Daniel of Arabica
brew, drink, repeat
A tale of three cuppings
Two cuppings in one week. Somebody stop me. First, if you’re scratching your head at the word “cupping”, may I recommend a primer on the process? As I mentioned in “Cupping. A primer”, being able to attend one of these has been a long time coming. The first time? Stumptown in Portland a long time ago. Recently? Four Barrel. This time? Ritual’s weekly friday cupping. And as it turns out, three very different experiences.
Stumptown’s “Annex”: high society
The cupping at Four Barrel was a nice re-introduction to the process. The last time m’lady and myself took part in a public cupping was a couple of years ago in Portland at Stumptown’s “annex” location. We had both participated in a cuppings on a more professional level many times before but the one in Portland was the first time we had taken part of a public version of the process. It was nice but neither of us could escape the feeling of it having been a bit of a haughty affair. In my imagination it was going to be a bit more casual, educational and both of us were hoping for a more shared, communal experience. Not to be too hippy-dippy. We didn’t regret participating and were certainly interested in trying it again but as it happened nobody that we were aware of offered such an opportunity where we lived and soooooo…
Four Barrel: casual sophisitication
I was anxious and excited for the cupping at Four Barrel but circumspect, given the nature of the Stumptown experience. I found myself on the lookout for even the slightest bit of pretense right off the bat. I felt as if I found a slight bit of it at the counter when we inquired about the cupping schedule which put my guard up a little further. We were a little early so we left for a bit. Upon return, though, what I found was a
Cupping at Four Barrel
relaxed and calm environment. There were few people: my girlfriend, two Four Barrel staffers (with one to come in later for a short time) and myself as well as an interested bystander that hovered around the edges for much of the time. I was a little surprised that the master of ceremonies (M.C.) did not invite him in. If you have ever been to Four Barrel, you know that the front of house has an amazing amount of space. Four Barrel has had, from the beginning, a dedicated table set up for this very purpose. Set well off from the ordering counter and most of the seating but at the front of the store, where there was plenty of light, the table felt nicely set apart but still concnected of the activity of the café. There was a casual, easy vibe about the entire process and the M.C. was very generous. “Please let me know if you have any questions”, she said. It was like the sort of low pressure sales environment that every car buyer hopes to encounter but never does. A nice mix of private contemplation and social interaction. Help, though, was never very far off.
Ritual Roasters: Q&A with the roaster
We had been aware of the cuppings at Ritual for a short time. Every friday. A goal, for sure but difficult, given our schedules, to effectively say when it might be possible for us to make it. Schedules. Always schedules. But with the end of school and with our schedules freed up, it was finally time.
The environment at Ritual Roasters is wholly different from that of Four Barrel. Where Four Barrel’s interior is an up-to-the-minute modern exposed wood industrial-chic design, Ritual’s pioneering Valencia Street location has some of the the lived-in feel of an established – but still
Cupping at Ritual
hip – neighborhood café. Not that Four Barrel is stark and soulless but Ritual just feels a little more comfortably ad-hoc. It’s cozy. You’re not sitting in the midst of a design concept. You’re in a working café and roastery. It makes sense. In chronological terms, when Ritual began serving coffee out of their Valencia street location to the Mission kids and laptop gazing dot-com bubble gentrifiers, Blue Bottle as yet hadn’t developed their current image as the sophisticated arm of the San Francisco Bay Area “third wave” movement – no Mint Plaza, no Ferry Building indoor slot and certainly no art garden outpost at SFMOMA – and Four Barrel wasn’t even a glint in the eyes of its founders. And so while the cupping at Four Barrel had a quiet composed, somewhat contemplative feel about it, Ritual’s was a class in session full of inquisitive and engaged students with a wide variety of experiences but a common interest.
There were probably twelve participants on hand. It was looser and louder. The large banquet style table on which the cuppings are held is normally customer seating and has to be cleared of a fair number of leisurely sipping Ritual coffee drinkers before everything can be set up. The table is off to one side of the front section of the establishment much like Four Barrel’s but the situation is a bit more intimate. It’s very close to the front door. People are coming and going past the table. The music is on. You feel much more that you are still an active part of the goings on of the café, less separated from the action than at Four Barrel.
M.C. for the cupping was Steve Ford, the head roaster at Ritual. After introducing all of the coffees at the table, Mr. Ford led us through the entire cupping process, explaining the hows and whys of each step as he went along: why you smell the grinds (for the “fragrance”), the proper technique for breaking the crust of grinds that forms on top of each of the brewing cups of coffee (for the intense hit of aroma that you get from the practice) as well as the method and explanation for why you slurp (to spray the liquid over your entire palette).
