pour over in a blind tasting, we’ll then taste it as espresso and flat white. These are the most common ways our members enjoy their coffees and we want all our offerings to work for both brewing styles. 

Every tasting is carried out blind meaning we always taste two or more coffees together (our record is 10 at once) and we don’t know which coffee comes from which bag. This is important because we don’t want to be influenced by the notes on the bags or the branding (the first sip is with the eye) after tasting we compare our notes and discuss which coffees (if any) would go well in the box. While it’s fun to see if we got the origin, process or taste notes right it always comes back to two key points “is it a great experience?” and “will our members enjoy it?” - it’s not uncommon to hear “Joe would love that” or “Hannah wouldn’t be happy if we sent that” during a fasting, referencing individual members of the club we’ve spoken to helps us keep on target rather than getting over excited and shipping a funky melon fruit bomb that tastes like toothpaste when you add milk.