Coffee Roasting: Cupping
The process of roasting significantly impacts the flavor of coffee.
This time, we will focus on cupping, the quality check performed after roasting.
At BASE COFFEE, we view cupping as "a universally understood tool used to evaluate coffee."
Simply put, it's done to taste and evaluate coffee, identify what flavors and acidity it contains, and determine its elemental composition.
Moreover, in cupping, the coffee extraction method is standardized, ensuring that anyone can extract under the same conditions. When brewing coffee with methods like paper drip, the extracted components can vary slightly depending on the person brewing. Therefore, in cupping, the coffee's flavor is tested using an immersion method.
The cupping procedure is quite simple.
Set coffee grounds in a cupping bowl (cup) ▶ Pour hot water ▶ Wait 4 minutes ▶ Stir ▶ Remove the crust ▶ Taste with a cupping spoon
The extraction method is exactly the same as with a French press.
The reason a French press is recommended for those who want to enjoy coffee flavor more is because, like cupping, it allows you to directly perceive the coffee's taste.
Cupping is utilized in various situations, but it's crucial to approach each situation with completely different evaluation criteria.
Feedback to roasting after cupping evaluation is indispensable.
While we can evaluate the roasted beans, we cannot assess their taste merely by appearance. (This is obvious, of course.)
Therefore, we evaluate through cupping every time and verify the roasting performed on that day, at that time.
For example:
"The aroma is a bit stronger today."
"Is it because the roasting time was 〇〇 longer than usual?"
"Then, for the next roast, let's set the time to 〇〇 and re-verify."
And so on.
We have truly repeated these painstaking efforts to arrive at the current taste.
Frankly, we would love for the ingredient amounts to be perfectly identical every time, but that is simply impossible. Perhaps if roasting could be done in an environment completely unaffected by external temperatures, it might be possible.
At BASE COFFEE, each product has a standard, and we determine what range is acceptable for the product.
The subtle changes in taste that we perceive might be minute, but by catching these subtle changes and constantly providing feedback to roasting, we can respond to seasonal changes, changes in the state of green coffee beans, and changes in humidity.
By changing the roasting process according to the season, we believe we can always provide coffee beans of consistent quality, and we dedicate ourselves to roasting every day.
What is cupping?
At BASE COFFEE, we view cupping as "a universally understood tool used to evaluate coffee."
Simply put, it's done to taste and evaluate coffee, identify what flavors and acidity it contains, and determine its elemental composition.
Moreover, in cupping, the coffee extraction method is standardized, ensuring that anyone can extract under the same conditions. When brewing coffee with methods like paper drip, the extracted components can vary slightly depending on the person brewing. Therefore, in cupping, the coffee's flavor is tested using an immersion method.
The cupping procedure is quite simple.
Set coffee grounds in a cupping bowl (cup) ▶ Pour hot water ▶ Wait 4 minutes ▶ Stir ▶ Remove the crust ▶ Taste with a cupping spoon
The extraction method is exactly the same as with a French press.
The reason a French press is recommended for those who want to enjoy coffee flavor more is because, like cupping, it allows you to directly perceive the coffee's taste.
The Significance of Cupping
Cupping is utilized in various situations, but it's crucial to approach each situation with completely different evaluation criteria.
Quality Control in Producing Countries
Cupping is primarily used as a method for grading in producing countries. Using an evaluation sheet, specific flavor attributes (acidity quality, sweetness, etc.) are assessed. Based on this evaluation (scores are assigned), the coffee is graded, which helps in pricing during buying and selling. Similarly, when purchasing green coffee beans, cupping is used to evaluate the coffee and serve as a judgment criterion for the buyer. Since the judgment criteria include the buyer's preferences, here, "Scoring based on evaluation sheet" + "Buyer's preferences" forms the basis for judgment.Quality Control in Roasting
At BASE COFFEE, we also utilize cupping for quality control after roasting. Of course, we use completely different evaluation criteria than those used during purchasing. The evaluation here is to determine whether customers will find the coffee delicious. The quality of the coffee has already been assessed at the time of purchase, so we do not perform quality checks again. At BASE COFFEE, we assume that many of our customers use paper drip (coffee makers or hand drip) for extraction, so we roast and perform quality checks to ensure that they can enjoy delicious coffee with paper drip. Specifically, while trying to reduce acidity to a palatable level, completely eliminating it would disrupt the overall balance and origin characteristics (or make them less perceptible). Therefore, we roast in a way that leaves a slight amount of acidity. Recently, it seems that coffees with strong acidity or beans specifically focused on aroma have become more common. Of course, if such coffee is described as "recommended for French press extraction," that would be fine. However, if paper drip extraction results in sharp acidity, it's because the judgment criteria used for post-roast cupping are the same as those used in producing regions (criteria for quality check). In many countries overseas, French press extraction is mainstream, so perhaps coffee beans finished with the same judgment criteria as cupping performed in producing regions are often evaluated as superior. Personally, rather than roasting suited for Japanese people, I believe that independent roasters need to grow by adapting to Japan's coffee culture.Feedback to Roasting
Feedback to roasting after cupping evaluation is indispensable.
While we can evaluate the roasted beans, we cannot assess their taste merely by appearance. (This is obvious, of course.)
Therefore, we evaluate through cupping every time and verify the roasting performed on that day, at that time.
For example:
"The aroma is a bit stronger today."
"Is it because the roasting time was 〇〇 longer than usual?"
"Then, for the next roast, let's set the time to 〇〇 and re-verify."
And so on.
We have truly repeated these painstaking efforts to arrive at the current taste.
Frankly, we would love for the ingredient amounts to be perfectly identical every time, but that is simply impossible. Perhaps if roasting could be done in an environment completely unaffected by external temperatures, it might be possible.
At BASE COFFEE, each product has a standard, and we determine what range is acceptable for the product.
The subtle changes in taste that we perceive might be minute, but by catching these subtle changes and constantly providing feedback to roasting, we can respond to seasonal changes, changes in the state of green coffee beans, and changes in humidity.
By changing the roasting process according to the season, we believe we can always provide coffee beans of consistent quality, and we dedicate ourselves to roasting every day.