- Flavors & Co.
Cupping part 3: How to hiiippphhh.
Shhhliiippphhh? Schluuuupppp?
It’s pretty clear: This part is all about the right coffee slurping.
Karsten Suhr
And that is an (almost) indispensable part of coffee tasting. Because the mixture of air (oxygen) and coffee allows your palate and tongue to correctly detect the aromas. Yet, for beginners slurping bears the risk of causing small disasters. Burning your tongue, coughing, snorting, and coffee-fountains that leave stains are almost “normal”. So here is a short instruction:
Slurping made easy.
First, put some coffee on a spoon. Not a teaspoon but rather a tablespoon. Make sure that the coffee is not too hot. But – and you probably expected us to say that – not to cool, either.
1. Exhale.
2. Position the spoon on your bottom lip.
3. Quickly suck in the coffee with lots of air –“hiiippphhh“– don’t swallow. Don’t cough (if avoidable).
4. Spread the coffee in your mouth and try to detect the aromas. Continue breathing.
5. Take notes on all aromas…
and so on. For the remaining steps check out part 2 of our cupping series.
We do admit, it also took us some time until we got the hang of it – but with a bit of practice you become better and better, don’t worry. And it is a lot of fun, especially when you start to realize that you are recognizing aromas that you had not detected before.
