How the flavour wheel for coffee works

AROMA WHEEL - SENSORY SCIENCE FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS

How do scientific tools and technologies help to understand and name the sensory qualities of coffee? Sensory experts, scientists, coffee traders and roasters have created a common language for evaluating and assessing coffee.

AROMA WHEEL - AN INTUITIVE INSTRUMENT

Aroma wheels are a standardised system for the sensory description of coffee. They have been used in the food industry for various products since the 1970s. In a simple way, they help to find the right terms for describing coffee, wine or chocolate.

Flavour wheels come in different versions. Some are limited to main flavours and the most important aromas. Others are very detailed and distinguish more than a hundred attributes. None are complete or absolute. And what they all have in common is the structure: the inner circle describes the basic categories and the outer circles differentiate further and further.

AROMA WHEEL 2.0 - REINVENTING THE WHEEL

The aroma wheel of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) was updated for the first time in its 21-year history. The basis for this was the "World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon", a product of numerous sensory experts, scientists, coffee traders and roasters. With its lexicon, the World Coffee Research (WCR) organisation has completed the most comprehensive coffee sensory research project to date. The result is a new set of attributes that form the basis for a common language for evaluating and judging coffee.

WCR used scientific approaches to create a tool that is descriptive, measurable and replicable. In light of this new research, the SCAA saw an opportunity to revise its aroma wheel. The strength of WCR research and the importance of the idea of a common language in coffee research were compelling. An aroma wheel compatible with the lexicon was needed.

APPLICATION - HOW TO GET THE HANG OF IT

With their intuitive design, the Aroma Wheels are playful and easy to use. With the following points, you will get the hang of it in no time and be able to use the aroma wheel correctly and effectively.

Point 1: Coffee tasting

The Aroma Wheel can be used at a casual coffee tasting among friends as well as at professional cuppings. The key to success in all cases is mindfulness. Prepare the coffee carefully. Observe the coffee in the different phases: the aroma after grinding, the aromas as soon as the coffee comes into contact with the water and the taste that fills the palate. The aroma wheel contains attributes for the entire continuum between the main flavours (perception via the tongue) to the pure scents (perception via the nose). Most impressions are a mixture of sensory perceptions: The acidity and unique aroma of lemons, for example. Observe the coffee and its aromas carefully.

Point 2: Start at the centre

The design of the Aroma Wheel invites the user to start at the centre and work outwards. The basic descriptions are near the centre and become more specific as the radius increases. For example, when tasting Ethiopian coffee, "fruitiness" is identified. Looking at the attribute "fruity" in the aroma wheel, one is confronted with the decision: Does the fruitiness remind one of berries, dried fruit, citrus fruit or something else? If the user decides on "citrus", the attribute can be narrowed down further: is it "grapefruit", "orange", "lemon" or "lime"? Once the outermost, finest attribute has been determined, the game starts all over again. Another aroma is picked out and identified as far as possible. The user can stop the game at any time and be satisfied with the level of description reached. The aroma wheel thus works equally well on a simple level as it does for detailed descriptions by experts.

Point 3: Read the encyclopaedia

For all those who want to get to the bottom of the attributes in the aroma wheel, the "World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon" is recommended reading. The encyclopaedia is a good source of information for professional coffee tasters and the curious.

Point 4: Back to the centre

With the knowledge from the dictionary in mind, one can take advantage of another aspect of the aroma wheel. As with any aroma, the analysis starts in the centre and ends at the specific attribute on the outside of the aroma wheel. Not all attributes are placed at the same distance from each other. If two attributes are connected, they are considered related. If there is a distance between the attributes, they are less related. The further the distance goes through to the middle, the less related the attributes are to each other.

Point 5: Pay attention to the colours

The sense of sight is closely linked to the other senses. The appearance of food, for example, already reveals a lot about its taste. This is why visual terms are often found in the vocabulary used to describe coffee. It can taste "light", "red" or "green". With this in mind, the colours for the attributes in the aroma wheel were appropriately chosen. If it is difficult to find the right descriptor on the wheel at first, the colour may help. If the aroma of "red fruits" of any kind suggests itself, the user can start looking at the red-coloured attributes on the aroma wheel.