Did you know that there have been over 850 aroma/flavor compounds discovered in coffee? It’s one of the most complex beverages in this sense (sense, get it?).
Aroma, Body, Acidity and Flavor
With the advent of the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s new and improved Flavor Wheel, comes as many questions as there are tasting notes.
Taste is a complex thing - well, sort of. There are actually only 5 tastes our tongues can detect: Sweetness, Saltiness, Bitterness, Acidity and Umami.
A very logical next question is, “How do we actually taste all of the things we can taste?!”. Incredibly, we smell them. Our nose is the gateway to all of these amazing notes, telling us the difference between everything from strawberries and raspberries to caramel and butterscotch to chocolate milk and regular milk.
Understanding how we taste is not only necessary in the development of the products we serve, but also helps people find the coffees they love. And, as a customer, it can help you find the coffees, wines, foods and drinks you’ll return to time and time again.
To simplify things, we run our classes breaking down the taste of coffee into four key points: Aroma, Body, Acidity and Flavor.
Coffee professionals (like us!) follow these four fundamentals of taste, the guiding principles for recognizing and transcribing a coffee’s flavor profile.
AROMA
Characterization of coffee’s aroma depends on:
Terroir, processing and variety, and roast. All of these aspects play a role in the final coffee’s fragrance and aroma (fragrance is present in dry coffee, aroma is present when coffee and water are combined).
With your freshly ground beans or brewed cup, inhale and use the SCAA flavour wheel to discover aromatic attributes:
Begin with easier notes like fruits and sugars (i.e. Is it fruity or earthy? Do you detect dark sugars like molasses or caramel?)
BODY
The body (viscosity) of coffee is influenced by:
Brew method (i.e. French Press brewing will result in a heavier, more robust brew than Coffee Machine brewing) – check out our brew guides for more info!
Roast, and many of the aspects of the processing and Terroir
Characterization of body can be broken down like this:
Light Body: watery, tea-like, silky, slick, juicy
Medium Body: smooth, milky, syrupy, round, creamy. Think of 2% milk
Heavy Body: full, velvety, big, chewy, coating. More like whole milk
ACIDITY
A coffee’s acidity is influenced by:
Processing (e.g. Naturally processed coffees typically have less acidity than washed processed coffees)
Roast (e.g. More developed coffees are typically lower in acidity than light roast coffees)
Variety and Altitude
In your brewed cup, you can characterize a coffee’s acidity by:
Mellow
Winey
Citrus
Sour
Berry-like
FLAVOUR
The flavor of a coffee is best described as the items that come to mind when drinking it.
Flavors are made up of complex compounds interpreted by our tongue and nose. It could taste like a snickers bar, a fresh strawberry, a margarita or maybe some combination of all of them! It’s not a concrete science, by any means. Flavor is always influenced by culture and experience and the biology of each individual.
The Importance of Balance
Balance plays a significant role in our tasting experience when it comes to flavor
At DETOUR, it’s our job to balance all the attributes of the coffee provided by its origin, varietal, elevation, processing method and roast profile to extract the best flavor or taste profile in the cup.
Flavor Facts
There are so many flavor compounds in coffee that are dissolving in the hot water during the brew process, and 4 main compounds that contribute to the overall sensory of your cup:
Fruit Acids
Fruity, floral aromas and flavors
Taste crisp in sweet brews, sour in less-sweet brews
Quickest flavors to dissolve when brewing
Maillard Compounds
Toasted grain, wood, tannin and nut flavors
Taste malty in sweet brews, sharply bitter in less sweet brews
Flavors dissolve at a slower rate than fruit acids
Caramels
Vanilla, caramel and chocolate flavors
The primary source of sweetness in coffee (green coffee beans caramelize when roasted)
Dark caramels have a bittersweet flavor, dissolve slowly; sugary light caramels, have a sweeter flavor, dissolve more quickly
Dry Distillates
Clove, tobacco and peat moss flavors
Created by the reduced (burnt) caramels and maillard compounds, dominant in darker roasts
Tastes dull, ashy and bitter in sweet brews
The slowest flavors to dissolve out of the flavor compounds and are overpowering, even at very low levels
Home Experiment
Print out the Flavor Wheel brew a few different Coffee Box beans and have some fun. Which notes do you get?
* image credit: SCAA