TRUE descriptions<\/a>. A primary food word is one that has a tangible reference found in nature, at a grocery store, or within a set of calibration standards.<\/p>\nFamiliarity with basic taste terms is developed through sensory training using calibration samples for aroma and taste and aligning with other cupper and tasters for the appropriate use of the terms.<\/p>\n
When there is confusion, additional discussions are required to identify the actual taste or aroma character being perceived. This becomes inefficient for an operation and may result in inappropriate or incorrect descriptions being used for coffee. These additional discussions are challenging when cuppers\/tasters are working to understand each description across language, regional or cultural differences.<\/p>\n
Examples of conclusion or category words that are to be avoided when communicating coffee descriptions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Aged \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>a measurement of time not taste, used as a conclusion when coffee presents tastes and aroma of paper, malt, cereal, cardboard, oats, peanut shells, and rice.<\/li>\n
- Bright, Crisp & Sharp \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>terms used to describe organic acids that are astringent, tart or lack sweetness.<\/li>\n
- Edgy \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>used to describe coffee that is not clean and\/or not sweet.<\/li>\n
- Green \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>describes coffee that is early-crop harvest, under-ripe, recently milled, or has not has enough time to rest before analysis. Specific tastes that could be identified individually include: grassy, green pepper, green bean, onion, and broccoli, among others.<\/li>\n
- Harsh \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>also used to describe coffee that is not clean and\/or not sweet.<\/li>\n
- Low-grown character \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>often used to describe coffee that lacks intensity of flavour, mild acidity, thin body, and may also include grassy, dirty or earthy undertones.<\/li>\n
- Old\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 a measurement of time not taste, used as a conclusion when coffee presents tastes and aroma of paper, malt, cereal, cardboard, oats, peanut shells, and rice.<\/li>\n
- Off-cup \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>used to indicate a coffee cup that lacks uniformity with other cups, or has an unidentified taint or fault.<\/li>\n
- Past crop \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>a measurement of time not taste, used as a conclusion when coffee presents tastes and aroma of paper, malt, cereal, cardboard, oats, peanut shells, and rice.<\/li>\n
- Processed \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>often used to describe decaffeinated coffee and thought to indicate over-processing to remove caffeine or the character of the water used in decaffeinated coffee processing. Specific tastes that could be identified individually include: hay, straw, paper, cereal, malt, cardboard, peanut shells, nut skins, and rice.<\/li>\n
- Roasty \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>used to describe the effects of roasting instead of the character of the coffee, for example the taste of burnt sugar, earthy, dirty, smoky or ashy characters found in dark roasted coffees or coffees exposed to exhaust smoke.<\/li>\n
- Sound \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>A term used to indicate when coffee is free of defects.<\/li>\n
- Tired \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>a measurement of time not taste, used as a conclusion when coffee presents tastes and aroma of paper, malt, cereal, cardboard, oats, peanut shells, and rice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
To avoid confusion when creating reviewing coffee sensory descriptions, it is most efficient and effective to use primary food words, which have a single item that can be used for calibration, either from a grocery store, or a flavor training kit.<\/p>\n
Training and sensory acuity may affect the words used in creating coffee descriptions.<\/strong> Also, the quality of the coffee is a key contributing factor to the degree of generalization or specificity of the descriptive words used. Eg, a coffee may be described as having fruity, spicy, and nutty characters. By this description it is unknown if the cupper is a novice and has not been fully trained in identify and describing taste, or if the quality of the coffee does not allow for more specific taste characters to be perceived and listed.<\/p>\n“Fruity” is a category descriptor that obviously includes all fruits. This category can be divided into citric and berry, thus diverging on the fruit identity and increasing the level of specificity. Further detail perceptions would be to identify the actual citric fruits perceived or berries perceived. Many specialty coffee descriptions identify the individual variety of lemon or lime. This level of great details requires a highly trained cupper who is calibrated to lemon and lime standards and a high-quality coffee that has the inherent taste characteristics. Without one or even both to occur, a description that may include Kaffir Limes, Key Limes, Limequates, Meyer Lemons, Rangpur Limes, Tahiti Limes and Eureka or Lisbon lemons, will lack both credibility and believability.<\/p>\n
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