How do you pick or identify that "note"

beanflying

After having a bit of discussion here http://www.bestcafes.com.au/forum/index.php?topic=1905.0 prompted by Aktion about "real or end user" based tasting of coffee types. Lets talk about the Notes.....  ;D  

This wheel is a useful bit of gear when trying to identify what you are actually tasting be it good bad or downright horrid. I know I should refer to it more than I do to help pin down and name certain attributes of beans than I do. Anyone got any other useful information or assistance devices to help identifying flavours?

Koffee_Kosmo

When cupping and sampling with Peter Wolfe we used the colour wheel for reference But the best test was when be brought out a set of tiny bottles for sensory identification The sensory set comprised of 50 or so common & not so common smells I got coffee flower & Jasmine flower wrong a couple of times Although they are almost identical in smell coffee is subtler I personally found it to be a fantastic tool Also please see this excellent PDF http://www.ciboj.org/cib/certification/CoffeeCuppingProgramManual.pdf KK  

Aktion

If things work out this weekend (work ) I'll be going to my first cupping session. The wheel above should help, especially with the vocabulary! Thank you BF

beanflying

Good work on trying the cupping thing.  Heading to Melbourne to sample some notes myself tomorrow, hope they are the good ones rather than the bad ones Good PDF link too KK

coffeehorse

It's worth trying different things - from soil (loam tastes way different to peat!) to sniffing your way around a planted english-style garden (to get references for things like sweet pea, honeysuckle etc). Buy the fruit you haven't tried from a greengrocer or supermarket, in case it crops up in your coffee. And always taste new things with the idea that you have or haven't got a label for it, to reinforce it where you have or are creating one. Eg. That's a blood orange, that's a chinotto orange, that's a Iyokan, that's a Satsuma, then through Tangerine, Tangelo, Navel orange, etc so you learn to differentiate. In the same way cupping a heap of coffees from different origins reveals a heap about each because of the comparative characteristics alongside the standalone ones, tasting all food (and drink) with the aim of storing descriptors will help you use them for coffee. And drink lots of different single origin coffees from lots of different roasters. Most blends will be Choc/Caramel/Carob/Toffee/Nuts, possibly plus a bit of fruit (usually not tropical ones). Getting out of a habit of drinking mostly the same or similar tasting coffees will also help.