WHAT DOES MY COFFEE TASTE LIKE?

Have you ever wondered why we say that coffee tastes like chocolate or tea? What does roast level mean? And why does my coffee taste sour? Here is a little guide to the main coffee characteristics and what they mean. 

!!! But remember, the most important and accurate description of any coffee is the one you experience in your cup. Just like there is no right or wrong way to prepare or drink coffee - there is only your way and that is the right way !!! 

Roast level -This identifies how light or dark roasted the coffee will be. 

Light roasts will preserve more of the coffee's origin notes, such as the fruity and floral ones, as well as the acidity that comes with it.  Lighter roasts are more suited for filter brewers like V60, Kalita etc.,  and immersion methods, like french press, Aeropress, Hario-switch etc.
Darker roasts will introduce more chocolaty, nutty, and caramel like tones and often have more sweetness and body. Darker roasts work better in an espresso machine and moka pot.
But ultimately it all comes down to your taste preference. And you can prepare your coffee just as you like! 

Flavour - Taste Notes 

The taste notes or flavour of the coffee, brought to life by high-quality roasting. These are aromatic compounds that naturally live within the coffee, and are noticeable in the coffee's aroma and taste. We mention taste notes on the front of the packaging to give information about what to expect from the coffee, but the most important and accurate flavour is the one you feel and taste in coffee. 

Texture

In specialty coffee, we call this the mouthfeel of coffee, describing its intensity from light to heavy, and its texture using words like silky, buttery, round and others. This is how the coffee will "feel" while you are enjoying it.

Acidity - is present in all coffee, but in different intensities.

Coffee at its core is a fruit, and depending on the soil, altitude, process, and also roast, the acidity can vary. Just like an acidity in apples, high quality coffees can have a range of acidities from low to high, but they should always be supported by sweetness. If so, they will give coffee a wonderful liveliness and brightness and contribute positively to the balance. 

The characteristic we don’t want in coffee is sourness. What differs sourness from acidity, is that sourness makes you make a face and is unpleasant and overpowering. That is a characteristic, that  signals that something has gone wrong with the roasting or coffee preparation. 

Sweetness

Thanks to some flavour compounds, we can also identify the coffee's sweetness. Like acidity, in isolation, it will be barely noticeable, but in the balance with acidity and bitterness, as well as the aromatic support from the flavour, we can recognise the coffee's sweetness and identify it as sugary, chocolaty, fruity, and other.

Aftertaste 

We describe aftertaste as the length of positive flavour. Great coffee should have a long and pleasant aftertaste, carried sometimes by a flavour that is not immediate, but comes through after the sip and stays with you for a while. 

What we like to do is think of coffee drinking as a journey - we want to look around and see what we can find! And it is very cool that all of us see things - taste things - differently. 

To tasty coffees and beautiful coffee rituals!