This article was published in Beanscene magazine in August 2015.
Spend enough time near cuppers, roasters, or baristas, and you would have undoubtedly seen a wall adorned with the colourful graphic known as the Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel.
More than just a pretty picture, the wheel is actually a critical piece of the cupping puzzle, and a part of the foundation of specialty coffee knowledge. Since its creation more than 20 years ago, thousands of coffee professionals around the world have used the wheel as a reference point for coffee communication.
If you’re new to the wheel, the best way to understand it is to think of a visual tool that enables quick and easy access to the vocabulary of coffee tasting. As a long-time coffee professional, I can tell you the value of being able to communicate with others effectively. Whether it be with a front-line customer, fellow barista, café owner, or in a teaching context, using the right terminology is a huge advantage. By using a common language it can help us fine-tune our palate, uncover defects in coffee, identify origins, inform customers, and simply enable us to share the enjoyment of coffee with others.
Invention of the wheel
The origin of the Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel can be traced back to The Coffee Cupper’s Handbook by Ted Lingle, former Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Executive Director. As the first technical guide to specialty coffee, The Handbook was a game-changer in the specialty coffee world. By documenting the practice of cupping, it made the practice more standardised and accessible to greater numbers of people.
At around the time the book became popular, the first flavour wheels were emerging. The wine aroma wheel was developed in the 1980s at the University of California, Davis, by sensory chemist Ann C. Davis. A stream of other wheels followed. There are now flavour wheels for beer, cheese, chocolate, and more. These wheels all have the same goal in mind: to give people a way to easily access the words needed to describe in detail the intricate flavour of a given food or beverage.
It was therefore a natural progression that the Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel was developed by the SCAA circa 1995. The wheel was established at the perfect time, contributing to the creation of a unified language for this newly-revered beverage. Available in English and Spanish, the wheel has since been used by thousands of coffee professionals around the world, and remains an important piece of the specialty coffee appreciation furniture.
Flavour wheel anatomy
The Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel is actually two wheels sitting side-by-side. On the left is the wheel dedicated to taints and faults. The right-hand wheel is for words used to describe the aroma and flavour attributes found in coffee.
Danes Specialty Coffee Institute hosts SCAA Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel Taxonomy courses, in conjunction with other classes required to obtain the Barista Guild Level 1 Certificate.
To find out more visit www.coffeeinstitute.com.au
