The noises of slurping filled the room when Deet’s Place held its third Coffee College Course Tuesday with a hands-on lab about coffee cupping.
           
Much like wine tasting, coffee cupping is the sensory evaluation of a specific coffee’s flavor and aroma profiles, said Brian Babcock, assistant manager of Deet’s Place and presenter of Coffee College Course #4. The purpose of the exercise it to help one figure out what flavors and roasts of coffee they like and don’t like.

In comparing coffee cupping to wine tasting, Justin Murphy, geography major and regular attendee at the Coffee College Courses said, “Everything is the exact same, just with different products.”  

Students were led through several doors into a backroom at Deet’s Place where the hands-on lab took place.

According to Babcock, each coffee has a unique nuance. He started off by telling the students some of things they should look for while cupping coffee: body, sweetness, completeness, and acidity levels. They examined these qualities in three different “flights” of coffee, each from a different location.

The first flight came from Costa Rica in a 150-pound burlap bag.

The process of cupping the coffee began when students were told to smell the coffee grounds they had in front of them. While shaking the grounds around in the cup, students brought the small cups up to their noses and took in a big whiff.

Babcock made a big point out of the fact that you can’t be wrong when it comes to smelling an aroma of coffee. “If that’s what you smell in there,” said Babcock, “you’re not wrong.”

Next Babcock went around and poured water into each student’s cup, and told him or her to wait four minutes for the coffee to steam. After the four minutes were up, a crust had formed on the surface of the coffee where the grinds had risen to the top. Babcock then instructed the students to break the crust by taking a spoon and dipping it in front of the cup to push back the crust and release the aroma compounds.

Again, students took the cups to their noses and smelled the new scents, as if smelling a freshly baked batch of brownies right out of the oven. In order to reach the sensory glands in the back of their mouths, Babcock told the students to smell it through both their nose and mouth.

The students took in a big whiff and looked at their peers around the room in search of an answer or confirmation. “You can’t be wrong,” Babcock reminded the students. “It’s aromas, right?” According to Babcock, the aromas are dependant on both the roasting process, and the bean itself.

Now that the students had a good idea of what the flavor of coffee smelled like, it was time to wet their taste buds. When it comes to coffee cupping, the key is to slurp. “It’s a lot of slurping,” said Babcock. “Just slurp and spit.”

In order to properly taste test the flavor, Babcock told the students to splash the coffee across their mouths, so that the three basic flavor points on the tongue would be reached: sweet, sour, bitter.

When tasting coffee, one must try to be as objective as possible, Babcock said. People need to develop a common language to discuss cupping and flavors, so that they know what each other thinks of it. “If someone says it’s nippy and we’ve cupped a lot,” said Babcock, “we should know what they’re talking about.”

The second flight of coffee came from Indonesia. The students took a whiff of this one and began naming the scents that came to mind: meat, wood, bark, leather. “My first thought was barbeque!” said one student.

The third flight was an African coffee from Rwanda and the smallest bean of the three. “Rwanda is one of those success stories,” said Babcock. After the genocide, they had to replant all of their coffee, which can take the crops three to five years to get good.

The students were all in agreement that this flavor had a berry, citrus, floral aroma to it, and tasted “the smoothest of the three.”

After all three coffee flights were tasted, Babcock passed out three cups of coffee grinds to each student with only one type of bean. This time the beans were roasted to three different “cracks.” One cup was cut off at 397 degrees Fahrenheit, first crack, the next at 415 degrees, second crack, and the last was roasted till 433 degrees, third crack.

“Remember to be extra geeky and rinse your spoon after each cup!” said Babcock, as the students taste tested each different roast level.

According to Babcock, the bitter taste replaces the sweetness as the beans caramelize the longer they are roasted. “It’s kind of chicken soup-y,” said Murphy describing one of the roasts.

The last activity the students participated in was a brief smell test from an aroma kit of 36 different flavors. “This helps to train the palette to know what things like apricot and peas smell like,” said Babcock. It helps you to better understand different flavors, which can help your coffee cupping.

“What I love about the coffee industry is the passion,” said Babcock. He decided to teach the Coffee College Courses because he enjoys sharing his knowledge about something he’s so passionate about. 

“It’s easier and more fun to talk about coffee in a small group setting,” said Babcock, “so I thought, ‘since we’re on a college campus, why not offer a college course in coffee?’”

The intended third course in the program, Coffee College Course #3, was rescheduled for April 24 at 7 p.m., because Babcock was given the opportunity to visit a coffee farm in Nicaragua during the original date.

According to Babcock, this course will offer a discussion on “cause coffees.” He will explain the certifications and differences between organic, fair trade, rainforest alliance, direct trade, relationship coffees, and more.