The components of a coffee tasting

Tasting coffees can be a complicated process, or it can be as simple as "I like that one". On this page we try to break down the components of the taste of a coffee. Identifying which components you like to be strong and which you like to be subtle can be really helpful in finding your ideal coffee bean. 

Aroma

You may have heard the phrase "the first bite is taken with the eye", well in coffee the first sip is taken with the nose. You can learn a lot about the coffee from the aroma. Quite often you can identify the process from the smell of the beans or the brewed coffee, even when it's not so obvious from the flavour, a natural coffee might have a certain "funk" smell that stands apart from the more traditional coffee smell of a washed coffee.

Flavour

This one might seem obvious, really the flavour is a combination of several factors which we'll come to, but it's good to think about whether the flavour of the coffee reminds you of anything in particular. This is where we get the tasting notes you'll find on coffee bags and websites, usually you'll see things like red wine, green apple and nougat on bags, but don't worry if you just think "oh that's quite fruity" or "that's very chocolatey". 

Sweetness

Hopefully we all know what sweetness or bitterness is in coffee. Quite often we are thinking about this when trying to dial in or brew. An over-extracted brew will often be bitter where as a properly extracted coffee will be more sweet. However all coffees have a natural place on the sweetness/bitterness scale.To say a coffee has a particular bitterness or sweetness is not to say it's good or bad, a light roasted coffee might be a lot sweeter than a dark roasted coffee, but both have their merits and different people might prefer one over the other at different times. 

Acidity

Here's where it gets interesting, you might think "surely acidity is bad" but if you think about a coffee with strong citrus flavours, that's acidity coming through, too much acidity might be unpleasant and make your tongue feel like you've just sucked a lemon. But when properly balanced with other components an acidic coffee can be just what you're after. 

Body

Sometimes referred to as "mouth feel" the body of the coffee refers to how the drink feels on the palette a "full" body indicates a heavier feel in the mouth people might say a full bodied coffee is viscous, oily or even gritty. Whereas a coffee with less body might be described as smooth, clean or watery. Typically we like our espresso to be full bodied but when it comes to filter peoples preferences vary much more. 

Finish

Once you've had a sip of your coffee you'll be left with the finish, or after-taste. Some coffees have a long or lingering finish, where the flavour lasts for quite a while. Others will have a sharp or short lived finish, which is gone almost as soon as the coffee has left your mouth .Once again, peoples preferences vary on this, and as the flavour of the finish can quite often differ from the initial flavour a long finish can make or break a coffee. 

Overall cup

There are even more components than this and experienced tasters will go into more depth but these are the key ones and can give you a good picture of a coffee and help you identify the features you like most. It's always best to think about each component individually but also rate the coffee as a whole. You might not like an acidic cup usually, but when combined with the right level of sweetness and a good finish it could be right up your street

How we use tasting notes at Vex

These are the features we tend to discuss when tasting and selecting coffees for our community. Obviously we have our own preferences but over time we've tried to identify what others like in coffees and what is an objectively good coffee as opposed to one that just happens to push our buttons.

In our Vex Coffee Mystery Box we provide information about each coffee from the roaster, we also provide a section for you to fill out with your notes about the coffee, which can serve as a reminder and give you something to compare other coffees against. Feel free to share your tasting notes with us by tagging us on instagram, we always love hearing about peoples experiences of the coffee we send out.