Have learned a great deal from your channel. The tasting process is a great idea. George Howell is around the corner. His Ethiopian is sweeter initially. I know the beans oxidize over time. I try to purchase a pound within 10 days of roasting. When you do home tastings, are your coffee beans fresh?
One thing that should also be pointed out: coffee cupping is a great way to show your friends what all the fuss is about. I had people who don't even drink coffee come over and they were 100% certain all coffee will taste exactly the same to them and they were shocked to discover how different it can be even to them. I also like to do them in a way where I invite a couple of friends and they each can bring their own coffee to taste so we all have something new to discover and experience.
I know what you mean. I don't drink whiskey and I don't really like it. However I once did a tasting using a sample pack of four different whiskeys and it was very enjoyable. I could so easily taste the differences, different strengths, flavors and aromas. It was such a pleasant experience. It gave me a whole new perspective on whiskey.
This is exactly how I was converted. I hated coffee, could not understand for the life of me why anyone would drink it. Then an associate who was a roaster invited me to join him in cupping some roasts he was experimenting with, and I was blown away by how much I learned about good coffee in that one sitting. It's now almost twenty years later and I'm still learning!
Oh ayo its moga. If you're looking for more coffee content, lance hendrick and sprometheous are good sources for all things coffee. They're kinda on the nerdy side of coffee youtube but still really good. Congrats on the new house and I hope you'll enjoy coffee as much as Mr. Hoff does
I work at a trattoria in Mexico, we've been serving really bad coffee for years untill I decided to change that, It's been two months now since I've started this journey, now, people really loves the coffee we make and it's 80% thanks to you and your videos, now, with the rest of the coffee I have on the restaurant (cause believe, I've tried a lot from specialty coffee shops of my zone to supermarket coffee) I'mma try to cup all of them, maybe it's not best cause they're not recently grounded but I'm pretty sure that'll be fun 💕 ☕
Kettle temperature is the best, funniest way I've seen of indicating the length of an ad break. Brilliant idea that made me smile (and watch the full ad break).
I saw James, I clicked on James. I am happy now. UPDATE: I absolutely love how James manages to simplify a process that's perceived as 'pretentious' to a lot of coffee drinkers.
The beauty of explaining the technical reasons for the why things are performed a certain way (so us amateur home baristas can learn) and the admission that there is also a degree of pretension to the procedure when a lot of industry professionals get together.
I attended a cupping during a coffee workshop once. They had three different coffees in 6 cups and we had to find the pairs as a group. Interesting exercise for beginners and you encourage a discussion in the group!
You could never be thanked enough for bringing your humility and honesty to this part of the coffee world. Your inclusiveness will bring new fans to this world. This bring more consumers as well, which brings more opportunity for production, shops, accouterment and manufacturers.
I love the way you present this and not being pretentious about it.. I know near nothing about coffee but I've been writing poetry forever and anytime someone asks me for a advice I try to talk about it in the same way.. just have fun it's not so precious and special and you're just as capable as anyone else of figuring it out
This did inspire me to do my own cupping at home. I did the thing you said I didn't have to, and bought 3 different bags of coffee to compare to two bads I already had (one frozen, one in use). I was surprised by the results, though. I'm someone who' have enjoyed coffee since I was in my teens, but I wouldn't characterize myself as a connoisseur. Still, I have opinions on what I like. In the comparison I find it pretty easy to identify the acidity and sweetness, and I also got one coffee that tasted chocolatey and another that tasted delicate. I wasn't able to put any words on texture or body, though. I suspect that would need more practice to pick out. Still, what surprised me is that the coffee I liked the best in the cupping is not the same one I liked best brewed. In the cupping, two coffees stood out to me as exceptionally good, while the others were all merely good. And one of my favorites ended up in the merely good pile. I suspect I know why, though. I've always made my coffee the same way, quite strong and with a scoop. And ... I think maybe different coffees need to be brewed differently to be the most enjoyable they can be. I kinda sounds obvious when I type it out, but I've never thought about it that way before. It makes me kind of excited to experiment with how I make my coffee in the morning.
Such a great video, and ended up doing a cupping at home because it seemed simple. It was a lot of fun, a little more work than I expected but worth it! My wife has always thought she loved dark roasts, but we learned that the region more than the roast color had a bigger impact for her and her favorite of the bunch was actually a light roast that she said she enjoyed so much she would drink without any dairy.
