What Is Coffee Cupping?

Hi everyone, welcome back to Onyx Coffee Lab. So today we are here to talk about something that's pretty integral to the entire coffee process, and that is cupping coffee. And to start us off, we have Dakota Graff. Welcome Dakota. Hi. Tell us a little bit more about what you do here at Onyx Coffee. Well, I'm Director of Coffee for Onyx Coffee Lab. I'm also the Green Buyer. So the nature of my job is that I do spend a lot of time right here at this table cupping coffees and evaluating coffees. And how we do that is coffee cupping. Very cool. So we're going to talk about that. Very cool. So let's start off with the main question is, what is coffee cupping? Yeah. Coffee cupping is primarily a brewing method, but it's also a protocol for evaluating coffee. So coffee cupping is unique in the sense that you are brewing coffee, but it's versatile in that you can do it in many locations and you don't need specialized brewing equipment like cone drippers, filters, specialized kettles. It's stripped down. It's pretty approachable. Exactly. In order to do it on a card table in Rwanda or here at our headquarters. Very cool. The follow-up question would be then, why would we do that? Why would we cup coffee like that? Yeah. So coffee cupping and coffee evaluation is sort of a language, and it's a language that everyone can share. And in order to do that is you need to evaluate coffees at their base level. Sure. And in order to do that, we're not going to brew coffees one way and someone else brew coffees a different way. Because they're going to taste completely different. Exactly. So it's a lot about common language. And in order to do that, you evaluate a protocol. Cup a coffee. Yeah, we're going to do that today. Sweet. And yeah. Well, let's just start into it. So we are going to actually set up a cupping today, talk about tasting, talk about all the procedures that go into it. And I'm ready to go if you are. Yeah, let's do it. Let's talk about how to start a cupping. Sure. So we have got some stuff here. If you want to walk us through what tools we have here. Yeah. So like I said, coffee is fairly rudimentary in equipment. Sure. But that said, you will need a couple items in order to evaluate coffee accurately. The first thing you're going to need are some cups. You're going to want some cupping bowls. These are ceramic cupping bowls. You want something three to three and a half inches in diameter in order to properly evaluate the coffee. But it's pretty flexible. I've cupped coffees in glass jars around. I've done some weird cupping myself. It's flexible. But you want a cup that you can get at least eight grams of coffee in. Got it. So you can do a one to 18. Sure. 150 milliliters is your standard water recipe. In order to do that, you're going to need a scale. Pretty much. You're going to weigh out your coffee, whole bean, and then your water. Got it. If you have some standardized cupping vessels, you won't need to weigh your water. You can just pour them directly in. Sure. And in order to break the coffee. These are my favorite. Yeah. You have a very cool spoon. You'll need a cupping spoon. So that's. Can you describe kind of what a cupping spoon is? Because we don't just use like, we don't use like teaspoons or like soup or like dinner spoons. Yeah. It's sort of like a bigger soup spoon, essentially. So it's a little bit wider. It's generally, they're a little bit heavier. They're made of some nicer materials. So they're not imparting any flavors or even textures. Yeah. It's just like, I have a spoon that I like to use. Everyone kind of has their favorite spoon. Yeah. They're great for cereal, by the way, too. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. And you'll need a timer in order to time your brew and you'll need hot water. You won't need a specialized pitcher. Just something that pours quickly and accurately and that you can comfortably hold for a while because you might pour a lot of coffee or water. So those are the things that we're going to need. Let's go ahead and jump into it. Awesome. Let's go. So we've got a bunch of different coffees here. What did you grind these on to get them here? Yeah. So obviously to achieve a coffee cupping, you're going to need a grinder. What you want to aim for is something slightly coarser than what you would go for maybe a V60. Got it. I like to cup slightly finer than that. That's just personal preference. It doesn't really affect it. But cupping is not something that you really dial in. The protocol, like the universal protocol, is if you have a size 20 sieve, you want 70% to 75% of your particles to pass through that. Sure. So if you feel like you're way off, you can always buy one of those. You can get them on Amazon. We were real specific with it. Yeah. I like to be very specific. But yeah, we've ground these samples. Let's put some hot water on these and cup. Sounds good. So we're starting with just filling our cups to the brim, right? A nice aggressive flow, get everything saturated. Yep. This is my favorite part. You want to form almost like a meniscus on the top because it's really important in