Experience your experience
It was a concept that stuck on the back of my mind for a while and only now I made time to sit down and think “What does it mean to ‘experience my experience?’ Few months ago, I dived into Freda Yeun’s book called Sip ‘n’ Slurp which focuses on how to utilise our senses to taste coffee. Upon first glance, it looked and sounded like a guide on how to taste coffee and explain coffee flavours, texture, aroma and so on, skills that I am currently developing as I continue my coffee journey. While I wasn’t wrong, the way the book described coffee tasting was not at all what I expected. In fact, Freda took on a more holistic approach on how we can train and unlock our sensory skills. Usually, in coffee, we tend to describe coffee by three categories - acidity, sweetness and bitterness. Depending on the type of brewing method, there’s a ‘sweet spot’ we aim for in order to extract the flavours of the coffee. Guided by flavour notes on the coffee bag, we try to taste and see whether we can taste any of the flavours described. The problem, sometimes, with flavour notes on bags is that not everyone will have the same sensory experience. We all have different palates because of the food we eat and beverages we drink. One perfect example is a light roasted Ethiopian coffee I brewed recently using a Chemex with a cloth filter. Opening the bag, it reminded me of jackfruit, a fruit very popular in South East Asia for its pungent aroma and distinguishable sweetness. I personally I don’t like jackfruit mainly because to me the smell is off-putting but I remember its taste so well that instantly recognised it when brewing the coffee. Jackfruit isn’t a common fruit here in the west so to say it smells and tastes like jackfruit is a little strange to some. Similar to how some coffees has hints of blueberry, but some people who have never tasted blueberries wouldn’t know what it is. This got me thinking.
When it comes to tasting coffee, there isn’t really a right or wrong answer. You can watch videos, study the different types of coffee regions, read books and use the SCA coffee flavour wheel (which is REALLY useful by the way), but use them as guides to develop your own experience. Don’t go based on someone else’s descriptions or read off the coffee bag’s flavour notes as this will hinder your own experience. One tip that has helped me tremendously, which I hope will be useful for you, is to EAT as many types of fruits as possible. Yep, get those 5-a-day fruit and vegetables in because not only is it healthy for you, it helps create a ‘database’ of flavours and aromas in your palate. I used to be lazy when it came to eating fruits and changing this habit has helped a lot when describing coffee.
