21 September 2007 by Shifrah Combiths
An Accidental Foray into Cupping
My aunt was very excited to meet my fiancé for the first time. We’d arranged to have coffee one afternoon when he was visiting me in San Francisco, and we convened on an unusually sunny afternoon at a corner coffee shop in Laurel Village. We ordered our drinks, engaged in the typical skirmish of who would pay for whom (she won), and sat down.
We’d opted for the traditional offerings of plain old coffee, a frothy concoction of coffee-flavored sugar water crowned with whipped cream, and an Italian soda for my jittery-prone future husband, who only indulged in coffee when it was good enough that it couldn’t be resisted.
As our selections were American-sized, imagine our surprise when one of the workers glided to our table bearing a tray of dainty espresso cups and a dish of bulbous and shiny chocolate-covered cherries. My aunt beamed in satisfaction – she’d planned this.
The worker set a tiny cup of black, piping hot coffee in front of each of us. Following his instruction and my aunt’s lead, we lifted the cups with only a couple of fingertips grasping the thin handles and breathed in the warm, dark aromas wafting from them. He told us to slurp sips of coffee into our mouths, letting the air and coffee linger on our tongues and swirl in our mouths before swallowing. “Taste the aroma,” he commanded. Obediently, we melded our senses together in abandonment to a whole new world of taste sensations.
Next, we took bites of chocolate-covered cherries, chewed a little but not yet swallowed, before going through the sipping process. The sweet chocolate, the tart cherry, and the earthy warmth of the coffee awakened unexpected flavors in each other and we were delighted. The more sips we took, the more into it we got: I can taste the sunshine, It’s…sharp and spicy. Our creative reflections abounded and were met with our server’s nods of encouragement. Yes, yes. Now try again without the cherry.
Such was my introduction to coffee cupping, which is in fact a much more methodical enterprise than that related above. Cupping activities range from professional tastings to informal home gatherings centered around this beloved beverage, and involve describing and/or rating coffee according to a prescribed list of its attributes in both aroma and taste.