Hey Mr. In my country this is one way of enjoying coffee too. It's name is tubruk method. But, we usually break the foam 4 times. 1/4 part of the mug, 1 minute wait each. And the last part we not scrap off the foam, we gently stroke the foam until it's gone. If you break the foam like we do you'll get thicker foam and more delicious coffee. Good luck Mr!
My wife and i (in our 60's) are pretty new to the world of coffee (other than instant). My wife refers to James as the David Attenborough of the coffee world and we love him. So easy to learn from and just so genuine.
James has such great integrity here, avoiding advertising his own brand. I must say as a consumer that Square Mile has the most ingenious and effective coffee packaging that I have ever encountered.
Found this channel after watching Cooking with Alex. So glad I did! I love how unpretentious you are with the process and encouraging people to try it out. So good!
I've been a participant in a few coffee cuppings, but I've never orchestrated one myself until today! Thank you, James! My parents and I compared two barrel-aged coffees from the same roaster. One was aged in Scotch whiskey barrels, and one was aged in Texas bourbon. The cupping took a bit of work to set up, but it ended up being so much fun. And the process of tasting and talking about the coffees was wonderful. We enjoyed both coffees, but we all gave a slight edge to the bolder flavor of the Texas bourbon coffee.
After knowing nothing about coffee 3 months ago and now having read your book and seen all your fabulous videos, I had a period of making GREAT coffee. But now I suddenly constantly second quess myself and have a hard time tuning in on new coffees. I hope it's just a phase... Thanks for all your inspiration and thoroughness!
Just to clarify, depending of the altitude is going to vary from boiling point. At sea level it's 100C, here in Quito it's 92C. This is very important when cupping, it's a great advice from James that it's necessary to wait the 10 minutes gap. Also, at our altitude (2800masl) it's interesting to play a little with the pressure of the espresso machines! Great video!
For just under 11years, I served in the USMC. Now that I am out, I realize that I was drinking some of the worst coffee I could have ever had, lol. I found you channel and have invested time and a little cash into coffee. It has changed my outlook completely! Side note.... my wife is now enjoying it even more than I am. Thank you Mr. Hoffman. I look forward to learning from you weekly.
Been wondering for years why the cupping brew method is so different from the more popular general methods. I’ve finally got a decent explanation, thanks!
Having discovered James' channel some weeks ago and gone down the Aeropress brewing route, I have been experimenting with various supermarket beans in terms of grind, water temperature etc. I decided to try a cupping and also purchased a single source coffee from Redber. I deliberately chose the Ethiopia Sidamo bean to see if I could tell the difference of a more acidic, lighter roast over the darker supermarket coffees. The cupping preparation was good fun and performed according to James' instructions with due care taken over weights and recipe levels at 60 g/L. After brewing and preparation for the requisite time it was obvious how different the Ethiopian coffee was going to be just from the colour, being much lighter than the other supermarket coffees. My favoured brew is Americano and I have been drinking at numerous cafes for years but also using a moka pot at home with ground, supermarket coffee. As such, I think I know what I like but don't really think I have what you might call a discerning palette. After waiting for the cups to cool down I started the tasting which was also good fun and very interesting. I have to say all the supermarket coffees tasted pretty much the same, which is to say quite dark with a strong, lingering after taste. The Ethiopia Sidamo though was much lighter, fragrant and fruity and so very different from all the other coffees. Before the tasting I would have said that maybe the Lavazza Rosso or the Guatamalan Espresso might have been my favourites, either of which have been my daily brew of late since getting the Aeropress. I did quite like the Ethiopia Sidamo though as it was very pleasant so will experiment with that over the next few days in the Aeropress to see if I truly prefer that sort of light, fruity coffee over the darker brews that I have been drinking for several years. Sainsbury's Guatamalan Espresso #4 Aldi Alcafe House Blend #3 Lavazza Rosso Tesco's Finest Costa Rican #3 Redber Ethiopia Sidamo GR2
You make this so welcoming , friendly, user-friendly, and accessible to people who might have been scared away from the industry cuppings. This is how coffee should be... open and welcoming. Thanks for being a great leader in the industry for everyone. Cheers!
I had no idea this was even a thing until a few weeks ago when a friend of mine mentioned it. I’ve since done several of these, I home roast so it’s fun to do little experiments and see how changes in the roast session change the coffee flavors. Also how different beans compare of course. Thank you for this! It’s a total blast.
Doing a cupping in the morning. Three Geshas from three countries. I’m strangely nervous; I’m a coffee dork and have been for, 25 years maybe? And it’s just my best friend coming over. But I’ve never “held a cupping!” This video has helped, like all of them do. Thank you, Hoff.
