This week's class made me think a lot about how the coffee industry has continued to learn from the wine industry. In my first blog post for the class, I mentioned the similarities I see between the wine industry and the coffee industry.
On Thursday, Alder shared with us the wine aroma wheel with us. While at Starbucks, I had a similar wheel hanging at my desk but for coffee! It is called the Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel (https://counterculturecoffee.com/learn/resource-center/coffee-tasters-flavor-wheel). It was created by Counter Culture Coffee, an indie coffee roaster out of Los Angeles (one of my favorites). I completely agree with Alder that is takes practice, time, and familiarizing yourself with descriptors to become "good" at tasting and describing wine. The same is definitely true of coffee. At Starbucks, there is a tradition of starting most meetings with a coffee tasting. The individual in charge of the tasting would usually make a few french presses and bring to the meeting. Partners (Starbucks' term for employees) know to bring a tasting cup to meetings (to reduce cup waste). When Alder was leading us through the steps of wine tasting, the way people taste coffee is very similar (if not the same). I remember when I started working at Starbucks, I thought it was so strange to taste coffee in the same manner as wine. I didn't believe that people could actually taste the different notes in coffee - how wrong I was! I worked closely with a gentleman who had been working at Starbucks for 22 years and was truly a coffee expert. I loved spending time with him and learning about how to taste coffee and describe it. He could nail the region, flavor notes, and wash of the coffee he tasted - it was incredibly impressive! I remember one time when he tasted a Roastery small lot coffee, and commented that it was a sun-dried roast from Africa with notes of blueberry and cocoa. He was 100% right. This tradition was one of my favorites of Starbucks - I actually led a coffee tasting with my section in the first quarter. It was extremely fun and people seemed to love it.
I hope to continue learning the art of wine and coffee tasting going forward.
