Slurp, Don't Sip: Becoming a Professional Coffee Taster
by Miriam Forster
How would you like to have a job where bad table manners are a must? Or a job with opportunity to travel to some of the most beautiful and exotic places on earth? How about a job where you have to sample almost 300 cups of coffee a day?
Welcome to the world of the coffee taster.
Coffee tasting, or "cupping," is the process by which coffee is tested for quality and flavor. Some cuppers sample incoming batches of coffee at a roasting plant, weeding out the bad shipments. Others decide which coffees would be good for certain blends, and which can be put together into new combinations. Some specialty tasters work on discovering and refining new coffees. But they all have one thing in common. They sniff, they slurp, they swish, and they spit.
The cupping ritual goes like this: Six to 10 sample cups are placed on a table, forming a dense triangle, like a set of pool balls. Also on the table are a covered cup containing both a green, or unroasted, coffee bean and a roasted coffee bean, and a glass of silver spoons. Two tablespoons of fresh, roughly ground coffee are placed in each six-ounce cup. The tasters pour hot water into the sample cups, and the spoon cup, noting the aroma of the coffee. After a minute or two, the tasters use a spoon to push down the grounds that rose to the top, and sniff the coffee again. This is called breaking the crust.
After the coffee has cooled, the tasters slurp a little from the spoon -- the louder the slurp, the better -- and then they swish it around in their mouth as they discuss the flavor, body, and acidity. Then it's time to spit out the coffee, rinse out their mouths, and move on to the next cup.
The opportunities for coffee tasters extend beyond the sampling table. Often, cuppers will be given the opportunity to travel to the coffee farms themselves, to such places as Indonesia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Jamaica and Hawaii. Many cuppers are involved in the whole process, from buying to roasting. Proper coffee tasting is a vital skill in any aspect of coffee production.
There are many ways to become a coffee taster. One is to be an apprentice to professional coffee cupper. These apprenticeships can last as long as four years. Working in a coffee shop is another route. Some companies prefer to hire tasters from within and offer training programs for interested employees.
A college degree in food science or a related field can also be very helpful. This was the path that Sunalini Menon, India's first woman coffee taster, took. Her original goal was to be a dietician, and to that end, she studied Food Technology in Madras. In 1971, however, she answered an advertisement by the Coffee Board of India and became an assistant taster.
Though there were few women in the field, Sunalini persevered, and by 1978, she was the head of quality control and a director at the Coffee Board. Today Sunalini is the Chief Executive of her own company in Bangalore.
Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, and the specialty coffee market is growing. So there is a need in the industry for quality coffee tasters, like Sunalini. It requires hard work, dedication, and a little bit of talent. But if you're patient and determined, if you have a passion for coffee and a really good slurp, then the world of coffee tasting might be for you.
Welcome to the world of the coffee taster.
Coffee tasting, or "cupping," is the process by which coffee is tested for quality and flavor. Some cuppers sample incoming batches of coffee at a roasting plant, weeding out the bad shipments. Others decide which coffees would be good for certain blends, and which can be put together into new combinations. Some specialty tasters work on discovering and refining new coffees. But they all have one thing in common. They sniff, they slurp, they swish, and they spit.
The cupping ritual goes like this: Six to 10 sample cups are placed on a table, forming a dense triangle, like a set of pool balls. Also on the table are a covered cup containing both a green, or unroasted, coffee bean and a roasted coffee bean, and a glass of silver spoons. Two tablespoons of fresh, roughly ground coffee are placed in each six-ounce cup. The tasters pour hot water into the sample cups, and the spoon cup, noting the aroma of the coffee. After a minute or two, the tasters use a spoon to push down the grounds that rose to the top, and sniff the coffee again. This is called breaking the crust.
After the coffee has cooled, the tasters slurp a little from the spoon -- the louder the slurp, the better -- and then they swish it around in their mouth as they discuss the flavor, body, and acidity. Then it's time to spit out the coffee, rinse out their mouths, and move on to the next cup.
The opportunities for coffee tasters extend beyond the sampling table. Often, cuppers will be given the opportunity to travel to the coffee farms themselves, to such places as Indonesia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Jamaica and Hawaii. Many cuppers are involved in the whole process, from buying to roasting. Proper coffee tasting is a vital skill in any aspect of coffee production.
There are many ways to become a coffee taster. One is to be an apprentice to professional coffee cupper. These apprenticeships can last as long as four years. Working in a coffee shop is another route. Some companies prefer to hire tasters from within and offer training programs for interested employees.
A college degree in food science or a related field can also be very helpful. This was the path that Sunalini Menon, India's first woman coffee taster, took. Her original goal was to be a dietician, and to that end, she studied Food Technology in Madras. In 1971, however, she answered an advertisement by the Coffee Board of India and became an assistant taster.
Though there were few women in the field, Sunalini persevered, and by 1978, she was the head of quality control and a director at the Coffee Board. Today Sunalini is the Chief Executive of her own company in Bangalore.
Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, and the specialty coffee market is growing. So there is a need in the industry for quality coffee tasters, like Sunalini. It requires hard work, dedication, and a little bit of talent. But if you're patient and determined, if you have a passion for coffee and a really good slurp, then the world of coffee tasting might be for you.
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