GoodShave's Coffee Journal

What I really plan to do with coffee cupping is to cup a new bag of beans before I try any other brewer/recipe to get an idea of what the beans could/should taste like if I brew them properly. That way I have a target to shoot for when I brew those beans with another brewer/recipe instead of guessing if a bad brew was from my technique or how the beans were roasted. I have recently learned that poorly roasted beans can cause weird taste shifts in your cup (including flavors similar to channeling issues).

I know different brewers/recipes can bring out different flavors/aspects of the beans, but with cupping I would have a ballpark idea of what flavors are possible from a given set of beans. I figure it will also use less beans than if I used my smallest French press (Planetary Designs Double Shot French press mug).

Yes, this is what I want to do as well. I didn't do it this morning and will try to tomorrow. I'll have to get the instructions from the video, as I've got times and amounts jumbled in my gray matter!

I look forward to hearing out it goes. I tried cupping before with other instructions but the mugs/bowls I was using made it more challenging to cup. I ordered these bowls as some reviewers said they were good for cupping but not crazy expensive as bowls designed for cupping.

I watched this video today and my key take away was recording the extraction (not TDS, but how close it tasted to being balanced) and taste on a chart along with the variables you used (ratio/water temperature/grind size) which the author linked to in the video description.

I think that chart could be helpful in dialing in my brew.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h99J4a9JU_A

I found this link in the notes for the cupping video I previously posted. It is for an interactive coffee tasting flavor wheel.
https://notbadcoffee.com/flavor-wheel-en/

The last day or so, I have been researching what grind size to use to cup coffee. 

A previous video from Daddy Got Coffee said 'a little coarser than pour over' if I remember correctly. The coarsest that I have ground for pour over with my K-Ultra has been 7.7, so I tried cupping at 8.0. That had bitter overtones.

I then searched the Internet for grind suggestions for cupping. I found a pair of sites that said 'coarse' and put cupping in the same category with French Press and Percolators. Since I have not tried French Press with the K-Ultra grinder, I referred to the 1zpresso grind chart which said settings 9-10.

I tried 9.0 but the first taste was a little bitter (though the second taste was not). I jumped to the other end of the French Press range at 10.0 but the coffee was a little distant. So I then tried 9.5 and that seem to be a good starting point. I did all this testing with a coffee that I had plenty of beans so I did not waste a lot of coffee from multiple coffees at a time. Now that I have a starting grind, I will try cupping three coffees at the same time and see how that goes.

Also taking the time to cup a single coffee also helped me figure out work flow and efficient clean up.

Here is another cupping how-to page that was helpful:
https://www.homegrounds.co/coffee-cupping/

Here is another coffee flavor wheel with more flavor categories and how to instructions:
https://www.homegrounds.co/coffee-flavor-wheel/

That page has an embedded video that had this tip in it:
Slurping coffee from above the spoon works better than slurping the coffee from the side of the spoon.

More great information! I did a quick and dirty cupping based on the Daddy Got Coffee and had success in that I tasted the dark chocolate flavor. I took notes and may try again with different grind sizes. With my grinder, I just moved 3 clicks coarser from where I grind for pour over, and it seemed to work. But I should experiment and see if more of the other notes are noticeable. But as one guy here had as his forum name, I am a nasal barbarian in all likelihood!

In sad coffee news, I had to throw out 6 cups of good coffee because I only rinsed my auto dripper (Bonavita Enthusiast) once after descaling with a commercial solution (Urnex liquid Dezcal). We got to watching the Olympics and I forgot to run a second rinse. This morning's coffee had a funny sort of chemical taste, so to be safe I dumped it at work. Thankfully, I had some good tea leaves with me so I had a decent cup of Leadenhall Street from Upton Tea in Massachusetts. I figure if I am going to enjoy tea, I'll buy it from folks who now know better than to dump it in Boston's harbor!!

More great information! I did a quick and dirty cupping based on the Daddy Got Coffee and had success in that I tasted the dark chocolate flavor. I took notes and may try again with different grind sizes. With my grinder, I just moved 3 clicks coarser from where I grind for pour over, and it seemed to work. But I should experiment and see if more of the other notes are noticeable. But as one guy here had as his forum name, I am a nasal barbarian in all likelihood!

