To understand how to taste coffee we first have to
look into the human being’s sensing mechanism.
Tasting occurs in the mouth. For us to absorb
fluids, the air inside our mouth is extracted,
the fluid is taken in together with the air
and exhaled from the nose. Therefore taste and
smell is sensed. While tasting, the appearence,
smell and taste of the fluid becomes a whole.
The taste buds in our mouth are mostly on the top
and tip of our tongue. These taste buds are
renewed every three days. This is the same case
for everyone. With one exception...
The difference between professional tasters and
amateurs are; interpreting the messages coming
from the taste buds correctly. The back of the
tongue senses BITTER, the middle SOUR, the front
middle SALTY and tip SWEET flavours. To truely
sense the coffee we’re tasting we have to circulate
the sip we take inside our mouth. This may not
always be possible since coffee is hot. Thats why
the tasters developed a technique. The tasters
spread the coffee by reverse blowing in other words
"slurping". This way they try to sense all the flavours
at once. The flavours tasted are interpreted in the
"coffee language" such as ACIDITY, AROMA and BODY.
Take a sip of coffee, close your mouth and
fill it with the air coming from your throat then exhale
the air from your noise. Repeat this again and
again. The air inside your mouth activates your
taste buds and exhaling it from your nose enables
you to register the smell. This way you get to sense
the flavour and smell of the coffee you sip and
embrace the soul of coffee!
