Being able to distinguish the different coffee flavors or any other food, for that matter, depends our the six tastes on our tongue – sweet, sour, salty, bitter, fatty, umami (that’s Japanese for the savory taste of cooked meat) – and the multitude of aromas that are detected by our nose.
I’m currently reading a book by Avery Gilbert entitled, What the Nose Knows – the science of scent in everyday life. One comment he makes that I found encouraging and interesting is that most people think they are stunted in their ability to smell and differentiate aromas. The truth is that most of us just lack the vocabulary to describe what we are smelling.
So that made me think, maybe all we need is a cheat sheet the next time we try to describe the taste of our next cup of coffee. I personally have a short list. It is not the official coffee tasting list – which looks too intimidating to me – too many choices. But I think my list is a good start.
Fruity – Floral – Nutty – Chocolaty – Burnt
Tomorrow morning when you are drinking your cup of coffee – see if the taste or aroma falls into any of those categories.
Most coffee aficionados recommend light roasts. They say that it maintains the subtle flavors of the geographical origin in which the coffee was grown. The darker the roast is, the more the subtle flavors are roasted away.
Now let me explain some basics about roasting coffee beans. The two points of reference are the “first crack” and the “second crack.” The “first crack” marks the real beginning of the roasting process. The art of roasting is knowing when to best stop the process after the “first crack” has occurred. Stop soon after the “first crack” you have a light roast. Continue to the beginning of the “second crack” you have a medium roast. Let the beans roast after the “second crack” has begun, you have a dark roast.
I’ve been home roasting since January. The first set of beans that I began to roast and enjoy was a mixture of Kenya AA and Brazilian beans. Individually the Kenya AA beans were too “bright;” the Brazilian beans were sweet, but too boring. Together they seemed to compliment each other.
I typically roasted my blend of Kenya AA and Brazilian beans just up to the beginning of the “second crack.” So it was basically a medium roast. I liked this roast but after a while I began to use less and less Kenya AA beans in my blend. The “brightness” of the Kenya AA started to irritate me. I liked coffee that had more flavor and richness, rather than just the sensation of brightness. Finally, I ended up with a bag of Kenya AA beans and no more Brazilian beans. So now, what to do?
This past Sunday, I decided to roast the Kenya AA beans darker than usual. I actually let the beans roast 30-45 seconds into the “second crack.” I wondered what it would taste like – burnt Starbucks coffee?
Monday morning I made myself a cup of this fresh roast.
Mmmm. The “brightness” was slightly muted, but still there. The coffee also had a nutty taste. The best thing though, was this cup of coffee was real “sticky” in my mouth. I drink my coffee black, without sugar or milk. But the stickiness of the coffee was as if I had added a tablespoon of sugar to it. Now that was a good cup of coffee!
As I try to put some of my theories about taste into practice, I’m finding that the main problem that most of us have with tasting things, is that we rely too much on our tongue. Actually the secret is to focus on the nose.
Let me give you an example. Sip your cup of coffee. What is the first taste that comes to your mind? This is multiple choice: a) sweet, b) sour, c) bitter, d) salty, e) fatty, f) umami (let’s just call it savory – you know, the taste of a delicious steak). If you are like me you would have picked c) bitter. Now I would never normally call a cup of coffee bitter, but when made to think about it after the first sip – my tongue says, bitter.
Let’s give ourselves a break, and for a period of time, if the main thing we notice about better quality coffee is the lack of bitterness – we’ll just enjoy that quality. But if all we can judge about coffee is varying degrees of bitterness, we won’t feel it is justified to go the extra yard into the world of specialty coffees.
So what to do? Try to develop your nose more and more. I think this is very subtle but it can be developed. Tomorrow morning, enjoy your first few sips as you usually do. Then try to fill your nostrils with the rich aroma of your coffee. After you have taken a sip, exhale through your nose. You won’t notice much. But over time your sense of smell with coffee will get more and more sensitive.
Why is it that eating sometimes provides incredible enjoyment – well . . . until we overeat and groan in pain. The nerves from our taste buds along with those from our sense of smell input signals to our brain that triggers our emotions. What kind of emotions? Anywhere from, “Oh man, I can’t believe how good this tastes!” to “Yuck! That is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted!”
Nerves from those emotion centers are also very close to that part of our brain that allows us to make decisions – do we spit it out or take another bite?