order to achieve an accurate cupping to dose out your water in a way that's uniform across your samples. You can tell how experienced he is with the level of confidence you're pouring to the top there. You should see some of them. And you want to pour a couple of rinse bowls as well. You're going to rinse the spoons a lot throughout the cupping process. Same temperature water. It's all good. Just pour them off to the side. Make sure you refresh them often. Got it. Then if we look closely here, we're starting to see a lot of those grounds are sitting at the top. Yep. And correct me if I'm wrong, but as time passes, as we let this brew, you'll start to have like a literal crust like form over the top, correct? Yeah. This is what we would call the crust. This is what we can evaluate from a sensory aspect. We would call this the aroma. Ooh. Yeah. How fun. Yeah. When it's dry, it's fragrance, and you're going to take that in when you're taking notes. Gotcha. Yeah. Very cool. So we'll let these sit for about four minutes. Four minutes. And then we'll break this crust off the top. Okay. So our timer just passed four minutes. We've let this brew. What happens next? We're going to break this top crust. At four minutes, what you need to do is take your spoon. Got it. You're going to give it a little rinse, and then I'm going to go first just to show you kind of how I break things, and I'll have you do the next one. No pressure. You'll want to do the bowl that you poured first. Got it. So here we go. So you want to give it three kind of swirls. I try not to go front to back because you'll push coffee off the side. Got it. So just a very gentle break, and it'll all settle out. It's a nice rinse. Yeah. No pressure. I'm very nervous. I do cup occasionally, but it has been a long, long time. Did we spill? No. Picture perfect. Oh, heck yeah. Yeah, that's great. So what we're looking for here. Oh, I spilled a little bit. What we're looking for here is to evaluate the aroma of the coffee. And from here, if we're taking notes, and when we're evaluating the coffee, we're going to write down what we're experiencing. Notes of coffee. Coffee. Smell. Cool. And as you can see, this doesn't have to be perfect. Spills will happen. Oh, yeah. And that is okay. Okay, so next, we have to get rid of some of this stuff on top, yeah? Yeah, we've got a bunch of CO2 and some other particulate floating on top. You want to grab another spoon? I do. Perfect. Take these spoons, you get comfortable, and then what we're going to do is clean the top. So you just scrape, and then you'll need something to put it in. I was like, I'm just going to aim really carefully. And some tips. Some people have a struggle a bit. Like when we have people who are new to roasting, new to cupping, I have a lot of tips on cleaning because you can do it really quickly. Basically, you use one spoon to go under it, and use the back of the spoon. Oh, now that's professional right there. To have the CO2 kind of cling to it. Because it kind of wants to stick to the spoon anyways. Oof, that was not. You do have two very small spoons right now. I like to use one really big one and one really small one because I'm ultra particular. I'd love to see you do it one more time. Yeah, let's do it. That was incredible. And you want to rinse every time you go. Rinse every time. Yep. Awesome. Well, these are definitely not at drinking temperature right now. So we're going to give them, what did you say, 10, 15 minutes? I cupped pretty cool. We're at seven minutes now. I will start cupping around 15 minutes. Okay, cool. So we will see you back here in about seven minutes. Great. See you soon. Okay, so we have just passed that 15 minute mark. Yeah. Everything is nice and ready to be tasted. What are we looking for now? Well, we're looking to taste some coffees. So what you're going to need is grab your spoon. Let me, I've abandoned my spoon. Here you go. I got you a spoon. Thank you. So keep track of your spoon, grab your spoon. And then you're going to want a receptacle to spit the coffee out. Got it. If you're doing a really, really small cupping and you're not like super affected by caffeine, you can go ahead and drink the coffee. If you're doing a lot of coffees like this. Like two o'clock right now. You don't really want to do that. So, got to rinse it. I think we already rinsed, but. No harm. What you take a spoon, dip it in there. And then what you want to do is just. My gosh. So that's called a slurp, right? Yeah, that's a slurp. That's the cupping slurp. You'll want to just spread all those particles across your palate. Got it. In order to just coat that coffee across your palate. So go ahead and give it a try. And cupping is sort of innately messy. I generally have like a drip down the front of my shirt. Yeah. All the time. I don't really wear aprons because I think they're kind of heavy. So just keep that in mind. You're going to maybe get some coffee on you. This is not a clean process, but it is a fun one. Yeah. So as we're cupping. I'm so intimidated by your slurp. Please. And that's the thing about cupping is I think it can be an intimidating