Since I happen to have three medium-light roast coffees at home, I thought it would be the perfect time to have my first little cupping session by myself ✨

It was actually quite fun and interesting, so I’m giving you my impressions and feelings about this little experience

Setting

Coffees

Spirit of India, Plantation AA (not specialty) Washed, Light roast (actually medium-light imho) By La Brasiliana, Ferrara, Italy

Shakiso, Ethiopia, from Kayon mountain farm Natural, medium light roast By Forno Brisa, Bologna, Italy

Las Perlitas, Colombia, Washed, medium light roast By Forno Brisa, Bologna, Italy

Preparation

Grind: Kingrinder K6, 70 clicks 8g of coffee in 130g of water 4 minutes of brewing About 10 minutes of cooling after breaking the crust

Valuating aspects

Aroma, acidity, sweetness, body, finish and flavours Both in quality (how much I liked it) and quantity (bland to strong)

How it went

I think the preparation was ok. The main 2 issues was the quantity, which I decided to keep lower than usual in order to use as less coffee as possible but I probably was a mistake, and temperature, since it cooled down way quicker than I expected so it was basically at room temperature for the whole time

It is crazy how different coffees can taste when compared in this way. I prepared both the Ethiopian and the Colombian one in this month but could really tell what made them different, today they tasted like two whole different beverages, the first more like a fresh fruit juice, the second more like a strong and sweet tisane.

Sweetness was definitely the trickiest aspect to analyse for me, as flavours was so different and acidity often seemed to enhance sweetness instead of masking it

The Indian one seemed quite blander. I guessed that the “specialty” indication wasn’t that important but it was clear that the two specialty coffees had more pronounced characteristics However it was very interesting to compare it to the others, since it has virtually no acidity and completely different flavours, so I had to go back and fourth multiple times to understand what was going on

In the final moment I tried to find words to describe flavours, which was fun. However in the end I quite disagree with the flavour profiles written in the bags, especially with the Indian one, which was described with “citrus, chocolate and green tea” while I’ve wrote down “wood, dried fruits, walnut” 🙃

If you’re curious about the three coffees specifically, I must say Las Perlitas blowed my mind for how it tasted, super sweet, acidic but also soft and complex. Definitely completely different from what is typically associated with “coffee”

So that’s it. It was fun and actually very useful to understand the actual characteristics of coffee, I’d say it is a good activity to do when buying new coffees