What to look for when tasting coffee in Melbourne
JUST because you live in Melbourne doesn’t mean you know everything about coffee. A South Melbourne cafe has created a DIY kit to help you learn your origins from your roasts.
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WE may think we know everything about coffee in Melbourne.
But can you tell your dark from your light roasts or your Colombian from your Ethiopian beans? What about natural or washed processing?
Like wine, coffee has different flavour notes that vary on the roast, quality of the bean, processing and origin.
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It seems we know more about an oaky chardonnay and a fruity pinot noir than the $4 coffee we drink every day. St Ali founder Salvatore Malatesta has created a take home DIY ‘Learn to Taste Coffee’ kit, to teach seasoned caffeine drinkers what they love and hate about coffee.
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR WHEN WE TASTE?
Chocolate, caramel and sourdough are some types of smells and characteristics associated with coffee. Malatesta said the DIY tasting kits would help us understand what we’re drinking and appreciate the brew.
“I think it’s really hard to get a truly bad cup of coffee in Melbourne,” he said.
“About 13 years ago, you would, but now the average cafe has a coffee that’s an 8.5/10.” “Melbourne has become synonymous with the coffee movement,” Malatesta said remembering flavour notes played a big part in the type of coffee you’d drink.
“In order to truly understand coffee, you need to build up memory impressions of flavours so you can describe what you like.”
“Coffee also tastes different to different people.” If you’re a red wine drinker or a smoker, the taste may differ again, according to Malatesta. “What we worked out was people who smoked a lot and drank red wine tend to like the darker roast,” he said.
Malatesta said the mouth feel and bouquet (smell) of the coffee almost never match up, explaining why some people can stomach the smell rather than the taste of coffee. “Bouquet is not true to mouth feel. You might get clean cattle, elderflower smells that don’t translate to taste.
Unlike wine, which is true to the nose.
‘Learn to Taste Coffee’ full course kits, including brewing equipment, are available from St Ali for $199. The module coffee, cupping kit and bag of single origin coffee only is $120 at St Ali.