process for a lot of people who are doing it the first time. And you want to make sure that you kind of lower that barrier to entry and say that it's like, it's fine to make funny noises and taste coffee. And cough. Yeah. You might choke a little bit. It will happen more often than you think. I'm here to be your, I'm just here to be your everyman in this entire process. This is perfect. When we're cupping, we're primarily looking for differences in bowls. Sure. We're looking at the aspects of the coffee or the flavor notes of the coffee. And then we're also looking for preference of the coffee. So things we like, things we dislike, things that might be wrong with the coffee, like cupping deep, like coffee defects from a green buying perspective. That's super important to evaluate when I'm cupping coffees for consumers. It's more about preference and it's more about accessibility and fun. Yeah. We'll talk about some aspects of what we're tasting and how we taste coffee. And we've got, we've got two different coffees out here right now. Right? Yeah. So there's three of one and two of another. That's correct. And we don't have them marked at all. So this is going to be kind of a game of finding which is which. So while we're tasting coffee, we can keep in mind a few things. Flavor, acidity, body balance. And then there's also sort of an overall, which is like maybe sweetness, maybe more personal preference. Sure. And that's generally what I look for when I'm scoring green coffee. Yeah. And then from a quality control perspective, we cup every day up here. We cup every batch that we roast at Onyx. And from a quality control perspective, you're just looking for what's right in the coffee and what's wrong in the coffee. Sure. And looking at each coffee with a critical eye in order to say, okay, this is what I thought it would be, or this is not what I thought it would be. So speaking of preference, do you have anything that you're, that you're liking on this table? I'm liking, this one's my favorite so far. This one is a bit brighter than these other two. Yeah. Or these other, these other four, if I can do any math. Really enjoying like the light fruit flavor in this one. Yeah. I was tasting some things that were a bit darker on that side. I'm going to go through them one more time and see if I can pick out. All right. See if they match up with you. Sure. You really get a nice like understanding of mouthfeel I feel with this. Yeah. Which is pretty unique. Like it's not just the flavor. Like even though you're slurping like super vigorously, you're only really tasting a tiny amount of coffee. Like it's just, it's a full experience. Absolutely. Very textural. You'll find that as you cup, you're just experiencing more particulate than you would in a filter brew. And part of that is that it's designed to have that kind of full on flavor so you can evaluate everything going on. You'll also find that you'll have a bit of a palate fatigue. So maybe taking like sips of water between and other things like that helps you evaluate more accurately. I want to, I want to guess these correctly. So these are different coffees. Different coffees. Definitely different ones here. Yeah. So part of it and part of an aspect of cupping is also using visual cues. I can definitely see that each one of these coffees is different. Sure. But there's an overall view for me is like these three coffees seem like they're all relatively similar in look. And these two are maybe slightly lighter roast. Yeah. That helps me kind of like understand. Age. Yeah. And it's not always the case, but sometimes you can pick up other visual cues you might not. Well, they're all super tasty for sure. What's, what's your, what's your professional breakdown of these in terms of which ones are which? Because we've got two. Yeah. So for me, these two are our Southern Weather blend and these three are our Monarch blend. There we go. Kind of a dead giveaway is like heavy texture. And you said it earlier, heavier like body kind of just a deeper roast profile. And these two more citrus. Yeah. Lighter. They're all really tasty, but very different. Maybe slightly more acidity, more perceived acidity over here. So cool. Yeah. So cool. Well, I think we're going to probably keep cupping a little bit more. Yeah. This has been great. So thank you Dakota for telling us how to do this. Sure. This is a really cool process that pretty much anyone can set up at home. As you mentioned earlier, it doesn't require a ton of tools. It's pretty accessible. And it's a really awesome way to compare different coffees and also really decide what you like in coffee rather than just kind of drinking the same thing over and over every day. Yeah. So very cool. Well, we will include descriptions of how to do this, kind of the breakdown in the description down below on this video. And this was a great time. So we hope you stick around for future videos. And if you would like to see more, the liking, subscribing and commenting and ringing the bell as cliche as it is. It works and you will see a lot more of us. So until next time. Thanks so much. Thanks, everyone. Bye.