First Proper Coffee Cupping

Coffee Cupping at Probarista Tbilisi

Yesterday I went for my first proper coffee cupping, organised by Probarista. They’ve been my roaster of choice for about half a year now, and I was quite eager to go to their cupping session (especially since they don’t do them very often here — it’s not their main location).

In this post I’ll explain the cupping process, and my impression of the coffees that I’ve tried there (plus, use this as an excuse to try out substack, and see whether I can do faster blog post writting). I’m by no means an expert in the topic, I’m still exploring the coffee world (albeit I have plenty of opinions already).

Cupping Process

It’s done in a few steps. First, the coffee is ground, and smelled. Since this was public cupping we were doing it in a line fashion (I certainly should have taken more pictures shouldn’t I?).

Then the coffee is brewed:

• 14 grams of coffee, full cup of 95C water, making sure all the grounds get wet

• Steep for 4 minutes

• Break the crust, and leave it to brew for 4 more minutes

When the coffee is ready, there are three rounds of tasting (again in a line). Using a spoon, take a little bit of coffee from the cup, and slurp it (the instructions included the word “as loudly as possible”).

After the tasting rounds are done, the group discusses each coffee. I was of course the only show off to take written notes during that, but these notes now allow me to reconstruct it for the post too, neat.

Coffee

All of the presented coffees are roasted by Probarista. We had three from their regular range, and four microlots (i.e. special coffee lots, that are produced in limited amounts).

#1 Latino Profile 1.0

Colombian Arabica. Washed. I have actually drank this one a lot lately, as it has been one of the daily drivers. (although I have tried some of the other ones too, I’m not as familiar with them)

#2 African Profile 1.0

Ethiopian Arabica. Washed. This is also a regular one that they roast.

#3 African Profile 2.0

Ethiopia Yirgacheffe. Natural. This is a new profile that they started roasting recently. According to our cupping host, natural process is not very typical for Ethiopian coffee, so I was excited to try.

#4 Microlot 1.0 (September 2024)

Columbia Narino. Honey process. One of their microlots (which they don’t have anymore).

#5 Microlot 2.0 (October 2024)

Ethiopia. Washed. I have tried it before, and remember not being very satisfied. However, this was likely my technique, not the beans.

#6 Microlot 3.0 (September 2024)

El Salvador. Red Bourbon variety. Natural. Red Bourbon has always been enjoyable before, when I tried it. (Unfortunately, this lot is already out of stock).

#7 Microlot 5.0 (September 2024)

Brazil. Geisha. Natural. Geisha is one of the rarest varieties of coffee there is (especially Brazilian Geisha), hence this one is the most expensive of the ones we’ve tried. It also does have the highest Q-score of 88.5 on this table. Ironically, I bought a bag of it last month, and was very disappointed (likely due to my technique again). We’ve used the last 14g of this coffee for cupping, so it’s also out of stock.

Tasting

Here I will just walk you through my notes, without making intermediate conclusions.

Smell

First, we went to smell the coffee grounds. This is not what I usually do at home, so have the least experience describing I guess. Most of them smelled just like coffee to me. However, a couple stood out (to my surprise).

• #2 had a distinct bitter smell (I don’t think that I have described anything as smelling bitter before)

• #3 had a slight sweet smell, caramel-ish

• #7 had a strong lactic-acid like smell, sort of like kefir. Really something that I didn’t expect from a dry coffee.

Slurping 1

In the first round of slurping I tried to concentrate on acidity (both the amount and the quality).

1. Pleasantly acidic fruity

2. Very harshly lemon-like acidic

3. Nice acidity closer to a sweet-n-sour edge

4. Similar to 2, very harsh acidity

5. Fruity acidity, pleasant. This one also oddly has the lightest colour.

6. Very flat (???), practically no acidity at all

7. Fruity fermented acidity (which is expected after the smell)

So here we have most of our coffees to be fairly acidic (from nice to harsh and unpleasant), with one exception.

Slurping 2

In the next round I tried looking to describe sweetness and bitterness. However, the plan quickly goes out the window (huh), as I did notice a few odd things.

1. — no remarks

2. Still very harsh to the taste buds with acidity, cannot taste anything else

3. Certainly sweet, in a caramel-sugary way

4. Same as 2 again, nothing but acid

5. — no remarks

6. Interestingly, zero bitterness, and quite soft on the tongue

7. Still quite fruity, and definitely the most “nose-y” of them — fermentation prune-like smell

Slurping 3

The last round, I tried to finish off the descriptions, and maybe come up with descriptors if possible.

1. Apple Cider

2. — pure acid, I give up

3. Blackcurrant Jam

4. — pure acid, I give up

5. Leafy/grassy feel, certainly odd/unusual

6. It’s definitely soft and pleasant, but I was failing to put any descriptor on it

7. I’ve already mentioned prunes so — Dry Fruits it is

Discussion

We than had a discussion and hand-voting for the coffees at the end.

• #8 (Microlot 5.0) and #3 (Africa 2.0) were the first and the second place, as somewhat expected

• #6 (Microlot 3.0) was supposed to be sweet (which I didn’t taste at all) and jasmin-floral — this is the descriptor that I couldn’t come up with

• #7 (Microlot 5.0 Geisha) is certainly much more interesting than what I brewed with it at home (alas I cannot experiment more, since this microlot is gone)

Results

In the end, I did like #1 (Latino Profile 1.0), #3 (African Profile 2.0), and #5 (Microlot 2.0) — something familiar, something sweet and something odd. So naturally I a bag of each for home brewing.

Coffee cupping is fun, will do again.

The compiled tasting table (N.B. does not match with Probarista’s descriptors on quite a few items)

1. Latino Profile 1.0 (liked, daily driver)

   1. Pleasant fruity acidity

   2. Not much sweetness, or bitterness

   3. Apple Cider

2. African Profile 1.0

   1. Harsh lemonish acidity, pure acid

3. African Profile 2.0 (liked)

   1. Sweet and sour

   2. Sugary sweet

   3. Blackcurrant Jam

4. Microlot 1.0

   1. Harsh lemonish acidity, pure acid

5. Microlot 2.0 (liked, curious)

   1. Nice fruity acidity

   2. Leafy and grassy taste

6. Microlot 3.0

   1. Little to none acidity

   2. Zero bitterness either

   3. Soft body and floral taste

7. Microlot 5.0

   1. Lactic-like acidity

   2. Strong fermentation smell

   3. Dry Fruits, Prunes and Raisins