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You Are Crazy! I Don’t Taste Almonds?!

There are times when customers come into our warehouse store and have a confused look on their face because they are torn on which of Mayorga’s many coffees they should take home.  When a customer asks for a suggestion, the simple answer is they cannot go wrong.  However, if you want to be analytical, it is possible to narrow down the list based off of your pallet and your preferred tastes.  This is where the term “cupping” comes along.  Cupping is a process that uses your senses to analyze the aromas and flavors of your beans.  More specifically, it involves smelling of both dry and wet coffee grounds, as well as loud slurping and spitting of the coffee. This blog post will explain how you can take Mayorga’s approach and adapt it to the home setting in order to identify a specific coffee for your tastes.

Admittedly, Mayorga Coffee does not fit the stereotypical hipster mold of many current coffee roasters.  Our mission is to honor and promote the passion, culture, and communities behind sustainably-grown specialty coffee.  With this being said, we do not sit around a large circle table cupping coffee all day.  Instead, we believe our close relationships with coffee farmers at origin help ensure our quality.  Yes, we do cup, taste, and analyze coffee before we purchase it and send it off to customers, but if you are picturing lab coats, think again!  We use the philosophy of cupping and adapt it to our own style.  If it smells good, tastes good, and is grown in a sustainable way, than it is good coffee.

This video will show you how the professionals do it at a mill we visited in Nicaragua.

We want you to take the same approach.  Smell it, taste it, enjoy it!  We have flavor profiles on all of our bags.  For instance, our 100% Organic Roastmaster’s Blend is described as having a “medium body with hints of toasted almonds and dark caramel-chocolate, with a smooth finish.”  Are you having a hard time picking out the toasted almonds and dark chocolate flavor?  That’s no problem.  Simply grab some almonds and dark chocolate from your pantry and taste it side by side with your coffee.  Taste it now?  Chances are this method made it easier to identify the flavors.

With the help of some of the less experienced coffee tasting staff at Mayorga (i.e. the accounting department and newer staff members), we came to the conclusion that it is much easier to identify the flavors of coffee by matching it with everyday food than by cupping (unless you have a trained pallet).  Now it’s your turn, grab a new bag of Mayorga Coffee and try it out for yourself.  Match up the flavor profile on the bag with something you have at home.  If nothing else, at least you’ll have fun and get to eat chocolate, almonds, or other goodies!