What is Coffee Cupping?
Cupping is a brew method used to evaluate and compare roasts. We take coarsely-ground coffee and brew it in a small bowl or cup, taking note of a standard set of attributes as we go. We are noting its dry aroma (what it smells like before water is added), its wet aroma (you guessed it: what it smells like after water is added), the acidity, sweetness, uniformity, and balance. This process follows a standardized protocol to optimize comparability. For the real coffee nerds out there (us), you can read more about the Specialty Coffee Association’s protocol for cupping here.
Why Are We Brewing All These Tiny Cups?
We cup nearly every batch we roast for two main reasons: consistency and quality control. We want to know that our coffee tastes the same from batch to batch. We also want to identify any changes we might want to make to the roasting process. Cupping every week means we know what’s going on in the roaster and we’re intimately familiar with the coffee we’re putting out. Additionally, each batch is tagged with an ID number. This means we can track down the roasting data and identify if anything funky is going on, or if we want to replicate a particularly great roast.
What To Expect When You’re Extracting
If you attend one of our public cuppings, you can expect to see a lineup of cups already prepped for the process. We’ll hand you your own cupping spoon and let you get in on the action. When there is one cupper doing the evaluating, that person would use their same spoon in each cup over and over again, but to keep things clean, you’ll get your own sample cup to taste from, (no double dippers!). We look forward to seeing you there!