In sad coffee news, I had to throw out 6 cups of good coffee because I only rinsed my auto dripper (Bonavita Enthusiast) once after descaling with a commercial solution (Urnex liquid Dezcal). We got to watching the Olympics and I forgot to run a second rinse. This morning's coffee had a funny sort of chemical taste, so to be safe I dumped it at work. Thankfully, I had some good tea leaves with me so I had a decent cup of Leadenhall Street from Upton Tea in Massachusetts. I figure if I am going to enjoy tea, I'll buy it from folks who now know better than to dump in the Boston's harbor!!

Eric,
I am so glad you had success with the cupping!
I think once I try it with different coffees that I will further settle in on the grind setting and method.
The more I read and watch about cupping, the more of the details fall into place. Also, having completed four cuppings for the same coffee, I feel I won't waste as much coffee when I cup multiple coffees at the same time (from the experience I gained in the process).

I am sorry that you had to dump six cups of coffee, but better safe than sorry!

So after four previous cupping attempts with a single coffee to dial in the starting grind size, I decided to do my first comparison cupping this evening.
Coffees used were:
1) Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Haitian Blue Norde Organic - medium roast
2) Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Columbia Huila Pitalito - medium roast
3) Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabody, MA) - Simple Summer - light roast

I started grinding with the last beans I brewed so I didn't need to purge the grinder (and save coffee).
For all the other coffees, I ground 5g to purge the grinder of the previous beans but I saved the purge dose in a labeled ziplock with the coffee name and grind size as I will re-grind it the next time I brew coffee to a smaller grind size with more beans to brew a cup of coffee later (and not waste the coffee).

I knew that the darker beans would not necessarily have the darkest grinds of the coffees but I was surprised that one of the medium coffees (2) had more of the lighter roasted beans than the light roast (3). I definitely had some additional flavors that I had not encountered in my brews (some not so pleasant). Coffee (2) had a vegetable/tomato flavor in the cupping that I have never tasted in the brews. Coffee (1) did not have the peanut flavor that I get when brewing it normally. Coffee (3) had the same berry (blueberry?) flavor I would get from brewing (though in cupping it was much stronger). Depending on how I brew that coffee, I can get a lot of citrus as well, but I tend to minimize the citrus in my brews with it.

Previously, I had used one of my AeroPresses with a stainless steel filter to filter out the grinds from the cupping bowls. I would just pour the cupping bowl contents into the AeroPress tube and when it was full, would insert the plunger and force out the water, leaving just the coffee grinds. The tube would fill quickly as the grinds would impede the draining. Also, the AeroPress had more parts to wash afterwards, so this time I decided to use my largest V60 and put a filter in the V60 to strain out the grinds of the cupping bowls. I used a Tales Coffee stir (stirring vigorously with a chopstick, outside in, top to bottom) to force the fines into the sides of the filter and help prevent stalling. When all the bowls had been drained into the V60 and the water had drained from the V60, I tossed the filter in the trash. That was much easier and only meant one thing to wash (the V60 itself). I will do that going forward.

So overall, I found it a fascinating process. I was also surprised how different you can make the coffee taste depending on brew method and recipe. I am sure as I do more cupping that I will dial in the process better.

Re-grinding coffee experiment (AKA today's brew):

Varia FLO: Alternative Brewing 4:6 recipe
----------------------------------------------------------
Target: balanced acidity and sweetness, medium body, 2nd bloom, 'Medium 1' screen
08/14/2024 KU 7.7 @ 96C (204.8F) 17g 280ml (1:16.x): Kalita 185 filter: Medium 1 screen: Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabody, MA) - Simple Summer. This was the first time re-grinding coffee. I had 5g of coffee left over from cupping last night. I poured this coarser ground coffee (KU 9.5) into the dosing cup and added enough whole beans to make the recipe. I did not spray the beans with water (to reduce static) as I figured it would turn the ground coffee into mud. The grinds had a lot of static and it took a bit to brush off all the grinds from the grinder and catch cup. I blew out the second pour of the 4:6 method, so I don't have an accurate picture of how the re-ground beans affected the cup but I do think that maybe the cup was not as fresh since one third of the grinds were ground around eleven hours or so before making coffee (though they were re-ground finer before brewing). The brew resulted in a good cup of coffee but maybe not as good as I have brewed it with all whole beans and hitting my pour totals for the recipe.

