Coffee cupping is the coffee bean’s version of wine tasting.

It is essentially an industry-wide practice that enables one to measure and control the quality of coffee beans, by comparing them with each other.

Roasters, distributors, importers, baristas, or even professional cuppers. You name it.

If you are tasked with the selecting coffee beans in some way, then you must be accustomed to cupping.

Coffee companies even hire full-time cuppers to source, taste and choose the best beans all over the world.

So cupping is usually right up their alley by default.

There are now even awards presented for “Cupper of the Year” and the sort. The industry is getting weird.

Anyway, you don’t need to be at a coffee mill or high end cafe to learn how to cup.

You can basically try it at home by flowing 9 steps.

Firstly before that, here are some stuff and simple equipment require to undertake this exercise.

• Coffee beans
• Grinder
• Digital scale
• Digital thermometer
• 8.5oz cups (250ml)

The coffee beans should be whole so that only the freshest grind would be cupped. The variety of beans that would be tested depends on how many you desire to test.

Filter grinders are also preferred as they make short work of beans and let’s you monitor it.

Digital coffee scales would enable a cupper to get the desired amount of ground into each cup. And also ensure that each cup has the same amount.

Similar sized cups let you visually judge the amount of coffee grounds and water in each cup.

1) Serving size

Put about 1/4oz of coffee beans into each cup. It goes without saying that each cup would contain different beans.

2) Grind

The beans can then be churned into a medium grind and put back in the cup. Do the same for each cup of beans.

Something to note is that when transitioning from one type of bean to another, there is always the possibility of the residue of the previous grind getting into the new grind, which would affect the accuracy of the taste.

To prevent this from happening, grinding through a sample size and discarding it before collecting the grind for a cup can minimize this problem.

3) Take in the aroma

Only a true coffee lover would be able to appreciate this stage the most.

It might feel like having the pick of the lot in a candy store.

The scent of freshly ground coffee beans can send one into a frenzy. But your job is to make notes about the aroma of the grinds and how they differentiate from each other.

4) Water

No matter what type of water you have chosen, it has to be brought to a boil.

The magic of the ideal water temperature is about letting the water go above the desired temperature, then allowing it to cool down until it meets the specific temperature.

There is no hard and fast rule of water temperature, and a lot of people have their own preferences.

However, it is common practice to allow water to boil to 100°C, and the allow it to cool to 92°C – 95°C.

Then either pour the water into the cups until it meets a water line, or use a beaker or measuring cup to use the correct volume of water for all cups.

5) Steep

Steeping is when the aroma of heaven really comes into being.

How long to allow the blend to steep will depend on your preferences or brewing instructions that came with the packages.

However, it usually would be left to steep for 3.5 to 4.5 minutes.

It is also around the 1 minute mark where you would be able to observe grounds that slowly floats to the surface which some people describe as crust.

If this crust sinks without having you disturbed it, then it’s a sign that the water might have cooled off more than you intended it to, or that the roasted beans being too light.

6) Stir

After the allocated steeping time, subtly stir the surface of the beverage 4 times. This would break the crust, causing them to collapse and allowing the grounds to settle.

The sense of smell if the most important aspect as you bring your nose to each cup savoring the good that the world brings.

Just remember to clean the spoon between cups if you are using the same one for all of them.

7) Remove the top

Now that the crust has broken off and sunk, there will still be foam and other residue that ends up on the surface.

Use a dinner spoon to carefully remove them from the surface.

8) Taste

The tasting has finally begun.

When the temperature reaches your comfort level, use a spoon to scoop the drink and sip.

This is when the inspiration to write fanciful words as description comes into mind.

9) Compare

Do the same to taste the other cups and compare their differences.

Also taste them at different temperatures to determine how much of taste can be compromised as heat goes down.

Your range of descriptive vocabulary is going to expand naturally.