Tasting Coffee with the SCA Coffee Taster's Flavour Wheel

This coffee tastes like what?

Have you always wondered why we have a “tastes like” line on our bags of coffee? What are those flavour notes on your bag of coffee? We don’t add anything to our coffee. These flavour notes are not just pulled out of thin air- they are documented flavours that can be identified by coffee professionals and by coffee aficionados by calibrating their taste buds and tasting a lot of coffee! Coffee has thousands of unique chemical compounds that produce many different flavours when extracted. These flavour compounds occur naturally and are inherent to the coffees. Variables such as the varietal of coffee bean, the terroir and the processing methods at origin will make the most impact on the flavours that are tasted. Roasting and brewing methods will also highlight these inherent qualities. 

What is a coffee flavour wheel?

The Coffee Taster's Flavour Wheel is is a useful coffee tasting tool that allows you to break down the flavours in your coffee into different categories. From the perspective of a coffee roaster, we determine what each coffee tastes like by cupping the samples and comparing descriptors with our roasting team. The goal is to more fully express what you can expect to experience when brewing this coffee at home. The Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel was developed by The Specialty Coffee Association and is used to evaluate the flavours and aromas present in coffee and uses standardized language for coffee tasters to describe their sensory experience

How to use the Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel:

It is designed to start in the centre and move outward. The centre of the wheel has nine general attributes including floral, fruity, sweet, nutty/cocoa, spices, roasted, green/vegetative, sour/fermented and other. As you taste a coffee, you can stop anywhere within the wheel, but the further you move out from the centre, the more specific your flavour attributes will become. Training your palate takes time and lots of practise but is really fun too! Practising at home is easy to do with these simple step-by-step instructions:

1. Prepare your coffee- Brew your coffee as you normally do but do not add anything to it. Tasting should be done with black coffee.

2. Before taking a sip, inhale the aroma. Our olfactory system is interconnected and your sense of smell impacts what you taste. Try to identify what you are smelling with the general attributes on the flavour wheel.

3. Take a small sip of coffee and allow it to coat the inside of your mouth. Pay attention to what you are tasting and compare to the sections on the flavour wheel. Often we are reminded of a flavour we have tasted before so it is exciting when you start to identify some of these flavours in the coffee!

4. Repeat the process!