Did you know that The Rocks Aroma Festival is on again on Sunday, July 24, 2016? It’s not just about that one day though – throughout the month of July there’s a whole lot of workshops that you can participate in all, of course, about coffee. There’s latte art, home brewing, coffee cocktails, and of course coffee cupping classes. I’m not much of a coffee drinker (I think copious amount of caffeine in my first year of university stuffed up my stomach a bit…) but I really wish I was able to drink it, and love anything that is made of coffee. So when the team at the Aroma Festival and Cardinal Spin invited me to come along to one of the Coffee Cupping Workshops, I eagerly went along, looking forward to learning more different coffee varietals and being able to spit out my coffee.
That’s right – you can spit out your coffee at a cupping session, just like you would with wine! In fact, I hear that all the experts spit it out 😉 
There were 4 varieties for us to try, including washed and unwashed coffees. Luckily for me, we had a representative from ASCA (the Australian Specialty Coffee Association) to guide us through the whole process.
First up is to grind the beans and put them in a wide cup for you to smell. We sniffed each cup and took notes on our scoring sheets. Most of us, admittedly, did not know what we were doing! But we definitely noticed the differences between the coffees. The strong citrus smell in some coffees was most striking to me. 
Then you add hot water using a fancy teapot with a super long, skinny spout. You let the coffee sit for a bit and then skim off the debris from the top expertly with two spoons. Needless to say I left this up to the experts…
Then it was tasting time! We had a helpful Taster’s Flavour Wheel to help us out. Each armed with a spoon, we would dip it into the coffee, then slurp (yes, slurp) it off the spoon, swirl it around our mouths and then spit it into a small spitoon. The slurping is actually not just because you’re trying to be like your Asian auntie eating her soup. It’s really important to aerate the coffee a little before you taste it, which is achieved by slurping (loudly). 
Can you spot me looking very serious and concerned as I sniff the coffee beans?
The coffee smelled so different after the hot water was added! There was again a difference when I tasted it. For example, there was one coffee that I really didn’t like the smell of as it smelled waaay too acidic, but once I tasted it, it became my favourite coffee of the lot! It was the opposite with a coffee I had really liked the smell of, but then hated once I tasted. So weird!
I really did learn a lot at the cupping workshop! I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in coffee and wanting to learn more. You can head over here to book in to one of the workshops in the lead up to the Aroma Festival, but make sure you come on the day as well as it’s free and there’ll be plenty of coffee to sample!
Aroma Festival
Sunday July 24, 2016
http://www.therocks.com/whats-on/the-rocks-aroma-festival/
Disclaimer: talk&spoon was invited to attend the cupping workshop, with special thanks to the Rocks and Matt at Cardinal Spin.
