Cupping Guide

First things first, get the kettle on! You’ll want to boil enough water to fill the cups you’re going to be using. If you haven’t got a kettle with a thermometer, just boil a regular kettle and let it stand for a couple minutes so it’s ‘off the boil’ when you’re ready to pour. Read More

How important is the water you use when cupping coffee? Turns out, very. The water chemistry will affect how the coffee tastes so we try to use the softest, neutral tasting water we can. What does this mean in the real world? Depends on where you live, what’s coming out of your tap. Read More

The thing to ensure here is that the cups are the same size. It just means you do less maths (YES MATHS, not MATH !) and can pretty much ensure the coffee is brewed to the same ratios. We recommend finding out how much each cup holds, as when cupping coffee we brew the grounds to a ratio of approximately 8. Read More

Believe it or not, there are special spoons used by the pros for cupping coffee. They look lot like soup spoons, so if you have those, use them. Table spoons are just as good if you don’t. Have a glass with some hot water set aside to use to rinse the spoon(s) in between cups. Read More

We recommend using a coffee grinder and grinding your beans fresh before starting. Don’t worry though, if you haven’t got one, you can always buy ground coffee or get a sample of coffee from your local coffee shop.

You need scales to weigh the coffee if it’s not come pre-weighed. You may use them to weigh the water going into each cup if you cup holds more liquid than the ratio that we are using. They are not vital though if this is your first cupping experience Digital scales to 0. Read More

The whole point is to taste coffee right. The cupping process works with a ratio of 8.25g of coffee to 150ml of water. If you are using coffee you have bought, or coffee supplied you will need to weigh out the right proportion according to the cups you are going to use, or the water you are going to pour. Read More

The cupping sheet that is used to score and make notes about coffee is very complex. There is a much simpler version created by Conrad Altmann a former roaster and barista https://wanderlust.coffee/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/basic-cupping-v1.pdf. This is what we will use for our online cupping so please download and print it off.

Download he coffee flavour wheel, a tool used to give tasters a reference guide to the aromas and flavours then can hope to experience when attending a coffee cupping Read More