New SCAA Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel

[Daave]

I didn't see this posted here yet. The SCAA just came out with a new flavor wheel. I just purchased the PDF and if was delivered to me basically instantly. They also have a poster available for pre-order.

Poster ($20):
http://store.scaa.org/collections/coffee-tasters/products/the-coffee-tasters-flavor-wheel?variant=14729526598

PDF ($10):
http://store.scaa.org/collections/coffee-tasters/products/the-coffee-tasters-flavor-wheel-digital-version?variant=14732978886

[SusanJoM]

There has been some rather contentious chatter about that new flavor wheel over at H-B
http://www.home-barista.com/coffees/new-scaa-wcr-coffee-tasters-flavor-wheel-t39612.html?hilit=scaa

[Huky956]

Some interesting & hilarious chat on this podcast ..

http://www.tampertantrum.com/episode-no-47/

I recommend this website for some insightful chat on specialty coffee..

[rodraguirre]

What I found waaaaaay more interesting than the flavor wheel itself is the Sensory Lexicon. I believe it can provide an immense help to improve our cupping skills:

http://worldcoffeeresearch.org/read-more/news/174-world-coffee-research-sensory-lexicon

[SusanJoM]

Yeah, but I vote with Jim Schulman on this one:
" the taste palette for coffees should be coffees."

[jyalpert]

Man I love how crotchety stuff gets on H-B sometimes.  Here comes my rant.

I do appreciate what Jim is saying - he seems to have a thinly veiled contempt for the insane flavor descriptions of coffees in third wave shops these days.  Which begs the question - what is the purpose of a sensory lexicon?  Is it to tell customers what a coffee is going to taste like?  Is it to calibrate the expectations between importer and roaster?  Is it to impress your friends?  I'm not sure I know, but I'm glad there are people at the helm trying to piece it together, imperfect as it may be.

I personally can't really account for most of the flavors on the wheel.  Thinking through my personal lexicon, it's taken me a few years, and I'm still limited to: roasty, acidic, stone fruit, berries, lemon, unidentifiable fruit, spices, smoky/acrid, chocolate, tannic, funk, jungle rot, wood, blueberries, sweet, flowers/jasmine.  Maybe a couple others.  On rare occasions something will be obvious, like overwhelming papaya or something, but that's rare personally.

Lots of the stuff on the wheel are things we'd never encounter because our importers screen out a lot of the flawed coffees for us.

In any event, as Jim also notes, the pros I've observed are typically fairly cautious.  My father-in-law went to enology school at Davis and ran a winery for several years.  He rarely ventures into the realm of specific flavors in anything, and neither do the other winemakers I've met through him.  In wine, he'll say "red fruit" or "dark fruit" or "yeast autolysis" or "oak" or "mineral" or "acidity".  Stuff like that.  But he's not going into the Robert Parker descriptors like pencil lead and cut garden hose and grape jelly that's been in the freezer for precisely 37 days.  Not that he's looking down on any of that; he just doesn't believe he can taste those things.  I don't believe I can, either - at least not without years and years of practice and probably a prescription for recreational weed.  The people who I've seen come up with the whacked-out descriptors are the drunk people at my father-in-law's quarterly recreational wine tasting group - lesson being that the most entertaining descriptors come from people who are fearless in just saying whatever comes to mind.  Which is how I personally view most of the coffee tasting notes at cafes these days.

Anyway none of this really matters, I don't believe.  Most of us aren't selling coffee to anyone, so the descriptors we use are purely recreational.  I suppose we could argue that coffee could be heading in the direction of wine - snooty, alienating, and intimidating for many people, which in turn makes things more difficult in social situations for us home roasters.  But I don't believe that's the case, and in any event any time anyone asks sideways about my coffee roasting my only comment is "it's a hobby like anything else" and that usually ends the conversation.

It's super cool that this coffee flavor wheel is even being done at all.  The research they've done to create reference flavors is super impressive - it reminds me of my shock at how much work must have gone into creating Pandora when I first learned about it.  So bravo to them.

[SusanJoM]

I enjoyed that rant enormously, but I'll be doggoned if I'm gonna drink Juicy Juice or eat Jello to find out about some of those flavors 

[hankua]

The recent Mill City video has a great explaination from Joe, who had recently finished a seminar at UC Davis.

Then sitting next to him is Dave who recently described a coffee as having "mahogany". My wild guess is that's a visual/taste descriptor. Mahogany is a dark red open grain wood, that's used on boats and furniture; latter finish is really "deep and dark". Coffee descriptors are all over the map, marketing may have an influence as well.

Let's take Sweet Maria's descriptors for example; I find them to be " off the chain". Take a look at "RoyalNY", two or three general words.

I'm glad to see SCAA make a science based change to the coffee flavor lexicon; definitely a step forward.

[jyalpert]

Haha yes Tom Owens' descriptions of sweet cream butterscotch muffins lathered in gooseberry preserves with a hint of tumbleweed are a bit much.

I also really enjoyed the most recent Mill City video - very pragmatic approach to sensory analysis.  Joe rules.

[HombreCafe]

will they have the flavor wheel for sale at the SCAA in Atlanta???