How Do You Appreciate Good Coffee? (Solved!)

There are many ways to appreciate good coffee, with the first being that you simply take the time to enjoy it. In this article, we talk about the best ways to smell, taste, and experience your coffee to get the most out of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEZZCQTSSAg

Best methods to appreciate good coffee

There are many ways to teach yourself how to appreciate good coffee, with the first being merely opening yourself up to the world of coffee.

One of the easiest ways to understand the many profiles of your coffee, and thus appreciate where it has come from and what made it into the wonderful brew it is, is simply by doing a pour over. This is an inexpensive and low-tech method to bring out the best flavors in a coffee.

Alternatively, you can use a French press to begin evaluating coffee, although this is not as good as a fresh grind.

Arguably the best ways of learning how best to enjoy and appreciate coffee is by using the cupping method.

What is coffee cupping?

Coffee cupping is a method of inspecting coffee originally used by industry professionals. This was so that they could ensure their products were of a satisfactory standard for their customers. Now, coffee drinkers around the world use this method to learn how to appreciate their coffee.

Coffee cupping allows a drinker to fully understand the most basic flavor profiles of each coffee, helping them to learn the finer points of each brew. 

The most popular coffee cupping measure follows four main steps: visually inspecting the coffee, steeping the coffee, comparing the fragrance between the dry leaves and the wet leaves, and analyzing the flavor, the body, and the aftertaste of the coffee.

How to cup coffee

Coffee cupping can easily be done at home – all you need is:

1. A clean and well-lit environment free from other odors and noise
2. Freshly roasted coffee
3. Clean, filtered water heated to 200F
4. A grinder
5. A cup
6. Several spoons
7. A scale
8. A notebook

First visual inspection

You should begin your coffee cupping journey by first inspecting the coffee. You must first weigh the coffee as whole beans in the cup, and then grind each of them.

Then, you should look at the texture of the ground coffee, the consistency and the shape of it, and whether the color is bright or dull. 

Fragrance of the dry coffee

You should then small the ground coffee beans and evaluate their fragrance. Do they smell fresh? Sweet? Nutty?

Remember to record your observations, ideally in a notebook dedicated solely to evaluating coffee. Over the years, you will see how your tastes have changed and your knowledge increased – and perhaps even notice how you picked up on different aromas of the same coffee over the years!

Brewing

Following the visual inspection, you should prepare the coffee samples with water. It is important to use high-quality water such as spring, mountain, or pure oxygenated water to ensure that you get the most out of the cup.

You should pour your 200F water into your cup and start a timer for 4 minutes, ensuring that each cup has the same amount of water. 

Fragrance of the brewed coffee

After the first 4 minutes, you should insert a spoon into the crust of the coffee that has formed and push it back whilst smelling the aroma.

You should ask yourself questions such as, is the scent intense or delicate? Is it smooth and creamy, or fresh and sharp?

You should then compare the difference between the dry and the wet coffee. Typically, the aroma would have increased in intensity once brewed, unlocking new scent profiles. 

Flavor and depth

Now you get to the good bit – finally drinking the coffee!

After another 4 minutes of allowing the coffee to brew, you should use two spoons to skim off the grounds, foam, and oils. 

Then, fill a spoon with coffee and slurp it to taste. When sipping the coffee, you should immediately be able to recognize many of its different flavor profiles. Is it nutty and toasted, like hazelnut? Or fruity and sweet, like pomegranate?

You should then think about the body of the coffee and its ‘mouthfeel’. When you swill it in your mouth, does it feel delicate and thin, or full and rich?

Make sure to write notes on the flavors in your notebook as you go along.

Second visual inspection

When evaluating the visual aspects of the coffee now that it has brewed, you should first pay attention to the brightness, color, and depth of the cup. Typically, a bright and rich color suggests a high quality, with dull, dusty water suggesting a lower quality.

How has the coffee developed since first grinding the beans?

Final taste of the coffee

Finally, you will taste the coffee two more times, both after 4-minute-long intervals. 

Following that, you should pay attention to the aftertaste of the coffee, and whether or not it lingers. Do any new flavors come out just before the taste disappears?

You should be able to notice how the flavor has developed, and gather your final impressions of the brew.

Other ways to appreciate good coffee

The coffee cupping method is one of the best ways to learn how to appreciate good coffee, as you can then use the skills learnt each time you drink coffee.

Saying that, there are endless ways to truly appreciate coffee.

You can host a coffee tasting with friends and family, where you each taste several cups of coffee and compare them.

You can visit a local coffee brewery and see how your favorite blends are made.

You can reach out to your favorite coffee company and ask them questions about their blends, learning more about the fine processes which go into each brew.

You can plan a big trip where you visit the coffee plantations closest to you, to see how the coffee beans are picked and produced.

And finally, you can spend each day learning about coffee with an open heart and a willingness to understand. This is by far one of the best – and easiest – methods to appreciate good coffee, starting at home.