How Do You Drink Your Coffee?

We all order our favourite coffees, but do we actually know what they are comprised of?

Of course these are just 12 variants of coffee – we can progress all the way into wet and dry cappuccinos, ristretto, piccolo latte, half-caf and on and on; the list really is impressive!  

I’m always asked by my non-coffee friends what they should drink if they are just getting into coffee. While the drawing above does not entirely show it, the best one to drink would be a flat white (if you’re ordering in an Australian coffee shop). The reason being that milk to coffee ratio is the higher, as one shot of espresso in the cup is topped off with milk and very little foam, making it a milkier coffee. As such the coffee taste (with the usual brunt and bitter taste that is so common in poorly mad coffees today) is less prominent.

Traditionally I was always a long black drinker (i.e. an Americano), but coffee shops today seem to butcher the flavour. Even the really good and high end cafes with the best machines, baristas and beans can often produce coffees with undesirable flavours. While all coffees will experience these tasting notes, at least the sweetness (from properly textured milk that hasn’t been burnt!) can cover them, whereas a long black just seems to highlight them.

Flavour Profile Wheel

Funnily enough though, some coffee shops have taken to advertising what flavour profiles you’ll experience in your coffee. Honestly I think it’s a great idea; you’re educating the customer about what they’re going to taste and what’s good and bad. I just can’t stand it when someone mindlessly words off flavour profiles without knowing what they’re talking about, nor do I appreciate it when someone rhymes of statements such as “the back of pallet acidity will mellow out and the front pallet sweetness will conjure up flavours of chocolate covered strawberries with rough saltiness”… yes, believe it or not, a shop owner has said something very similar to me!

Amiss are the days when you could just drink a coffee and describe it as tasting like coffee. But is it really that bad that we are becoming more discerning with our taste? On the whole, I think not.

Overall it comes down to the individual. Most of use can’t taste the difference between a really good coffee and simply an average one, let alone the individual taste profiles… however, it’s always good to informed when it comes to making your choices. Why keep drinking that burnt coffee when there are so many cafes trying to produce the best coffee for their customers at the same price?