Cupping

For people who work in the coffee trade, evaluating the quality of any given bean is a lot more complicated than simply brewing up a pot and taking a sip. To evaluate a given coffee’s flavor and aroma, pros engage in “cupping,” a ritual that’s a lot more akin to an oenophilic wine-tasting than it is to the standard American coffee klatsch. Now one local coffee master is sharing the cupping experience with the public.

This morning, I experienced a session at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, the community hot spot about which I’ve written before. Five of us assembled before owner Chuck Patton in a room equipped with a table set up with 3 small glasses for each participant. In the center of the table, 3 trays contained 3 types of roasted coffee. All were Arabica-class beans, one a rare and expensive “Geisha” varietal from Panama, one from Kenya, and the third from the Malabar coast of India. Patton ground up some of each and placed a heaping scoop in each of our 3 cups. We should try to keep them in order, he instructed.

In order to calculate a cupping score (ranging from 0 to 100) for each coffee they evaluate, Patton and his staff fill out a complex form with sections for judging both the dry and wet fragrance, the acidity and brightness, body and mouthfeel, flavor and depth, and finish/aftertaste. My group didn’t write down actual scores, but we learned the basics. First we brought our noses up to each glass of dry grounds, deeply inhaling the aromatic contents. Then Patton poured hot water, in which we allowed the grounds to steep for about 4 minutes. Then we bent over the glasses and used a spoon to break the little crust of grounds floating on top of each, releasing rich caches of more delicious scents. Finally, we brought a spoonful of each type of coffee to our mouths and slurped it noisily, then covered our tongues with it in an attempt to experience the full range of flavors. The differences between the 3 were startling, ranging from the clean, acidic, fruity flavors of the Panamanian, to tomato-soup tones in the Ethiopian, to the funky flavors of the Indian brew (whose aging is enhanced by the salty sprays of the Indian monsoon.)

After the cupping session, Patton led us to a room piled with burlap sacks from around the globe. He and his staff currently roast about 1100 or 1200 pounds of beans every week, a sophisticated process requiring decisions about not only the best temperature and roasting time for each type of beans, but also the speed at which the temperature is reached, and the adjustments necessary to compensate for shifting environmental factors like the weather and humidity. Patton’s a partisan of roasting less than many of his competitors because he thinks excess roasting can obscure the beans’ interesting varietal characteristics. I was also surprised to learn that the lighter the roast, the higher the caffeine content.

Since its inception in 2002, Bird Rock Coffee has made a big deal of its commitment to organic farming and fair-trade practices for growers. So I was interested to hear that Patton has been moving beyond the simple but comfortable “fair trade” rubric to concentrate more on trading directly with individual farmers, to help them earn much more than they would within a local co-op. Patton also has begun to work on serving another basic human need in the growing communities he patronizes, bringing ni simple water-filtration systems.

For the San Diego community, he’s currently offering the cupping sessions every Friday at 10:30 a.m. Although they’re free, the space is small, so it’s best to call ahead (858/551-1707) to make a reservation.