As the new Stone Creek Coffee Intern, I figured that it was about time that I got more serious with my coffee cupping.  Last Wednesday, we had one of our primary importers, John Cossette from Royal Coffee, visit our factory and set up a coffee cupping for us that held up to his coffee-importing expertise.

For those of you who don't know all of the details of what a cupping entails, I'm going to share my new-found knowledge with you.  It is amazing that there are so many things to note about each cup of coffee!

When you first sit down, you should have a cup in front of you with freshly ground coffee, a spoon, and a cup of water.

Step 1.  Smell the coffee.  Bring the cup to your nose and inhale deeply.  Try to let the fragrance of the coffee come to you.  (It helps to kind of swirl the coffee around.)  Is it smoky?  Chocolaty?  Earthy?

Step 2.  Add your almost boiling water to the coffee and let it sit for 3 minutes.  You're waiting for the grounds to settle. 

Step 3.  Break the crust that has formed on the top of your cup, but do this very carefully.  The other Stone Creekers used their spoons to gently push the grounds away from the center of their cups while inhaling deeply.  This is how you judge the aroma of the coffee.  Does it match the description that you had before?  John suggested pulling the settled grounds up from the bottom of the cup as you continue to inhale deeply.

Step 4.  Scoop out the grounds.  Take your spoon and skim it across the top of your cup to get out all of the grounds.  For a new cupper like me, it took me several skims to clear all of the grounds off the top of my coffee. 

Step 5.  Rinse your spoon.

Step 6.  Taste your coffee.  To do this, you slurp the coffee off of your spoon.  You want the coffee to coat your tongue while you are still able to inhale and taste some of the aroma.  What you want to look for right now is the brightness of the coffee, as well as the body of the coffee.  For brightness, does the coffee remind you more of an orange or of a banana?  It is very snappy?  If so, the coffee has a higher level of brightness.  For body, does the coffee remind you more of skim milk or of whole milk?  Does it coat your tongue?  If so, the coffee has a full body.

We did a blind cupping, which is preferred by most coffee professionals.  This way your subconscious can't trick you.  We also cupped four coffees at the same time!

If you're interested in trying a cupping the Stone Creek way, we offer a public cupping every other Friday at our Factory.  Our next cupping is going to be held July 10th at 9 AM .   Feel free to join us!  It's a great experience!