I understand where you are coming from Aktion....and then I dont. I dont think you will find any of us roasters in here that would use pretentious or over technical lingo in describing the coffees we are cupping. In fact I think you would find that we are a pretty down to earth lot and like to use the KISS principle ourselves particularly when dealing with members of the public who we cant expect to have a bagful of technical terms to work from. There needs to be a balance in discussion, so no point putting restrictions on who responds to a question especially if you ask for only members of the general public to respond, because then you wont learn things from the professonal side of coffee that could have been very useful....the tail wagging the dog syndrome again. Personally, I am not a fan of certain websites that I think make interest in coffee, pretentious. And I have a feeling that came from the consumer end not necessarily the pro roaster end..... When Cupping, I use my "minds eye". Sip into your mouth, swirl around, and let you minds eye come up with whatever it comes up with. Dont look for overly technical or flowery adjectives, look rather for the obvious things first such as acidity (bright or lacking or somewhere in between), bitterness (NO NOT CAFE INDUCED BITTERNESS which is a fault due to the method of brewing....rather, the bitterness that comes of over roasted beans that get a burnt / ashy character), sourness (a kind of yukkie dullness on the palate). Look also for an impression of the overall mouthfeel, and whether the coffee has body or not, and how it finishes on the palate. See if your minds eye can pick characters that seem to come from the top of the palate, or from the back, or wherever. That is where I would start, is easily understandable, you might be interested to learn it forms the basis of professional espresso cupping, is not pretentious, and I hope that helps. If you then can pick fruits, berries, nuts chocolate or whatever, then good for you but dont expect other individuals to find the same things you did, especially if they have different degrees of experience at cupping to where you are at any particular point, and of course you all have to be cupping the same coffee at the same time or there can be no comparison. Enjoy. Rgdz, Attilio very first Crema site sponsor & proud professional coffee roaster. PS...a professional coffee roaster is someone that roasts coffee for a living and the term has nothing to do with whether someone works in a large company and has a 240 kilo roaster, or is a 2 man show with a 5 kilo roaster in a retail shopfront or for that matter in their garage.
