Podcast: Inside the Starbucks Coffee Cupping Room
On National Coffee Day, step inside the Starbucks Coffee Cupping Room to learn the four formal steps of tasting coffee through this audio story with Leslie Wolford, a senior green coffee specialist.
Step inside the Starbucks Coffee Cupping Room in the company’s Seattle headquarters to learn the four steps of tasting coffee.
Click play, and listen to the audio story while enjoying your first cup of the day.
Four Steps of Tasting Coffee:
Always smell a coffee before you taste it. Your mouth distinguishes only four tastes – salty, sweet, bitter and sour – but your nose can detect thousands of smells. Cup your hand over the coffee, hold the cup close to your nose and inhale.
When tasting a coffee, it’s important to slurp it. This sprays the coffee across your entire palate and lets the subtle flavors and aromas reach all the tasting zones of your mouth.
Consider how the coffee feels in your mouth. Where are you experiencing the flavors? Locate where you taste the flavor on your tongue.
What words would you use to characterize the aroma, flavor and describe how the coffee feels and tastes in your mouth? What other food flavors or aromas can you compare the coffee to?
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