Coffee Cupping at Starbucks

When you are in the presence of a true master of their craft, you know it. I’ve experienced that with decorators who can picture a room in a totally new way in minutes. Or doctors who can diagnose what stumps others. This afternoon I got to experience that with our friend Jeremy, who is a barista at our Starbucks. He led us neophytes in our first coffee cupping experience.

We gathered in Jeremy’s store in the middle of the afternoon. Joining me in the experience were David,  my friend Robin and David Helbig, the internet pastor at our church. Jeremy had the table laid out with four African coffees: Sidamo, Kenyan, Gazebo Blend and Arabian Mocha Sanani.

First we smelled both whole beans and ground coffees. We tried to pretend that we knew what we were sniffing for, but it all smelled like good coffee to me. The Arabian Mocha looked different and smelled more intense.

Next Jeremy poured boiling water over each set of ground coffees. We waited for two minutes for the grounds to form a crust. During this time the aromas were bubbling up and we began to attract curious bystanders. At the end of two minutes we broke the crust with a spoon, then passed the coffees around to smell now. Heavenly. The coffees also began to smell different from each other at this stage. Kenyan — my normal favorite — had the best aroma in my opinion. We all had different opinions.

Now it was time to begin sampling the coffees. The procedure was simple: dip a teaspoon into the coffee, slurp the coffee and let it roll around your tongue. Do not swallow the coffee unless you are interested in a mouth full of grounds. We spit the coffee out into cups and evaluated the characteristics of each coffee. In general Jeremy asked us questions about what flavors we experienced (yes, that one is floral! Who knew?), the feel in our mouths, or how bitter or sweet or salty each blend was.

I am not a black coffee drinker. I’ve only recently been able to reduce my sugar. But somehow I was able to taste these coffees and begin to pick out differences. The Sidamo was the least bitter. The Arabian Mocha, which is an unwashed coffee, was the most intense and very fruity. Kenyan, my favorite brewed coffee, seemed almost sour in this form. The Gazebo blend had lots of flavors in it — I guess you would call that complex — but didn’t appeal to me as a drink. In addition, some coffees lingered on our tastebuds longer than others, the champ being my Kenyan.

All too soon we’d tasted and slurped our way through all the stages of the cupping, and had all formed opinions on our favorite blends. Jeremy spent a few minutes explaining coffee origins, fair trade, and the differences in regions. At the end we felt more knowledgeable and perhaps a little sophisticated. Robin and I were proud of our feat in sampling black coffee. We had to stifle a giggle or two at times, like when a miscellaneous customer mistook our cupping for a free sampling, and took a swig of coffee that had formed a nice crust of grounds. Jeremy gave us all coffee passports and stickers of all the sampled coffees, and off we went, a little more caffeinated!

Next up: Asian coffees!

Tagged as: African Coffees, coffee cupping, David Helbig, Passport to Coffee, Starbucks