Your Taste Buds are your Guide!

I’ve talked about it before but your taste buds are your guide to what is good coffee. I’m not going to talk about how expensive a coffee is and if that makes it the best coffee. At the end of the day, a good coffee is what is enjoyable to you. Whether that be a light roasted, fruit forward coffee or a super dark coffee with milk and sugar. It’s all good. That’s my thought anyway.

But how do you taste coffee? Well the only way to taste and critique a coffee is to cup or at the very least, drink it black. This is where you’ll see the flavor notes from Lotus or the flavor notes that other coffee roasters put out there. The roaster’s flavor notes are just that. It’s what they tasted, not what you’ll taste. They hope you’ll taste what they taste but that isn’t always the case. Why not you ask? Well partially is genetics and the other is our individual food journeys. I mentioned genetics cause I spoke with a friend that can’t taste bitter and he gives no flying hoots about how dark a coffee is a roasted and he can’t taste it at all! Now this is an extreme example but the biggest one will be our food journeys!

I grew up eating many types of foods growing up, everything from all sorts of different Asian cuisines, American BBQ, and all sorts of tropical and local fruits. If you haven’t had a huge variety of foods, you might not taste or relate to what the roaster is tasting. I’ve attached below two different Flavor Wheels. You can see how they differ in the fruits and florals. Yet there are similarities Nuts and Sweets portion of the wheel.

So remember, just because you don’t taste what the roaster tastes, it’s okay. You won’t always taste what they taste but when you do, it’s such an amazing experience. I want to reiterate that there is no wrong way to drink your coffee and as much as it pains me to say it, there is no wrong roast. It’s all preference!

But let’s say you want to expand your taste buds? Only way to do that is to taste coffee black and step out of your comfort zone on the types of coffees you’re drinking. It’ll be awkward and maybe even not that great at first but your taste buds will slowly acclimate and you’ll be stepping into a different world of coffee.

Drink great coffee and enjoy your coffee journey!