Coffee Tasting in London
Freshly brewed coffee is a complex drink. You’ve heard of wine tasting so if you are a coffee addict one of the things you may enjoy is experimenting with new brewed coffees. This is a great way of developing a palate and a sense of the perfect coffee for you. This is an article on some of the interesting coffee tasting options in London.
Coffee tasting is also known as coffee cupping. The people who do this professionally, are known as Q graders. But coffee cupping is something you can do informally to learn about tastes and aromas of coffee. Like wine tasting, coffee tasting takes practice to develop your nose and palate, but what better way than to get started.
Here are places for coffee tasting in London.
1. Ozone
Ozone is an award winning coffee roastery that originated in New Zealand that provides some of the best coffees in London. Today, Ozone is a favourite with coffee connoisseurs in London.
Based in trendy Shoreditch, this is something to try to experience different types of brewing techniques and the freshly brewed coffee.
There are two options for the coffee cupping in Ozone – Roasting or Origins. The first takes you through the roasting process and how this impacts the bean. You’ll get to taste a variety of different roasts to experiment with tastes and aromas. The Origins coffee cupping takes you through how the origins of the coffee bean has an impact on flavour of coffee.
Coffee tasting is held twice a month and is quite popular so you should expect a wait of about a month to be able to get in. This held on Wednesday evenings for a couple of hours. https://trulyexperiences.com/uk/unconventional-coffee-cupping-ozone.html
An option for a mid-week break from the routine?
2. Alchemy Coffee
Alchemy is a UK based roaster of excellence. Their espresso coffee is considered by some as the best in London. So it shouldn’t surprise you that their coffee can be tasted at the Parcafe in the Dorchester.
Alchemy provides a 2-hour coffee tasting experience and include a cupping competition at the end for some fun as well. You’ll find this at their café near City Thames Link. http://www.alchemycoffee.co.uk/services/training
3. London School of Coffee
If you are looking for something more in depth then there is the London School of Coffee. If you want to take cupping to a professional level without an exam, then take the one day course that they provide.
Here you’ll start with things like sensory exercises to get you ready for the tasting and aromas. You’ll also learn how to set up a professional coffee cupping table and see how the professionals would work.
https://www.londonschoolofcoffee.com/cupping
4.Prufrock
Prufrock is a vibrant café on Leather Lane in London. They provide a variety of SCA training and one of them is on the sensory experience with coffee. This is about understanding cupping terminology, how to evaluate roasted coffee, how to set up a cupping table and much more. If you think you’d like to be a skilled barista one day, this course goes towards points on the SCA.
https://www.prufrockcoffee.com/class/scae-sensory-foundation/
5.BaristaBarBar
BaristaBarBar has established itself of running some of the best food and drink courses in Europe. An Australian company, their trained baristas work all around UK, Europe and Asia. They run a monthly cupping course where you get to learn how to assess coffee by taste and aroma. You also get to sample a variety of coffees from different countries so that you get a sense of the flavours associated with regions.
http://www.baristabarbar.co.uk/pb/wp_f4bf533f/wp_f4bf533f.html
6. Climpsons and Sons
Climpsons and sons were one of the early pioneers of the speciality coffee scene in London. They roast some of the best coffee that makes its way into top hotels and restaurants. Climpsons run a cupping club once a month at their roastery where you can go along to learn to smell the coffee and assess it.