The more I investigate taste, the more it is turning out to be more complicated than I ever thought. But here is what I would like to do: come up with a little method by which we stop and think about the taste, the smell, and the mental images that come to us when we are eating or drinking. We may not become professional tasters for a gourmet magazine, but we can at least build a little muscle in our palate to begin enjoying the finer subtleties of good coffee.
I’m currently staying at a hotel in Philadelphia this week for a work-related conference. On one of the cable channels, a wine-tasting show pointed out that there is a difference between taste and flavor. According to the show there are four different tastes but thousands of flavors.
Well based on my previous post on “Demystifying Taste – Pt. One,” there are actually six tastes, because that is what our taste buds are able to detect. There are thousands of flavors because flavor comes from taste plus our sense of smell. Ever tasted chocolate when your nose was stuffed up with a cold? It’s just not the same. It’s kind of like trying to distinguish the color of your shirt in dim lights. It just doesn’t look right. Strictly speaking, the taste of chocolate is sweet and maybe bitter for dark chocolate. But the flavor that everyone recognizes comes from its characteristic aroma as well.
So you got that? Taste and smell gives us flavor. We will step by step educate our palates and heighten our ability to taste and describe what we taste.
This is the beginning of my endeavor into The World of Taste. I’m going to embark into the world of coffee tasting. No doubt enjoying coffee is all about taste along with the buzz factor from the caffeine. I have a hunch that becoming better tasters just requires a little education and practice. So to be able to take the enjoyment of coffee up another notch, I think getting our taste buds in shape is in order.
I found an interesting site about the science of taste. With a little consideration, I think most people would say that our taste buds can distinguish four things: sweet, sour, salty, bitter. The Taste Science Laboratory claims that there are actually two more tastes: fat and something called umami (pronounced oo-mah-mee). I never thought fat was a taste, but it does make sense – this sense of taste is probably stronger for me than my wife – she is Jack Sprat who can eat no fat, I am Jack Sprat’s wife who can eat no lean. The big surprise is that our taste buds recognize something that the Japanese discovered and called, umami – that delicious flavor in meat. This taste bud is actually stimulated by MSG. That is why you’ll find MSG listed in the ingredients on your Doritos bag.
So you got that? There are six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, fat, and umami. Is your mouth watering for a nice piece of steak or a juicy hamburger? Mine is.
Whenever I’m in experimental mode with my coffee explorations, I seem to have a lot to say on this blog. Whenever I tinker with doing things that could possibly turn my interest into a business, I’m find that I am at a lost for words.
So what am I tinkering with? I’m putting together a number of instructional PowerPoint slide shows that give very easy to follow directions to make coffee in a French press and in a vacuum pot. I regularly use both of these brewing methods. I’ve found what works best for me. Now whether or not to sell these things on their own or with actual French presses or vacuum pots on eBay is what I’m debating about.
The other thing I’ve been tinkering with is the halogen heater that I last posted. Trying to make one that is cheap, with easily replaceable bulbs, and safe so no one gets electrocuted in the process of using it, has been a challenge. I was thinking that it would nice to have something portable that restaurants could bring to your table after a nice dinner. But then again, how often am I able to go out to have a nice dinner, especially with four kids?
What’s Guy been up to the last 2-3 weeks? The previous vacuum coffee pot posts highlight [sorry no pun intended] the Hario Halogen Beam Heater. As you can tell I stole the photo from the Avenue 18 website. Hario, a Japanese company, plans to sell these in the US for $385. They even have a website in the works – but no orders are currently being taken yet.
$385!!! There must be an easier and cheaper way to make this. For sure the wow effect of the light shooting up the vacuum pots are cool. But $385!
Hardcore coffee aficionados are able to distinguish the subtle taste differences in coffee made from a French press, an Aeropress, a Chemex, or a vacuum/siphon pot. I don’t quite consider myself to be in that league yet. I do taste some differences (although I’ve never had a cup made by Aeropress) but not enough to recommend fellow novices.
But the honest truth about vacuum/siphon pots is that it puts on a great show. If you want a dramatic improvement of taste over a drip coffee maker, make some coffee in a French press. It is the cheapest and the easiest. If you want to be able to feel like you’ve become an overnight coffee expert, make coffee in a vacuum/siphon pot.
What’s Guy been up to the last 2-3 weeks? The previous vacuum coffee pot posts highlight [sorry no pun intended] the Hario Halogen Beam Heater. As you can tell I stole the photo from the Avenue 18 website. Hario, a Japanese company, plans to sell these in the US for $385. They even have a website in the works – but no orders are currently being taken yet.
