Appreciate the coffee labels

"What is your favourite coffee?"

Have you ever encounter this? A coffee that was so memorable in your impression but you struggle to share the name of the coffee?

You might be wondering "Why do you need to remember all these when you only want a cup of flavourful coffee?"

One of the things that make specialty coffee specialty is the traceability of the coffee and we like to start by noticing the country origin of the coffee bean, the name of the producer(s) or the farm, processing method, species or variety of the coffee beans and finally, flavour notes.

This is because there are certain flavours that are the inherent characteristic of the coffee that is only exclusive to the certain origin, the processing method or even varietal.

Some examples such as the Geisha varietal is known for the prominent floral and citrusy notes. Certain processing methods such as anaerobic fermentation processing give off certain distinctive tropical fruit notes and helps to increase the overall sweetness in the cup.

Another thing you might realise about certain tasting notes in the label seems to be pretty out of place. Sometimes they are actually referring to the aroma, sometimes it could be the tactile experience or the finish.

So how do you know?

We label our tasting notes in the order of our taste experience as a reference guide. The first note usually is the most prominent ones, which is a bright red apple acidity. Following by chamomile on the retronasal, cane sugar-like sweetness. Finishing off with Lemongrass finish.

Notice the words in bold referring to different aspects of our sensory experience? This is what the tasting notes of the coffee label usually means, and it takes conscious tasting to be able to understand what exactly are they referring to.

By taking notice of the above information, it will help you to identify almost immediately which of the coffee offering of the day would be your usual go-to, not to mention that you will be more confident when placing an order instead of having to describe the coffee to the staff and they have no idea what are you talking about.

So.. what's your favourite coffee?