Most Starbucks customers sip their coffee anyway they want to. But apparently, there's a proper way to drink coffee. The Starbucks development team recently revealed how coffee drinking is done the Starbucks way.
Starbucks experts' unique way of sipping coffee is called "cupping", as reported by Huffington Post. Cupping involves smelling, slurping, tasting and spitting different flavors of coffee.
The Starbucks development team smells, slurps, tastes and spits an average of 600 to 800 cups of coffee every day. "This helps them get the full flavor of the coffee on their tongue and determine if it's good enough to sell in stores," according to Huffington Post.
People who enjoy drinking coffee but are not expert coffee drinkers and tasters can develop their coffee flavor-tasting skills by trying Starbucks' way of coffee cupping. Pop Sugar shared the essential steps for coffee cupping at home.
Starbucks Coffee Cupping Step 1: Purchase different flavors of coffee.
The first step is to buy several bags of coffee with different flavors and preferably from different countries. "They should be fresh, and ground finely, in the manner of an espresso grind," Pop Sugar advises.
Starbucks Coffee Cupping Step 2: Get some buckets.
Buckets come in handy for spitting the coffee, which is an important part of coffee cupping. "If desired, lay out sensory cues for reference, like berries, citrus, caramel, nuts, and florals," Pop Sugar explains.
A photo posted by Starbucks Coffee (@starbucks) on Feb 14, 2016 at 4:56pm PST
Starbucks Coffee Cupping Step 3: Double the strength.
Coffee cupping is better if the flavors of the coffee are stronger. Using four tablespoons of coffee for every eight to nine ounces of water with each brew can help double the strength of the coffee flavors.
Starbucks Coffee Cupping Step 4: Proper sniffing.
"Observe the smell first, breaking the crust of grinds on top and stirring the bowl gently," Pop Sugar advises. "Scoop away any left on the top of the bowl with spoons."
Starbucks Coffee Cupping Step 5: Tasting with style.
The last step for trying the Starbucks coffee cupping experience in your own home is by tasting the flavors with style. Place a spoonful of coffee near your mouth, inhale deeply, slurp the coffee loudly to the mouth roof and sides of the tongue to detect the different coffee flavors, aroma, body, acidity, astringency and sweetness. You can either swallow the coffee or spit it into a bucket, whichever you prefer.
