What does the technical term "sipping" mean in coffee tasting? What is a coffee cup test?

If you are a friend who likes to hang out in cafes or often visits various coffee exhibitions, Qianjie believes that you must have encountered a lot of strange coffee culture in these places. For example, some guests will deliberately make a strange "whoosh" sound while drinking coffee; the barista will "steal" a sip of coffee from the hand that should be served to you; or several baristas get together and drink the same cup of coffee... Although these people in the industry seem normal, for newcomers or people outside the industry, this is really a very strange "coffee culture"(incomprehensible behavior). So today, Qianjie will come to take stock of these strange behaviors with you and analyze what purpose these behaviors are for.

Why do I have to make a "whoosh" sound when drinking coffee? This is a very common phenomenon. We can often hear the sound of "whooshing" one after another in various cafes, major coffee exhibitions, or cup testing meetings. Many friends always associate this phenomenon with ramen, because in Japanese culture, the louder the noise you make when eating ramen, the more delicious the ramen, which is a silent praise for chefs. But unfortunately, making a noise while drinking coffee is not to praise the barista! The main purpose is to better capture the flavor of coffee and feel the current cup of coffee more comprehensively. The act of triggering a sound has a technical term in the industry-sipping.

Pushing your lips, and then quickly inhaling the coffee and air delivered to your lips. This is the behavior of sipping. Because the air and coffee liquor will pass through the narrow gap at high speed and create turbulence when inhaled, an airflow sound similar to a "whistling" will be formed, which is the "whooshing" sound we heard at the scene. The reason why sipping allows us to feel coffee better is that it can quickly reduce the temperature of the coffee while increasing the evaporation speed and contact area of the aroma.

High temperatures will reduce the sensitivity of the senses, which will affect our ability to capture the taste and aroma of coffee. Therefore, people usually wait until the temperature of the coffee drops to a point where it will not affect the senses too much before starting a formal tasting of coffee. When we sip coffee, we can eliminate this waiting time and feel the taste of the coffee faster. Because we consume it together with the air when sipping, the coffee will be inhaled during inhalation. It cools down to a temperature that will not affect the senses. The impact force during inhalation will instantly atomize the coffee liquid into countless fine droplets, which directly increases the surface area of the coffee liquid. Not only does the contact area become wider, but also the aroma evaporates faster, making the flavor perception more obvious.

Therefore, many friends often use this unsightly sounding way to taste coffee, in order to feel the performance of coffee earlier and more comprehensively. It is worth mentioning that some little beet friends have come up with an advanced tasting method through the act of sipping:

Why does a barista want to "steal" a sip of your coffee? This phenomenon is more common than sipping. Most baristas will cut a small portion of the hand-brewed coffee before making a hand-brewed coffee, take a sip, and then serve the coffee to you. Many friends felt very incomprehensible about this behavior, and Qian Jie specially shared a tweet for this reason.

So the first thing we need to know is that the purpose of this barista's behavior is definitely not to grab a sip of coffee

! The reason why the barista needs to pour a cup for himself before making it by hand is to ensure the stability of the product, because there are many factors that can affect the taste of a cup of coffee. The state of the coffee beans themselves, the production environment, and the method of water injection are a series of factors that are difficult to control in addition to the extraction parameters and will affect the extraction. Take the example cited by Qianjie the day before yesterday. Under the same parameters, the taste of the coffee we extract will differ due to the carbon dioxide content of the coffee beans themselves. If extraction is carried out when the coffee beans are very rich in carbon dioxide, the coffee is even prone to insufficient extraction.

So if the barista has not brewed the cup of coffee that day and does not know the current state of the coffee beans, he will take a small part of the hand-brewed coffee to taste it, measure whether the coffee meets the production standards, and then decide whether to present it to guests. If the coffee is not met, the barista will choose to remake it until the coffee meets production standards.

Why do several people drink a cup of coffee together? In cafes, we can often see baristas gathering together to taste a cup of coffee, but the way to share is not one cup with each other, but one spoon with each other. Even if there are many cups of coffee, the way you can share and taste is the same.

We can often see this behavior at cup testing meetings! But in addition to cup testing, this is often the case for daily coffee sharing inside cafes. So many friends will be surprised, why do they use such a form to taste coffee? The reason is very simple, because it ensures that everyone can taste the same cup of coffee quickly. Usually, the prerequisite for sharing this way is that there are a large number of samples to be tested. If you specially make the same coffee for everyone or divide a small cup of coffee, the time and material cost required are very high. In addition, the above-mentioned extracted coffee will be affected by various factors, so it will be safer to simply use this method to taste a cup of coffee together. It not only saves various costs, but also ensures the consistency of the coffee you drink.

So the above are some of the "coffee culture" that Qianjie can think of that will be difficult to understand by outsiders. If you have similar experiences, why not leave a message in the comment area and share with you ~

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