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CUPPING: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF COFFEE TASTING
The Philippine Star Leisure Section
14 March 2001 PAGE L-2
 ow that we are in the 21st century, there are virtually all kinds of machines to test and try a variety of things. Coffee included. Yet despite this, nothing still beats the tried and tested by appraising the merits of a batch of coffee - cupping.
Cupping, so they say, is a ritualized evaluation of coffee beans, complete with specialized utensils and a distinct jargon to boot. To the uninitiated observer, it seems more like an excuse to play with one's food. But it is, in fact, an important segment in the long process of bring coffee to your favorite mug.
"It is similar to wine-tasting," says Roberto Francisco, Boyd Coffee Co., Philippines president, the country's premier supplier of gourmet coffee.
 Francisco says that to be real god in cupping, you have to be acquainted with variety of tastes and smells.
"It helps if, at one point in your life, you were able to sniff or taste blueberries, tomato soup, flowers, cardboard, jute, fungi, wood, straw, grass, or even dirt," he remarks. "But there is no other way to assess a batch's quality or lack of it."
Boyd Coffee Phils. President Robert Francisco
cupping a batch of freshly roasted coffee beans
With this, he simply familiarizes he layman with the tastes and smells that greet him when he is cupping.
Cupping terms are far more complex though.
"Note however," he adds, "that Boyd does not coffee that taste like dirt. But that is only possible because the coffee we roast has to pas by me first."
"Here's how it goes," he illustrates. Samples of coffee beans from different batches are lightly roasted, ground and spooned into different cups. "Hence, the word cupping."
Light roasting, he says, produces a sour brew, but the flavor and delicacy of the coffee are found in its acidity.
"Besides," he points out, "a dark roast will just disguise its lack of body. A lighter roast will challenge a coffee bean to show how much it has."
Hot water is then poured into it. Hot, but not boiling.
"Boiling water brings out the bitterness in coffee," Francisco explains.
After steeping the coffee grounds, the cups are allowed to cool "to allow a more accurate diagnosis." However, a burst of aroma is noted and recorded while it is piping hot.
"First impression helps, after all," he comments. "Still, the real testing begins when the cup has cooled a bit."
A tepid cup of coffee exposes all its weaknesses. Cupping, other than detecting a batch's plus points, is also about finding the defects of a batch. Not so that it can be rejected outright, but so it can find a suitable partner or blend.
  upping," he interjects, "also helps me to look for a suitable variety for blending when the particular variety I need is not available."
But if a batch does not meet Francisco's standards, "it gets totally rejected."
When the cup is already appetizingly cooler, he noses the cup for the second time. Nosing is simply sniffing the coffee for its aroma. And here the list for its possible aroma is staggering. Floral, ashy, spicy, herbal, rubbery and earthy are just a few of the possible choices.
Boyds Coffee Philippines president Robert Francisco (right) with Boyds International master cupper Randy Leyton
After nosing comes the tasting, and Francisco does it with an expert slurp.
"So that oxygen will mix with the coffee. Oxygen brings out the flavor of food, you see," he expounds. "And it is important that you get every subtle nuance of the batch."
Then he sloshes it all over his mouth. "So that the coffee will touch all he taste points of the tongue," and then sits the coffee into a spittoon.
Not the most polite sight, indeed, but a brewmeisters gotta do what a brewmeister's gotta do.
In fact, for his skills as coffee liquorer, as what coffee tasters are fancily called, Francisco earned a blue beret at a cupping course he attended at the head office of Boyd USA in Portland, Oregon.
Not bad for this youthful entrepreneur, who has an extensive background in the food and beverage business. As president of Boyd Coffee Co. Phils., he has already developed about 20 blends for the country's top restaurants and coffee shops.
"In fact, I brought along some of the local varieties like the Philippine arabica, the Philippine robusta, and the barako in my visit to Portland," he beams.
And true to his reputation as an acknowledged authority in coffee, he intends to set the pace in the local F&B scene. To date, Boyd Philippines is known for its strict quality control and batch roasting. Batch roasting helps in attaining a batch's optimum flavor level.
"Different batches of coffee variety have varying moisture content and every second of roasting can make a difference in taste," he added.
And so Roberto Francisco maintains on immersing himself in the coffee business, knowing its various flavors and aromas, so that Boyd Phils. can continue to serve the best cup.
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