As part of our grand opening sweepstakes, we gave away an exclusive private cupping. Our winner was Kristine Page and Brad Schnell of Playground Agency. The cupping included our single origin coffees, along with the single origin decaf, swag bags, and lots of little treats to help recognize the tasting notes of different origins.
A coffee cupping is done to determine the actual sensory differences between different lots, to describe different flavors and determine the preference of products. Our roaster’s green bean buyer cups many different lots all over the world and sends samples of the best ones back to Vancouver, Canada. The team then cups many different coffee’s to determine which beans to buy.
Cupping coffee evolves around many different senses. We see, touch, smell and taste different notes from different regions. It is done by slurping coffee from big round spoons. Imagine everything your mother told you not to do when eating soup. The slurping aerates the taste notes and really brings out the different flavors.
James, our fantastic barista/cupping/catering expert hosted the coffee tasting. We started with the Ethiopian Welinso. An Organic single origin coffee with taste notes of honey, stone fruit and nutella. Alongside our cupping winners smelled honey, tasted chocolate and drank stone fruit juice to compare the tasting notes.
Onward we went to the Kenya Kamwangi, which has tasting notes of stewed plum and toffee sweetness, with a soft flavor of lavender and lively cola acidity. We smelled lavender oil, tasted mexican cola, and maybe a little too much toffee.
Next in line was our small lots series coffee, the Columbia El Descancso. This coffee was incredible exclusive and only available for one week. It had sweet honey aroma and flavors of plum and vanilla. Of course we had to taste our homemade vanilla syrup and some plum while slurping this incredibly clean Columbian.
Next we took a little caffeine break and tried the Colombia Los Idolos AA Decaf. With its tasting notes of sweet citrus, vanilla and soft cocoa, with tasted meyer lemons, milk chocolate and vanilla. The decaf had a balanced acidity, creamy texture and juicy finish. The farmers decaffeinate this coffee at origin using sugar cane and molasses, which get’s picked up in the sweetness of the coffee.
Last, but not least, we cupped our Ethiopia Biftu Gudina. This is our house coffee and has common ethiopian tasting notes. Sweetness and acidity balance well with a full body mouthfeel and an undercurrent of dark stone fruits. Overall, this was a great selection of coffees to cup.
Thank you so much for everyone who entered our sweepstakes and congratulations again to our winner Kristine and Brad. We hope you enjoyed your very first coffee cupping.
Please like us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more information about public cuppings. These will start within the next few weeks. All further questions about cupping should be directed at James at [email protected].
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