Today's brew was a combination of Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Haitian Blue Norde Organic beans (end of the bag) and Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Columbia Huila Pitalito beans (to make up the 2g needed to complete the recipe). I used the Hario Switch V60-01 (Hario Switch with a glass V60-01 cone swapped for the original Hario Switch cone) using the Lance Hedrick Two-Pour recipe.

I had poured brew temperature water into the V60-01 Switch with the switch closed. This warmed the brewer while I ground the coffee. This heated the cone so well, that it negated the need for the Tales Coffee Stir to increase extraction.

The takeaway from this brew session was that you do not need to use boiling water to heat a glass V60 when using the Hario Switch base. You can use brew temperature water with the switch closed.

That said, if you previously liked a brew where you did not heat the brewer as thoroughly, stick with how you brewed it before since you adapted your method to that level of heating. Heating the brewer hotter means you have to re-adjust your other variables to compensate for the hotter brewer. No need to add more work to your coffee enjoyment. If I use a V60-01 recipe with the regular Hario Switch cone, I might add the same amount of pre-heat water with the switch closed to compensate for the more glass I need to heat (since Hario Switch cone is much larger than the V60-01).

Below are the details from my brews this morning using the Hario Switch with the Lance Hedrick Two-Pour recipe (with Tales Coffee stir after final pour).

First round settings:
KU 7.4 @ 92C (197.6F) 13g 195ml (1:15): white tabbed Hario filter (from Japan): Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Columbia Huila Pitalito
This brew had a vegetable taste (to match the same smell of the ground beans) and a thin body. This brew temperature and recipe worked well with the V60-01 Switch but not the regular Hario Switch cone.

Second round settings:
KU 7.4 @ 95C (203F) 13g 195ml (1:15): white tabbed Hario filter (from Japan): Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Columbia Huila Pitalito.
This brew did not have the vegetable taste and was stronger (did not have a thin body). The difference was in the brew temperature. Maybe the original Switch cone is thicker glass than the glass V60-01 and needs the higher temperature (even though I used the same proportion of water to preheat the brewers).

My brew today raises a good question about grind size and water temperature when cupping different coffees. In my last cupping at KU 9.5 93C (199F), if I had grinded at KU 9.0 the Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Haitian Blue Norde Organic had bitter notes, so I jumped to KU 9.5 (maybe I could have gone a little finer than that). The Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Columbia Huila Pitalito had a vegetable taste in the cupping. When I brewed that coffee at 92C with the Hario Switch: Lance Hedrick Two-Pour recipe (with Tales Coffee stir after final pour) I had that vegetable taste and it was thin as well. When I brewed those beans with that same recipe and brewer but raised the temperature to 95C, that vegetable taste was gone. The Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabdy, MA) - Simple Summer beans, which was a similar roast to the Columbia Huila Pitalito did not suffer from KU 9.5 93C (199F).

I now wonder how you cup coffees that are very different without winding up with some coffees over-extracted and some coffees under-extracted. My cupping bowls are thick and I did not pre-warm them, so they would suck out some heat from the slurry (though it is an immersion process). The Haitian Blue Norde Organic was a darker roast than either of the other two coffees (though still labeled a medium roast as was the Columbia Huila Pitalito beans from the same roaster), so maybe I should not have cupped them with the other two and should have ground finer than KU 9.5 to avoid the vegetable taste of the Columbia Huila Pitalito beans. Maybe you cup beans that have similar visual roast levels (regardless of what the roaster labels them) and then cup one of the coffees a few times to get the starting grind setting to not be bitter but have water hot enough not to have a vegetable taste (which the grind size could take care of that as well).