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Oct 14, 2006 8:38 am US/Central
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The Experts Who Put Coffee To The Test
Coffee Cuppers Sniff And Slurp To Make Sure Java Is Just Right
by Vince Gerasole
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Your coffee might be giving you a welcome jolt each morning.
As CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports in this edition at Table for 2, but what makes its way to your cup must first satisfy the taste buds of some discriminating experts.
One may wonder why anyone would spit out their coffee, but in this case, it's required. In a process called coffee cupping, those who know beans about java gather around a swiveling table to evaluate the crops they will purchase.
It is through this process that
Intelligentsia Coffee on the
Near West Side chooses beans eventually roasted for sale.
"It's meant to be done with a great deal of scientific precision," said Geoff Watts of Intelligentsia Coffee.
Equal amounts of different coffees are measured into paired cups, while their sniffers take in the dry aroma with their noses and swivel them to their table mate.
Afterward, they add boiling water and closely take in the aroma again, but not too close.
"You want to make sure that you don't get your nose inside the cup, because it's scalding hot water," Watts said.
The sniffing is followed by a forceful slurp from a metal spoon, to pass the coffee over the cuppers' entire palate for a brew's true taste.
"There's guys who love the jet engine slurp style that sounds as if there's a jet engine next to you about to take off," Watts said.
In their search for coffees that are not too acidic and that can be roasted into a well balanced flavor, cuppers might taste dozens of coffees a session. Spitting out the coffee avoids the caffeine buzz.
"If you were to swallow everything you cupped, you'd be crawling out of here at the end of the day," Watts said. "It's too much caffeine for the human body to take."
In the end, they rate the coffees for flavors and qualities one might not associate with coffee, using terms not unlike wine tasters. One cupper said a coffee she sampled had a bouquet of "a lot of wild fruits like raspberry and a little bit of citrus also."
But of course, you have to be careful not to spill.
The cupping we featured goes on at the Intelligentsia Roasting Works, at 1850 W. Fulton St. Public tours are available.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)