Coffee Taster Flavour Wheel
tai attitude4 min read
The Coffee Taster Flavour Wheel is a tool designed to help the coffee drinker describe the flavours found in coffee.
Anyone may use the coffee taster flavour wheel for communicating flavour in coffee, as it is made accessible for professionals and coffee drinkers alike.
Before we use it, let's understand how it is made and learn the guidelines for using the coffee taster flavour wheel to its full potential.
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How flavour is found in coffee |
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Why certain flavour does not make the cut |
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Coffee taster flavour wheel's guide |
How flavour is found in coffee
There are over 1,000 naturally occurring chemical compounds that can be found in coffee. Each or a combination of these compounds contributes either aroma, taste, or mouthfeel, or all three, to the coffee drinking experience.
For reference, flavour is the combination of aroma, taste, and mouthfeel. For more about flavour, check out this publication.
Behind every aroma, taste, mouthfeel, or flavour in general, there is a compound or compounds responsible for it.
With the compound composition that is naturally occurring in coffee, the researcher tries to resemble these compound compositions in real-life foods that have the matching compound composition.
For a certain flavour to be listed on the coffee taster flavour wheel, it must be a flavour that resembles a certain food or drink experience.
In other words, the flavour wheel has shown us some proven possibilities for what flavour we can experience when it comes to drinking coffee.
For example, the flavour orange is on the flavour wheel because the aroma compounds found in actual orange are also found in specific coffee grown in certain parts of the world.
Although these compounds can be found in coffee, the abundance of the compounds in coffee is much lower when compared to an actual orange itself.
Hence, the intensity of the orange flavour in coffee will never be as intense as the actual orange; instead, it will be more of a hint or subtleness of orange flavour.
Why certain flavour does not make the cut
Not all flavours made the cut into the coffee taster flavour wheel; this is generally because of two reasons:
1) There is no such compound responsible for the flavour to be found or yet to be found in coffee itself.
For example, the aroma known as durian is formed by 16 unique compounds, and there is no coffee that contains all the same 16 compounds. As a result, we will not have the aroma perception of durian when accessing coffee of any kind. Since aroma plays a role in overall flavour perception, it’s no surprise that the flavour durian is not listed on the coffee taster flavour wheel.
2) Anyone can create their own coffee taster flavour wheel.
The coffee taster flavour wheel comes in many versions and is also updated from time to time. Each version of the flavour wheel has its own credentials.
By referring to only one coffee taster flavour wheel published by one individual, company, or association, it does not reflect all the flavour possibilities that can be found or will continue to be found in coffee.
Coffee taster flavour wheel's guide
Attached to this article are two coffee taster flavour wheels from coffee-mind.com.
The strength of Coffee Mind's flavour wheel is the scientific accuracy of the terms used: aroma, taste, mouthfeel, and flavour are accurately represented.
In addition, it is also organised, colourful, and easy to use.
For the reasons mentioned, I recommend the version above to any coffee drinker who wishes to communicate flavour in coffee.
For beginners who would like to learn coffee at their own pace, I recommend the version below for an overall simplified yet comprehensive experience.
Credit goes to coffee-mind.com, the creator and the owner of the intellectual properties of the two flavour wheels in this article.
Regardless of which version of the flavour wheel you prefer to use, here's how to communicate flavours by using the Coffee Taster Flavour Wheel in 5 simple steps.
Step 1: Grab a cup of coffee and have an overall browse of the flavour wheel.
Step 2: Taste the coffee. Focus on five tastes. (Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Umami)
Step 3: Start at the very centre, from inner circle to outer circle, of the flavour wheel. Find the Lexicon that resembles what you are experiencing.
Step 4: Start at the centre again, but this time, focus on colours instead. Try to resemble the colour of the flavour you are experiencing by using your imagination.
Step 5: As you taste the coffee, use your own words to give the coffee your own subjective flavour description. Have fun.