Steve Ford
One of the nice things about having the person who roasted the coffees right there with you during the cupping is that all the coffees lined up in front of you are that person’s babies (if you will). He knows all of them intimately (at least in terms of their flavor qualities as there was one “mystery coffee” that, while it’s origin was known – if only at first by the M.C. himself – not much else was). Investments of time and energy were made in getting to know the exact way to treat each coffee, at the roasting stage, to get them to the point where you would want to share them with the public, the point where you hope someone would want to put down their hard earned cash for a bag. He’s got a relationship with these coffees. If there is someone to which you would want to pose a question about anything at the table that day, this was that person. And there were a lot of questions. A lot of very good questions – questions about processing and handling, the origin’s influence on flavor, why some coffees are rated higher than others and how the ratings are formulated. And there were many more. Mr. Ford answered each one with an enthusiasm and humility that made everyone comfortable no matter what their experience level.
Coffee v3.0: exclusivity and openness
If you are curious about one of the elements that makes this “third wave” of coffee roasters so special – one of the things that separates it from specialty coffee’s seminal days at places like Peet’s – look no further than the public cupping. It’s interesting to note, that while I have had an interest in coffee for a long time now, it is only in recent years that I have had the opportunity to participate in anything resembling the involving process of a cupping outside of the professional realm. Also, it’s ironic that while the modern coffee scene can be marked, somewhat, by exclusive attitudes and a detached hipster vibe, it is also marked by an openness and an interest in sharing knowledge about the process behind the product. The public cupping is one of the best examples of that openness and if you are at all interested in coffee and its many and diverse flavors, there is no better place to start – or continue for that matter – your own personal odyssey into that world than a public cupping.
Info
- The Stumptown Annex – 3356 SE Belmont Street, Portland, OR – holds public cuppings weekdays at 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM. (503) 232-8889 (map).
- Four Barrel holds cuppings every weekday at 1:00 PM at 375 Valencia St in San Francisco, CA(map) (415) 252-0800.
- Ritual Roasters holds cuppings every friday at 1:00 PM at their Valencia St. location: 1026 Valencia St in San Francisco, CA (map) (415) 641-1024.
Always contact the store for latest hours and times.
Cupping. A primer.
The pour
Today, m’lady and I went to Four Barrel Coffee to participate in one of their daily weekday cuppings. It’s free and open to the public. Of course the folks at Four Barrel are not the only ones to offer free cuppings that are open to the public. On Friday, it’s off to Ritual and their 1 o’clock cupping to have more fun. If there are others, I would love to hear about it.
A what?
A cupping. Think of it as a tasting event for coffee lovers. In a cupping you get to taste coffee like the people who get paid good money to taste coffee, taste coffee: in a controlled, regimented process, under ideal brewing conditions, with many different coffees right next to one another and (this might be the most important) with other people. It was nice – and instructive – to taste coffee in a social environment, to experience the discovery of new flavors and aromas while not in the vacuum of my kitchen, alone in my own thoughts. It was great to share if, for nothing else, than to remind myself that I am not the only one that gets – at least some of – my kicks tasting specialty (god I really hate that term but what else to use?) coffees.
There is a bit of regimentation to the process. To the newcomer I think it can be a little off-putting, if not intimidating but sticking to the time-honored processes of the cupping ensures that each of the coffees gets its due. Following the process introduces you to the complete and distinct personality of each of the constituent coffees as you sample them both at every step of the brewing process – from ground to brewed – as well as side by side with other coffees.
Tasting different coffees side by side also prevents that recitation of that old response to tasting a coffee on its own: that “well, it tastes…like…coffee”. I’d wager there isn’t a single palette out there that can’t at least discern that, indeed, there are differences between different coffees when they are placed side by side with one another. Cuppings, for no other reason than that, deserve wider participation.
The point
For the customer, a cupping is an inexpensive opportunity to taste the wide variety of beans a roaster has on offer without going bag by bag all by yourself. It is also an opportunity to learn, to discover, to meet others who share your – dare I say it – passion and to ask questions.
For the roaster, a cupping represents an opportunity to bring the customer a little further into the process of how they go about selecting what ends up on their shelves. If done well, it adds a layer of approachability that many cafés lack and broadens the customers’ knowledge of what the roaster has on offer. It is a classic win-win situation.
