We bring to you our simplified tasting wheel for coffee! We have trimmed down the elaborate Specialty Coffee Associations (SCA) coffee wheel for ease of use – splitting the flavors into 4 main categories: sour, sweet, spice, and bitter. This is designed for beginners – we like to use it with new employees as we familiarize them with tasting coffees.
Flavor is a complex sensation which can be described as a combination of aroma, taste, texture and mouthfeel. The aroma makes the largest impact on coffee flavor. Coffee is so complex because more than 1,200 different chemical compounds blend together to create coffee’s aroma, taste, and mouthfeel!
The Coffee Taster’s Flavor wheel was originally published in 1995 and it is one of the most iconic resources in the coffee industry. In 2016, this valuable resource was updated in collaboration with World Coffee Research (WCR). The full flavor wheel is the product of dozens of professional sensory panelists, scientists, coffee buyers, and roasting companies collaborating via WCR and SCA.
