What is a blind coffee test? How to test blindly?

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In the cup test, you always want to evaluate the quality of coffee in an objective and impartial way, but in fact it is very difficult to be objective. Your preset expectations and personal biases will always affect the score of this cup of coffee.

To solve this problem, we can only rely on blind test.

Blind test not only helps you evaluate this cup of coffee more accurately, but also reflects your personal keys and tests your taste ability, so in this article, let's look at what blind test is and how to do it.

What is a blind test?

The blind test is different from the general cup test, you have no idea what kind of coffee you are drinking, which means that your reaction will be more objective. In addition, in order to achieve a more objective approach, coffee baked by other bean bakers can be blindly tested on the table.

During the blind test, the coffee drinker did not know what coffee was in the cup. In the double blind test, even the organizer of the cup test did not know what coffee was on the table.

The goal of the blind test is to find out the best coffee and not to influence the result by anyone's subjective opinion. The factors that will affect the quality of our coffee are brand (manor), the opinions of others, the price of coffee, and so on.

So how do we test coffee blindly?

How to carry out blind test / double blind test?

Does it have to be a bean baker or raw bean seller to hold a blind test? Apparently not. In fact, as long as you love coffee and have enthusiasm, continue to improve your taste senses and taste more different kinds of coffee. We will not teach you how to test the cup here. If you are interested, you can refer to the original link to here or the cup test guidelines issued by the boutique coffee association. Then let's see how to take a blind test / double blind test:

1. Choose at least two kinds of coffee

two。 Ask a friend to bring at least two coffee beans baked by others.

3. Prepare the necessary equipment (record board, cup test key, etc.)

4. Ask a friend to stick the label on the bottom of the container and put the coffee powder in the corresponding container.

5. Pour hot water into the container and start the cup test procedure, starting with the evaluation of aroma, followed by flavor, acidity, alcohol thickness, uniformity and so on.

6. Grade each item of each coffee.

7. Add up the project score

8. Lift the gas from the cup test container and write the corresponding coffee name next to the cup test note.

9. Don't judge the result! It is possible that you give a higher score for your competitor's coffee than yours, and use this as a learning experience to expand your ability.

Tips and skimming steps

In order to gain more learning experience from blind tests, you can refer to the following suggestions:

1. Take blind tests regularly (especially if you are a bean baker), the more blind tests you take, the more you will gain.

two。 Invite friends who love coffee to hold a wine tasting to train their taste. Then try to match it with beer, cheese, chocolate or other special food and drink.

3. Invite a friend who doesn't like coffee to take a blind test with you, and their tasting description will be very instructive.

Through blind tests, you can challenge your personal prejudices and open your mind to learning. Remember that you may eat hundreds of different flavors every day. When you open the taste buds through a blind test, you can taste the food more attentively and improve your taste ability.