Coffee Lover's Vocabulary  

Professional coffee tasters use a variety of scales and notes to desbribe and assess the brews they taste. Here are some examples of the words they use and the insight to their java jargon.

Aroma

Aroma refers to the fragrance or odor of brewed coffee. Aromas may be: ashy, burned,smoky, chemical, medical, chocolaty, carmel, malty, earthy, floral, fruity, grainy, green, herbal, nutty, rancid, rubber-like, spicy, tobacco-like, winy, woody.

Taste

Taste s described as the different nuances each coffee tastes. This is not to be confused with flavored coffees made to taste a certain way. It is strictly the taste of the coffee beans and roast. It is the combined sense of acidity, aroma and body – basically the overall flavor judged by the 4 tastes on your tongue salt, sweet, bitter or sour.

Body

The sensation of fullness in the mouth and how long it lingers is body. Full-bodied coffee has compounds that coat the taste buds, giving the mouth a sense of fullness and combines long-lasting flavors. Body is influenced by the brewing method of ground coffee beans. More oils and fine particles are allowed into the finished brew by a French press or espresso machine which produces a heavier-bodied coffee. particles and flavor oils are trapped by paper filters used by drip machines resulting in lighter-bodied coffees. Some examples of levels of body:

• Light (most Decaf, Mexican)
• Medium (Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda)
• Medium-full (Ethiopia Harrar, Colombia, Vienna Blends)
• Full (Kenya, Sumatra, French Roasts, Black & Tan)

Coffee Roasting

Changing the chemical and physical properties of raw green coffee beans to grindable, brewable bean coffee is called roasting. The final flavor of your favorite savory coffee is a direct result of the roasting process. Fresh off the plant, bean coffee is green in color and about 50% of its roasted size. When a heat source is introduced to the coffee bean, the color changes to yellow, to light brown, to dark brown, and oils develop on the surface of the bean. Bean coffee will darken depending on the length of heat applied to it until the heat source is removed.

More about coffee roasting

Coffee Roasters Vocabulary

  It's all in the Roast! Here are definitions of roasts that Roastmasters use. Make sure you use them to get your beans roasted exactly the way you want.

Light roasts

Half city, cinnamon, New England , light (beans will be the color of cinnamon, very dry roast

Medium

Full city, American, medium;high, breakfast, regular, brown. (beans will be milk chocolate color, a few beans may be slightly tipped*

Medium/high to dark

Light French, Viennese, city, full city. (beans will be darker brown, more tipping* apparent)

Dark/high roast

Continental, New Orleans , European, French, , after dinner Italian. (beans will rich dark chocolate brown, at least ¾ of the beans will be tipped*)

Very dark roast

Espresso, dark French, heavy. (beans will be a dark mahogany color and fully tipped*)

*Tipping is a term used to describe the amount of oil that is apparent on the bean. The darker the beans are roasted, the more oil or more tipping that is apparent on the bean. The darkest roasts will be fully tipped, rich and oily.