The process
So, you’re interested. Excellent. If you have never been to a cupping, allow me to introduce you to the experience with a rather rudimentary outline of what you can expect. Upon arrival at the location, you will most likely be presented with a long or round table, strewn with a myriad of cups. Some of these are going to be for the coffees themselves, some of them will be used to hold the tasting spoons and others will be used for…well, we’ll just call it “the leftovers” for now.
You might also notice that sitting in and amongst the various cups are a collection of – usually blue – trays filled with whole coffee beans. These, most likely are going to be the beans you will be tasting. It is part of the entire comparative, holistic top-to-bottom process to be able to take a look at the whole bean as there are differences in size, shape, texture and roast. Each of these qualities can tell you one or two things about that coffee. Take a look at them. Compare what you see in one tray with what you see in the other trays. Ask questions.
The next step in the process is going to commence after the “master of ceremonies” grinds all of the beans and places them each in their own cup. Once he or she is finished grinding, take a sniff. Go ahead, get your nose in there. Pick the cup of grinds up and give it a shake. Give it another whiff. Notice the differences both before and after the shake. Do this with each example. Enjoy the aromas. Ask questions.
After everyone has gotten their nose dirty, water is added. Each of the cups of ground coffee, in quick succession, will be filled with water and timers will be set to either three or four minutes. At the sound of the beep it’s time to “break the crust”. After water is added to each of the cups, a “bloom” (basically a process of out-gassing of the beans) will form at the top. Think crème brûlée? Do you remember the feeling you had when you first broke through that crispy sugary top? Here, someone will take a spoon, get their nose close to the surface of the liquid in the cup and pull away the bloom just enough to get an intense hit of aroma. “Breaking the crust” can only happen once. The intensity of aroma cannot be duplicated by dipping your spoon in after the first “break” so if you have an opportunity, by all means, seize the moment and break. Having said that, even though there is no possible duplication of the initial break, go ahead and do your best anyway. Aroma. That’s what you are looking for now. One trick I have learned is to use the back of the spoon to catch the aroma. Dip your spoon in, pull it out, flip it over and bring your nose right down near the spoon. As the hot coffee evaporates off of the back of the spoon, the aroma is intensified. One thing not to do, at this point, is to scrape the bottom of the cup with your spoon. Doing that will stir up the grounds at the bottom of the cup. It’s going to change the flavor of the cup as stirring up the grounds will induce a further steeping. It may add some bitterness. Don’t do it. Keep you spoon at the top. Oh yeah, ask questions.
After every bloom is broken, the remaining grinds at the top of each cup will be removed by the master of ceremonies. It’s time to taste. Or, to be precise, it’s time to slurp. Yeah, slurp. This can be the most socially delicate moment of the entire process and is, traditionally, where some people have a moment of pause. “Slurp?! In public?! Not me.” But you’ve come this far. Don’t stop now. To do the coffee in front of you any justice at all, you are going to need to break down those inhibitions and do it: “sluuuuuuuuuurp”. Take a small spoonful of coffee into your spoon, set it juuuuust at your lips and go to town. Make some noise. Trust me: those looks you think you are going to get because your making an uncivilized racket are, in fact, only going to be shot your way if you don’t. Think of it as small, discrete vacation from what your Mother taught you about proper table manners. It’s an essential part of the process. Now, you are going to go down the line, just as you did when you were dipping your nose into the cups of grinds. Slurp all the way. Don’t feel as if you need to finish the entire spoon. That is what one of those cups are for. Pick one up.
In my opinion, this first run through should be done rather quickly. Don’t focus too much on each individual coffee’s flavor. Instead, focus on getting a sense of the differences between each coffee and that the differences exist in the first place. This is where the whole process gets more relaxed and free-form. Feel free, once you have made the first go-around, to go around again or to return to a favorite or one you simply found interesting. Don’t forget to slurp. Once again, ask questions and feel free to talk to the other participants about what you are tasting. Listen, as well. That’s just as important.
That’s it. Your first cupping. A wild success.
Where to go for your cupping fix
As far as I know public cuppings are a relatively rare event among roasters. Besides my initial public cupping at Stumptown’s Annex location in Portland, Four Barrel and Ritual are the only roasters I know of that are doing it (although, to be fair, it is nearly impossible to find any reference to these events anywhere but via small signs in the front windows of each establishment). It’s a shame, really, for all of the reasons I listed above. Know of another? Correct me in the comments.
Go forth and cup.
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