How to Drink Coffee as Described on the Label

When I go to a coffee shop, I always hear veteran coffee lovers discussing what the aroma is when it’s hot, what flavor it has when it’s cold, what the sourness is at the beginning, and what the aftertaste is at the end... But when I take a sip myself, I only taste sour and sweet, with a bitter taste in my throat.

The furthest distance in the world is not the one-meter-wide bar between you and the barista, but the fact that you can't taste the rich flavors described on the label of the bean bag. But don't be afraid, as long as you have the heart, everyone can be a god of food.

Letting go of prejudice is the first step to coffee appreciation

Whether a cup of coffee tastes good or not is a very direct feeling, but this feeling needs to be trained and the prejudices brought by past experience need to be broken. The most common reaction of coffee drinkers is "I don't want it to be sour" or "I won't drink it without sugar and milk". Only by breaking these prejudices can we take the first step in tasting coffee.

Build your own taste memory

If you don’t have enough confidence and ability to judge whether a cup of coffee is good or not, then it is very necessary for you to build your own taste memory. It is more difficult to build your own taste memory than to taste coffee systematically and learn to describe the flavor of coffee professionally.

For consumers, if they simply want to enjoy a cup of aromatic coffee, there is really no need to go through the trouble of comparing the coffee flavor wheel to notice, find, or identify what flavors are in the coffee. As long as you can maintain a clear state of awareness (or open your awareness) in your daily life and pay attention to the flowers, grasses, spices, and ingredients around you, you will be able to enjoy eating more.

How to build your own taste memory

When learning about specialty coffee, it’s easy to get impatient and want to quickly drink the flavors described in the flavor description, but this is actually wishful thinking.

Because there is not enough information to compare the subtle flavors in coffee, you will not be able to find it. And if you want to find a special flavor from the beginning, you will not pay attention to the overall presentation of the coffee, which means you will not find it right. Only by respecting your taste memory can you find the flavor of coffee.

How to Focus on Flavor Memory

1. Regardless of whether you have eaten without thinking, you will have some memory of food. If you really have amnesia, please try to accumulate it now. Just think about the taste of food while eating. You don't need to remember a lot. If you work hard for 3 months, you can remember the taste of a lot of food.

2. When drinking coffee, you can ask the barista, read the flavor description, and discuss with everyone, but don’t ignore the rare and precious flash of inspiration when you take a sip of coffee. Because that is the moment when your tongue and your flavor memory match. Respect this process, take a break and drink a few more sips to think it through and find it. This will become an important cornerstone of your understanding of the flavor of specialty coffee.

3. If you think of some strange food, still respect it and try to analyze it. For example: Braised pork rice → often consists of spices such as star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fermented soy sauce, etc., so if you smell the smell of braised pork rice, it is not a joke at all, it’s just that you can’t tell whether it is star anise or other spices. Please respect it and find an opportunity to smell star anise and other spices alone, and you will become more and more clear.

4. Respect and understand other people’s flavor memories. Everyone grows up in a different environment and of course eats different things. When someone suggests a certain flavor, think about the possibilities behind it and turn it into your own flavor memory, then you will have learned it.

If you can combine your precious memory with common flavor descriptions and flavor wheels, so that you can have your own unique flavor memory and communicate with others in popular flavor language, it will be perfect. But remember not to be too impatient, learning any fascinating thing takes time. Three months of serious drinking is necessary, and before that, just enjoy the process of gradually understanding specialty coffee. Don't be too impatient, because being impatient does not necessarily make you learn faster.