Coffee Cupping Session
On Thursday i read about the cupping session run at Aunty Peg's, the coffee cupping session was run by Nolan who owns Proud Mary. Aunty Peg's is more a Coffee Bar which is too teach you about how to make Filter coffees or espresso's. It was not cheap so we spent ages trying to decide if we should do it or not. At the end we went why not we will do it and may not get another chance for a while. We booked in for the Sunday session.
The Cupping was done in the upstairs workshop which is a big area. The left bench was for the espresso training and the right bench was for the cupping and the filter training.
It has a brand new kitchen which they are planing to do all the baking for the Cafe's.
So the coffee had been poured into small cups as beans until they got ready to start. They had all been randomly selected so we did not know what we where tasting.
Most people arrived on time and so they started. We met the growers from the farm and they told us about themselves and the farms they owned. It was an interesting experience.
That's Nolan Grinding the beans for the Cupping.
With all the beans ground, you start by sniffing every cup and try to pick up different smells. After you smell them all i went back and smelled them all again but you tap on the glass to agitate the ground coffee and you get different smells.
Then they added water to all the cups and it was time to smell all the coffees again and the aroma's changed completely when you added the water.
After four minutes the coffee's had separated and it was time to break the surface of the coffee's and do more smelling.
You would use your spoon to break the surface with the spoon and lift a small amount and smell it again.
The Aroma again was different again, so it changed aroma's 3 times now to me which is amazing.
After you did the smelling they removed the top layers from all the coffees.
It was now the time to taste all the coffees. Some of the coffee's that did not smell amazing dry completely changed as you added water and one was a favorite of mine. It was all about the slurping of the coffee to add air to it, After you swished it around you spat it out in a cup. It felt like a waste but i was told that's what you do. Same as wine tasting i guess? I just love coffee and the way it changes flavours as it cools down. We got to try the HR61 coffee and it was completely different to anything i have ever had,
These are Elephant beans, the largest coffee beans available.
As part of the cupping you got 150 grams of the rarest coffee available in Australia and the reason they are rare as they are unidentifiable beans.
After the session Nolan was such an amazing person and took us around the Roastery.
They had a small roaster to try small batches first in order to see what was going to be the best way.
Then they try a bigger batch when they are close to achieving what they are after.
This is the testing bench once they have completed the roasting session to see how it tastes. Nolan explained that it was all science as the beans age the roasting time completely changes and so does the temperature as it is a constant adjustment process.
We got to see where his green beans had been stored and it was an amazing room that is built to keep the temperature constant.
We had a fantastic morning and learn't so much. My appreciation for coffee has changed so much in those few hours and now i have a better understanding of my coffee.
I may also be willing to sell my second Jar of HR61 as i don't need 2 of them
Have you done a cupping before?
Leave a comment.
Kind E-Gards
Dale Stewart
