Archive for December 3rd, 2009
You’re seated in your favorite eatery, enjoying a quiet dinner-when suddenly you are rudely interrupted by an obnoxious customer beside you who, after delicately tasting their glass of 1999 Pinot Noir, rudely tells his server to take it back.
If you didn’t believe that anyone could take their wine that seriously, you probably won’t believe that some people also take their espresso just that seriously.
Really-espresso is just like wine, except hot.
There are professionals in the coffee industry who routinely perform the task of tasting coffee and espresso. The process is formally known as “cupping.” Coffee and espresso “cuppers” usually taste for defects, rather than good flavor.
Some rules of espresso tasting include; espresso must be consumed within one minute of serving, the espresso is observed for cream, smelled for aroma, and tasted for brightness and flavor. Professional tasters must not work with a cold, and one should not review more than four espressos in four hours.
For those who like their wine from a box and espresso from cheap espresso machines in the convenience store, the rules of espresso tasting may not matter. But for others, send back those espresso blends that taste like coffee grinds; just tell your waiter you are an espresso connoisseur.