A Guide to Choose Your Next Coffee Bean
I love coffee.
I started drinking coffee when I was in high school. At that time, I would only drink Frappuccinos from Starbucks, which are basically sugary drinks that would give me an extra kick every now and then.
As I became more conscious about my sugar intake, I started drinking coffee with less sugar, eventually to just black coffee. It wasn't easy to enjoy them initially, but soon, I realized many intricate attributes surround each cup of coffee. Even to this date, I am learning more about the taste, preparation method, and culture of coffee.
Coffee originated in Yemen, and in the present day, they are still mostly produced in South America and Africa. Now, coffee is as popular as ever. Many regions are starting to grow their own unique coffee culture, and the coffee bean trade is high in the world.
Photo by Varun Gaba on Unsplash
Photo by Varun Gaba on Unsplash
With how abundant coffee is these days, it could be overwhelming to learn about it. Luckily, there is a wildly recognized way to rate a coffee used by coffee connoisseurs: the Coffee Cupping Score.
What is the Coffee Cupping Score?
Coffee Cupping is a way where certified professionals prepare and taste each coffee, and give it a rating based on its taste profile.
The big things people look for are:
- Aroma: how fragrant a coffee is
- Flavor: the distinct taste profile of a coffee
- Aftertaste: how long a taste lingers
- Acidity: how acidic a coffee is, and whether that draws out the uniqueness of the coffee
- Body: how does the coffee feel in the mouth
- Balance: how acidity, aroma, flavor, and aftertaste work together
- Sweetness: how balanced the sweetness is
- Clean cup: how uniform the taste is
These scores then add up together to an overall score. Usually, a score higher than 80 could be listed as specialty coffee, meaning it's unique and of good quality.
We can then use this scale to guide us on what coffee to try to drink!
Choose coffee with a good balance
A good way to start could be to look at each coffee's balance score. As mentioned earlier, a higher balance score means the coffee tastes more well-balanced.
For example, lots of coffee drinkers do not like coffee that tastes too sour or acidic. A higher balance score could mean the coffee has just right enough acidity to highlight its flavor profile. In this case, the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe scores high on the balance list, makes it a good candidate for you to try.
Let the expert help you choose your coffee
There is more to coffee than just a balanced flavor profile, and it is okay if you don't know what you would prefer. It is difficult to comprehend what kind of aroma, acidity, aroma, etc. you would enjoy. The cup point for a coffee, then, is a good overall, holistic measure of how a bean would taste.
If you would like something that is well-rounded, Yirgacheffe could be a good choice. In fact, this is one of the most common specialty coffee beans I have seen in my hometown, Shanghai.
Explore your next coffee!
The coffee names might sound very fancy and difficult to comprehend. Don't worry! As mentioned earlier, coffee is now traded frequently in the world. Your local coffee chain may have some cool SOEs for you to try. There are also coffee roasters that sell coffee by-the-bag online!
Need a place to start? Here are some places to get started!
Coffee in Pittsburgh:
- Allegheny Coffee Exchange carries Yirgacheffe coffee beans, which scored highly on the coffee cupping scale
- Commonplace Coffee has an interesting mix of SOEs and coffee blend
- Coffee Tree Roaster carries Sumatra coffee beans and also frequently sells SOE coffee in-store
Online stores
- Blue Bottle Coffee, a worldwide coffee chain, carries a mix of tasty instant and coffee beans
- Verve specializes in various coffee blends as well as other drinks
- La Colombe, headquartered in Philadelphia, sells ready-to-drink cold brew and also coffee bean
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