What a cupping actually is
Strip away the ceremony and a cupping is just the fairest way to taste coffee. Every sample is ground to the same size, dosed to the same weight, brewed with the same water at the same temperature, and tasted at the same three points as it cools. Same rules for a £6 commodity lot and a £60 auction lot. The bowls do not care what anything cost.
The Tuesday routine
Samples arrive all week: from our long-term partners, from importers hoping to tempt us, and from our own production batches pulled at random. Everything waits for Tuesday, 9am sharp, before the bar opens.
- Eight bowls, blind. Priti numbers the bowls and keeps the key on her phone. Nobody tasting knows which coffee is which, including Jess, who bought them.
- Crust, break, taste. We smell the dry grounds, break the crust at four minutes, then taste with cupping spoons as the bowls cool, because faults hide in hot coffee and show themselves lukewarm.
- Score in silence. Everyone writes their scores before anyone speaks, and the lowest score in the room explains first. Enthusiasm is contagious; doubt gets shouted down unless it goes first.
The lowest scorer speaks first. It is the single best rule we have ever introduced at the works, and it has killed more bad purchases than any spreadsheet.
What gets a coffee rejected
Most samples fail politely: they are fine, and fine is not enough to displace something already on the shelf. The harder rejections are the flashy ones, coffees with one spectacular note and nothing behind it. They cup like fireworks and pour like a puddle by the bottom of the mug. If a coffee cannot stay interesting for a whole cup, it does not get a label.
Our own production batches face the same table. Twice last year a batch of Wheelhouse scored below our line, and both went to the community kitchens rather than the shelf. Expensive mornings, cheap compared to a regular tasting something off and never mentioning why they stopped coming.
Taste it with us
The Saturday 10am cupping is the public version of this table: same bowls, same spoons, currently £6 including a bag of whatever you like best. Book a seat through the visit page, and if you disagree with our scores, say so. Lowest scorer speaks first, even on Saturdays.