COFFEE TASTER’S FLAVOR WHEEL: HOW TO BECOME AN EXPERT
The SCA coffee taster’s flavor wheel is an iconic resource in the coffee industry, and knowing how to use it will help you better appreciate your morning brew!
Have you ever looked at the tasting notes for a coffee and wondered how they come up with that stuff? Chocolate? Toasted hazelnut? Blackberry?
It’s not imagination or clever marketing. Professional tasters use a flavor wheel to help identify the natural flavors in coffee. And with a bit of practice, you can too!
What Is The Coffee Flavor Wheel?
The Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel was first published in 1995 by what was then the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA). Devised by sensory scientists, it has been an invaluable tool for coffee professionals in the decades since.
The idea was to create a common vocabulary that tasters could use when coffee cupping. It was based on similar wheels for wine and beer.
The real work of finding flavors hiding in your cup is in developing a catalog of flavor memories to recall later on.
In 2016, the wheel underwent its first major revision in 20 years, incorporating the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon. Developed by the Sensory Analysis Center at Kansas State University, the lexicon identifies 110 flavor, aroma, and texture attributes in coffee – and how to measure them.
The SCA Flavor Wheel may have been created for experts, but it’s useful for average coffee lovers as well. Getting familiar with the flavors in coffee can help you buy and brew better coffee and discover what kinds of coffee you enjoy most.
How Does The The Flavor Wheel Work?
Don’t be overwhelmed by the colors and labels on the wheel. You don’t need to know them all to get started describing coffee.
It’s important, first of all, to understand what is meant by “flavor.” It combines aroma (sensed by the nose) and taste (sensed by the mouth) for a multisensory experience.
Some parts of the chart will be closer to aromas, others to tastes, but most are a mixture of both.
There is a step-by-step process for using the flavor wheel that makes it straightforward and consistent, so you can easily compare different coffees. That’s what I’ll walk you through here.
1. Start in the center
In the center of the wheel, you’ll find broadly grouped flavors. You might not be able to describe what you taste yet, but you can determine whether it’s fruity, earthy, or nutty, for example. There’s also a category for “other,” which includes some of the more unpleasant tastes that come with defects in coffee beans.
2. Work outwards
As you move outward, the flavors on each ring become more specific. Again, you might not be able to identify exactly what you taste, but it comes down to comparison. Take a sip of your coffee and evaluate the choices. If you taste fruit, is it more like berries or citrus?
You can stop at any level. Describing something simply as nutty is still helpful. With more experience, you can produce more specific coffee-tasting notes.
3. Take in the details
The colors of the wheel aren’t purely for aesthetics. Our senses of taste and smell are strongly connected to what we see, so grouping descriptors by color can help us link a flavor to its position on the wheel (1).
You’ll also notice that adjacent cells on the chart are separated by a small gap, a large gap, or no gap. This is a visual indicator of how close these tastes are.
4. Learn the lingo
The development of the wheel was based on a set of real-life references compiled in the WCR Sensory Lexicon (2). It provides a detailed description of each flavor, as well as how to replicate it. For example, “hay-like” is based on the aroma of McCormick’s parsley flakes.
Final Thoughts
The SCA Coffee Taster’s Wheel was created as a sensory tool for coffee industry professionals, like coffee roasters and coffee buyers. But there’s no reason you can’t use it to benefit your home brewing. It makes it easy to describe the tastes and aromas present in coffee, so you can buy and brew the beans that best suit your taste.
FAQs
A professional coffee taster can be called a coffee sommelier, Master Taster, or Q-Grader. A coffee sommelier or Master Taster is an expert in identifying the flavors and aromas of a coffee. A Q-Grader is a slightly different specialty, focused on evaluating the quality of green coffee beans.
You can become an amateur coffee taster simply by following the guide above and trying as many coffees as possible. Becoming a professional typically requires taking a course, engaging in a mentoring process, and/or being tested and certified by an official organization.
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) is a global trade organization focused on improving coffee quality and the coffee industry as a whole. To this end, it promotes community, engages in research initiatives, provides education and courses, and sponsors activities and events.
References
- Spence, C. (2018, September 25). Can you taste the color? Science Friday. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/can-taste-color/
- World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon. World Coffee Research. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://worldcoffeeresearch.org/resources/sensory-lexicon
