When Strawberry Isn’t Strawberry: What Coffee Tasting Notes Really Mean...
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Time to read 5 min
In any community of passionate people, one can assume that we all know the same things and speak the same language. I was recently reminded that I take this for granted, and it is not in fact the case, when a customer asked me how we put 'those ingredients' into the coffee.
She wasn't interested in trying that coffee because she generally doesn't like the taste of those things: strawberry, almond, spice. And then the penny dropped - those things are what we coffee tasters call descriptors, in layman's terms, flavour notes or just what it tastes like. At no stage did the coffee come into contact with a strawberry.
It isn’t an ingredient or additive, but I realised one might be forgiven for thinking it was, where it is not explicitly stated.
So why use them if it's confusing? doesn't coffee just taste like coffee?
The answer lies in the difference in quality between commercial grade coffee and specialty grade coffee.
Coffees that are sold with accompanying flavour notes, advertise that the coffee is high quality, specialty grade. They imply that the coffee does not just taste like coffee but recognises that the coffee is individual, unique and complex.
Much like wine, beer, spirits and chocolate, there is a sliding scale of quality, and you will notice that all of those items will carry a form of descriptors or flavour notes. The more complex and higher quality the product, the more detailed and often elaborate the flavour descriptions can be. This is often an indicator of the origin of the product and the conditions and care under which it was cultivated and produced, i.e. the variety, the grape, the hop, the plant etc.
So what's the point of descriptors and who decides what coffee tastes like?
Descriptors are a direct use and instance of our rigorous quality control procedure. Every single coffee that passes our roastery door goes through a procedure in which its inherent quality and characteristics are highly scrutinised before being accepted into our range of products. Before it goes into official production and ends up available to customers it is roasted and tasted well in advance by coffee tasting professionals.
In fact, to become a professional taster or a Q-Grader, as they are known, individuals must go through a demanding series of sensory exams before they are formally certified by the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association), formerly the CQI (Coffee Quality Institute).
As well as giving successful tasters very well developed taste buds, the certification has a very good practical purpose. Firstly, it is designed to enable coffee tasters to develop a common language around coffee quality, and these include flavour descriptors. While coffee indeed can be very personal and subjective, the established language created by the SCA and CQI attempts to create some objectivity in how we talk about coffee and decide on its quality.
This then has a real-world impact, since quality (and flavour) will determine something called the coffees overall cup score, which in turn sets the buying (and therefore selling) price of every single coffee. Additionally, that information is fed back to the original coffee grower or producer so that they can understand how commercially successful the coffee is in terms of its selling power and marketability.
So for us Q-Graders (of which there are only a couple of thousand in the UK) to assign a final cup score and set a price for a coffee we may decide to buy, we must first assess and score the individual attributes of the coffee, of which flavour descriptors are a sub category.
They include things like aromas, acidity and base flavours, as well as more nuanced things like balance, finish and structure, i.e. how well all the individual attributes hang together to determine ultimately how successful the coffee is in representing itself - it's origin, region, producer, process.
Here are some examples of words we might use in each of these subcategories when assessing how a coffee tastes.
Base flavours: chocolate, nutty, caramel
acidity: citrus, sharp, soft, lingering, short, delicate, juicy
aromatics: fruity, floral, chocolatey, spice
Overall: well balanced, unbalanced, full-bodied, well-structured, sweet, mild, complex, everyday, adventurous.
Special coffee everyday...
As producers and proponents of specialty coffee we believe fundamentally that coffee is special. But we also believe that while it is special, it also needs to be accessible and not exclusive or elitist and be presented without barriers to enjoyment or discovery. Which is why we also recognise that coffee, like any daily comfort or food and drink, can be deeply personal and subjective. As the person responsible for sourcing all our coffees I ensure we have range and that in that range there is something for everyone.
If you want coffee that taste like coffee, no problem we have that and I would point you toward our flagship house blend, Sussex Barn, or one of our single origins like Brazil or Colombia. If you like something a little more adventurous, then we have coffees that are higher in acidity and aromatics, coffees like Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia or Guatemala. If you like coffees that are more comfortable, or what we might call stronger coffees, then we have our Italian espresso blend or our Indonesian single origin.
You will also notice that the range of coffee you can buy in supermarkets is expanding and that often there is now as many coffee and beer choices as there are choices of wine. Specialty coffee finding a great audience is only a good thing because it keeps the producers of coffee, growers and roasters, in business, and it keeps dependant coffee drinkers reliably stocked.
Specialty is not just about flavour
One thing to note is that specialty coffee is not just about flavour. Now that you can recognise specialty coffee by the way it may be described, it's also important to understand that there are ways the product is better, and that those ways are about more than just the quality.
Specialty also denotes that the coffee is a comparatively more sustainable product. Meaning that it will have been produced, sourced and imported within a more caring and scrutinous ethical framework, and information about that process will be forthcoming and transparent. i.e. the coffee will be traceable from roastery all the way back to the country of origin, often to specific region, farm or farmer. If a coffee comes with no information about it, then it's likely this is because there are gaps in its traceability within the supply chain, which also calls its quality into question.
In summary, don't be intimidated or put off by the way the taste of a coffee is advertised.
The notes are just that: notes, suggestions, descriptions of the sensory experience of the person that tasted the coffee and attempted to communicate something appealing about it. They are simply a handrail or a guideline to help each person find a coffee they will enjoy first and every time.
The Author: Stevie Mckusker
Stevie is Head of Coffee at EDGE Tea & Coffee, responsible for sourcing and roasting our green beans and ensuring every coffee meets our quality standards before it reaches our shelves.
