How to train coffee senses How to taste coffee flavor?

Guide reading

"this coffee is rich in fruit flavor, with citrus, lemon, oolong tea, jasmine flavor!" It may be incredible for those who have just come into contact with boutique coffee, why you can drink so much flavor in a cup of coffee! Is it a lie? In this issue of barista training, we will share the experience of a rookie in sensory training.

Set up a flavor memory bank

For those who are new to coffee, you can't understand why the barista can blurt out the flavor of a type of coffee. In fact, from another point of view, you feel quite normal [usually eat the same kind of rice every day, and suddenly change into another kind of rice one day, you can obviously feel different], this skill is innate, but to be able to say "where is different" requires constant accumulation and training.

Therefore, if you want to taste the coffee flavor quickly, you must taste or smell the flavor described by the coffee and establish your own sensory memory. Otherwise, when others say that this coffee has the flavor of strawberry, how can you know what flavor it is if you haven't even tasted it? The coffee flavor wheel published by SCAA is a good target, and you can try to feel the objects described on the coffee flavor wheel one by one.

Establish your own sensory system

In the exchange of flavor expression, we need to agree that the science of coffee flavor wheel lies in the classification of many flavors, such as citric acid and acetic acid, lemons and oranges as citrus fruits, berries, apples and peaches as other fruits, honey, caramel and maple sugar as brown sugar, chocolate, almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts as nut cocoa. The whole flavor wheel ranges from green herbs to yellow fermented acidity to red fruit, followed by pink flowers, orange sugars and brown nut cocoa. All of them reflect the main range of coffee flavor in different roasting degree.

For example, light-roasted coffee will focus on acid fermentation, fruits and flowers. Medium roasted coffee will focus on sugars, flowers, berries and preserved fruits. Deep-roasted coffee will focus on brown sugar, nut cocoa and spices. The flavor wheel can help you build the connection between the physical object and the coffee more systematically.

It takes some imagination.

You should know that a cup of coffee can not be 100% that kind of flavor, such as described as citrus flavor, this does not represent a percentage of citrus flavor, otherwise it will become a cup of citrus juice. For example, when we taste a cup of Yega Chuefei, there is an aroma of flowers mixed with berries, while the taste is as sour as citrus, sweet as honey, and the aftertaste as after drinking green tea. These do not match in percentage, but at least they have a similar feeling of 70% and 80%.

Multi-communication often accumulates

Usually, you can communicate more with the outside world, which is easy to calibrate your senses. Dare to express their own flavor, everyone's expression of things will be different, because in different environments and different experiences lead to. For example, red currant is often used to describe the flavor of coffee abroad, which is very strange at home. In addition to communication, but also need to constantly accumulate, enrich their own flavor memory bank.

Usually pay attention to diet

Maintaining your taste buds is the foundation, eating less spicy and other stimulating foods, and drinking less can keep your taste buds active and feel more flavor.