Quick answer: how to taste coffee at home
To taste coffee at home, brew two to four coffees side by side in identical cups, all the same way: coarse grounds, water at about 93 °C, a 4 minute steep. Smell each one dry, then wet, break the crust, and slurp from a spoon so the coffee spreads across your tongue. Take notes and compare. That is a simple version of cupping, the way professionals taste.
| Setting | What to use | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Ratio | 1 g coffee to 10 to 16 g water (1:10 to 1:16) | NCA, French press guidance |
| Water | 93 ± 3 °C | NCA, French press guidance |
| Steep | About 4 minutes; a crust forms after about 1 minute | NCA, French press guidance |
| Grind | Coarse, like rock salt | NCA, French press guidance |
| Cup | Traditionally an 8 oz glass | Wikipedia, Coffee cupping |
| How to taste | Sniff deeply, then slurp from a spoon | Wikipedia, Coffee cupping |
We borrow the National Coffee Association's French press numbers because a cupping is the same kind of brew: grounds steeping in hot water, no filter. The Specialty Coffee Association publishes its own sample preparation standard for professional tasters (SCA-102, Sample Preparation and Tasting Mechanics), but the home version above is close enough to learn on. At the 1:16 end of the range, 12 g of coffee to about 190 g of water fits an 8 oz glass.
Step by step
- Pick two to four coffees. Choose ones that differ in one clear way, like a washed and a natural from the same country, or the same coffee from two roasters. Label the bottom of each cup so you can taste blind if you like.
- Grind each coffee right before tasting, as the NCA advises. Brush out the grinder between coffees.
- Smell the dry grounds with your nose right in the cup. This is the fragrance, and it is the first thing you write down.
- Pour the water, start a timer and leave the cups alone. A crust of grounds forms on top after about a minute.
- At about 4 minutes, push the crust back with a spoon, put your nose right over the cup and breathe in. Skim off the floating grounds.
- When the coffee has cooled enough to sip, take a spoonful and slurp it hard, so it sprays across your whole tongue. Wikipedia describes this as the standard cupping technique: a deep sniff, then an aerated slurp from the spoon.
- Taste again as it cools. Go back to each cup two or three times over the next several minutes and note what changes.
- For each coffee, note the aroma, the flavor, the acidity, the body and the aftertaste. Then rank them by which you would drink again.
Words for what you taste
The hardest part of tasting is naming what you notice. Professionals have tools for that. World Coffee Research's Sensory Lexicon, version 2.0, published in October 2017, names 110 flavor, aroma and texture attributes found in coffee and gives references for measuring how strong each one is. It became the foundation for a revised Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel, the first redesign of that wheel in 20 years.
You do not need 110 words. Start with five categories, each with its own entry in our glossary: aroma, acidity, sweetness, body and aftertaste. The tasting notes printed on a bag are the roaster's version of the same exercise, and a good first game is to taste before you read them.
The Specialty Coffee Association's system for evaluating coffee, the Coffee Value Assessment, splits the job into four parts: a physical assessment of the green coffee, a descriptive assessment that records aroma, flavor, texture and aftertaste in standard language, an affective assessment of how much the taster likes it, and an extrinsic assessment of things beyond the cup, such as certifications and traceability. The split is useful at home too. Describing a coffee and liking it are different questions, and you will taste better if you answer them separately.
This whole method has a name: cupping.
Troubleshooting a tasting
| Problem | What to change |
|---|---|
| Every cup tastes the same | Choose coffees that differ more: different processing, origin or roast level |
| Everything tastes bitter | Water too hot or steep too long; stay at 93 ± 3 °C and 4 minutes |
| Everything tastes weak | Move the ratio toward 1:10 |
| Grit in your mouth | Skim the grounds after breaking the crust, and sip from the top of the cup |
| You cannot find words | Taste against something: an apple, a square of chocolate, a few nuts, then taste the coffee again |
| Flavors fade fast | Coffee is stale; the NCA puts whole bean freshness at 1 to 3 weeks at room temperature |
Taste with an Oregon roaster
Several Oregon roasters we list open their tasting to the public or build their menus around it, as checked on 2026-09-27:
- Coava runs public cuppings on weekends at its roastery on SE Main St in Portland.
- Caravan's tasting room in Newberg offers coffee flights and guided tastings. Its roastmaster is a certified Q grader through the Coffee Quality Institute.
- Noble in Ashland runs a four class coffee series every month, from seed to cup through latte art, at $25 a class.
- Thump in Bend cups every sample blind, with no names, prices or stories attached, before it buys a coffee.
- Sisters Coffee's team cups coffees five days a week.
- Sterling names each coffee for how it tastes. Its Kenya Kirinyaga AA is sold as grapefruit and plum, which gives you a target to taste for.
A class or a flight at a local roastery pays the people who roast your coffee, and you can ask them what you are tasting. Read why local roasters matter.
The easiest home tasting set is two different coffees at once. Our club can send two 12 oz bags in one box, each from an independent Oregon roaster with its own roast and style, and the packing slip carries each roaster's story and tasting notes. Rate each bag after you taste it: your ratings steer the next bag. Start on the Multnomah Coffee Club home page.
Sources
- National Coffee Association, About Coffee: French press coffee (ratio, water temperature, steep time, crust, grind)
- National Coffee Association, About Coffee: Storage and shelf life (grinding fresh, whole bean freshness)
- Wikipedia: Coffee cupping (8 oz glasses, sniff and slurp)
- World Coffee Research: Sensory Lexicon (110 attributes, version 2.0, October 2017, the revised flavor wheel)
- Specialty Coffee Association: Coffee Value Assessment (the four assessments)
- Specialty Coffee Association: Coffee standards (SCA-102, Sample Preparation and Tasting Mechanics)
- Oregon roaster details: each roaster's own pages, checked 2026-09-27.
Roasters named here are local favorites we list. A listing does not mean a roaster is part of the club, and no roaster pays to be listed.
By Joe McRose, Multnomah Coffee Club. Updated . National Coffee Association, About Coffee: French press and storage pages; Wikipedia, Coffee cupping; World Coffee Research, Sensory Lexicon; Specialty Coffee Association, Coffee Value Assessment; Oregon roaster details from each roaster's own pages, checked 2026-09-27.