Coffee Tasting & Cupping Course: A Journey from Bean to Brew

Coffee tasting, also known as “cupping”, is a practice that was created for coffee professionals to grade coffee beans. The technique is now widely carried out by coffee lovers who want to gain a better understanding of coffee. The experience of drinking coffee starts to become more meaningful when you’re able to identify the slight differences in flavour profiles. This hands-on coffee tasting adventure will take you from bean to brew, offering a unique and immersive experience.

Exclusive Coffee Tasting Experiences

Woodlands is hosting an EXCLUSIVE Coffee Tasting Experience for 12 guests utilizing the medium of “cupping” on Saturday, September 28th from 10:00am-12:00pm! We will explore how to distinguish subtle tasting notes within the coffees & assess the aroma, flavor, acidity, body, and finish of the various brews from the countries represented. Our guests will rate each coffee based upon The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) grading scale. Our “Captain” & Coffee Connoisseur for our voyage around the world is our very own Director of Coffee, Cameron Brewer! He will guide us on a tour of the countries of Honduras, Colombia, & Ethiopia.

Alternatively, join us at 787 Coffee in NYC or El Paso, TX for a private, immersive coffee experience that takes you from bean to brew. Here’s what to expect:

• Taste 4 Single-Origin Coffees from Puerto Rico, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico—each with unique flavors and stories.
• See a Live Roasting Demo using green beans from our farm in Maricao, Puerto Rico—learn how roasting affects taste, aroma, and body.
• Learn 4 Brewing Methods: V60 pour-over, AeroPress, Syphon, and Espresso. Understand how each method changes the final cup.
• Hands-On Brewing – You’ll grind, brew, and pour yourself with guidance from our expert baristas.

The Science and Art of Coffee Cupping

Cupping is important because it allows us to objectively compare, contrast and evaluate characteristics of different coffees by omitting other factors in the brewing process that may affect the taste of the coffee. To conduct a coffee cupping session, we start by preparing 12g of finely ground coffee in a cupping cup. This allows us to smell and identify the aroma of the dry coffee grounds. We then add in exactly 200g of hot water, ensuring the water temperature is between 94 to 97 degree celsius. We allow the coffee to brew for 4 minutes before we break the coffee ground ‘crust’ that forms on top of the cupping cups, stir the coffee gently and skim any coffee grounds that float in the cups.

When we taste the coffee, we slurp, almost inhaling the coffee into our mouths. This draws the coffee and creates a ‘coffee vapour’ inside our mouths, allowing the coffee to stimulate both our sense of smell and sense of taste. We taste the coffee multiple times as the temperature of the coffee cools down.

Key Characteristics to Look For

When we taste coffee, we generally look out for the following characteristics:

• Aroma: we smell the aroma of the coffee when it’s dry, and when wet.
• Acidity: acidity in a coffee can be high, medium or low. Coffee with a good acidity should taste like the sourness in fruits, not a pungent, vinegar-like sourness.
• Sweetness: an appropriate level of sweetness is essential in creating balance with the acidity in a coffee.
• Body: you can observe the texture of a coffee by its appearance. The body of a coffee can be thin like water, or thick like milk or even butter.
• Flavour: you may be able to taste interesting tasting notes with its levels of sweetness and sourness.
• Balance: we assess the balance of aroma, acidity, body and flavour in a coffee.
• Aftertaste: we evaluate the lingering flavors after the coffee is swallowed.