You made this sound so complicated at the beginning but it paid off because your demonstration then seemed easier and achievable, it was a good presentation and very well arranged. Top way to explain!
Hello! I'm from Ukraine. It’s a shame to admit, but at 50, I don’t know much English. But everything is clear to me from what the author says. Very interesting, thanks! I am now your fan! )))
Don't know if you'll see this but I found your channel recently through Reddit. I recently got into coffee late last year and I have learned a lot from just watching your content and reading your book. Just wanted to say thank you
Once, I was too lazy to bust out the coffee maker that I just dumped a bunch of grinds in my mug, poured hot water over it and drank it that way. Years later, I find out that the fancy people called that 'cupping'. On a different day way back when, I was again too lazy to use the coffee maker but this time, I didn't want to chew grinds while I drank coffee so I placed a paper filter with coffee grinds above a similarly sized strainer and casually poured my hot water through there. Surprisingly enough, I also find out years later that the fancy people called that 'pour over'. Long story short: My teen years were pretty weird.
the first way was actually how I started drinking coffee. I liked that it was weaker and I could choose the volume. And it seemed more natural than instant coffee. This is also how many people drink coffee here, especially on construction sites or generally at work. We also call it Turkish coffee.
We were thinking of doing some cupping today coz we have 3-4 different coffee beans. Then I remembered just about a year ago, my brother and I learned so much from your videos when we were just starting out with home brewing. Thanks for sharing your valuable coffee knowledge, James 😊
James, I'm really greatful for all the knowledge you share with people. It's pleasure to listen to what you speak but more important, how you speak about coffee. Couldn't be more simple and easy to understand what's your message on a specific subject. Its pleasure to experience how you combine mastery of vocabulary and tone of your voice. You are a truly great man! Thank You!
I find it nice that you give your viewers a couple options here. Like you don't need super fancy stuff, though it helps but then again coffee equipment could be expensive. I still find myself having a hard time with sensory, when I do cupping (which I have not had an opportunity to do a lot) it is not something you could really teach because you have to train your palette yourself. People I cup with already have notes in mind however I just taste acidity and bitterness or sweetness, I really couldn't pinpoint yet what it exactly is. Excited for the next part. Anyway... Thanks for this James! 😊
It is hard as hell. It is really harder than say mastering Basic Latte Art Pattern which can take months for a total noob like me. IMO, the key is simple: taste 21 to 35 of different coffee a week! But simple doesn't mean easy or feasible or even applicable to your daily life. BTW, a cupping instructor told me that if I want to get really really serious about cupping and sensory skill, then I should purchase Le Nez du Cafe set and organic acid kit set in order to seriously train my tongue and my nose
i´m really happy, now i can improve my sensibility in a way more fun tecnique, thank you James!!! you are helping a simple brazilian coffee enthusiast!!!
For general people in Indonesia, that is how we make our coffee. Just put coffee ground into mug, pour water, and... done. Enjoy coffee with lot sedimen in the bottom of mug.
Kopi tubruk , the names come from when the water is poured the coffee and the sugar looks like collide each other, even today people brew it without sugar they still naming this technique 'tubruk'
Unfortunately, usually done with powder-find grinds from gnarly blends and a pound of sugar. If people like it like that, good for them! I'm happy, though, that third wave coffee is getting huge in Indonesia and more subtle coffee techniques are taking off, and not just for fancy folks.
This was great! I train young people in hospitality and this was an interesting exercise which was fun and generated a lot of conversation amongst the group (not always easy to do), I particularly like and relate to your emphasis on curiosity, not uptight analysis. Bravo.
i love how accessible you’ve made this seemingly inaccessible activity! I’ve been doing pour-over this year, and now i’m excited to try our more coffees this way
Tried cupping for the first time with 5 different coffees today. Enlightening. Though I would be a chocolate and caramel guy but a floral Bolivian honey geisha won the day. Thank you James for your enthusiastic guidance.
Thank you James for sharing. I would love more and more people do cupping at home. That's exactly how I started. It was fun, it was interesting and... This year I was competing in World Cuptasters Championship :D There is nothing magical about cupping. Most important you have to be curious and enjoy it. Calibration of sensors takes time, but it will come.
James, you show immense passion for coffee in each of your videos, but this might be the most heartfelt, most sincere, most impassioned I’ve seen you. I absolutely love this video because you so clearly love the event of cupping and truly want others to share in this joy (which I’m sure is why you held the worlds largest simultaneous cupping!). Wonderful video and thank you!
Hey, thanks for the video, tried this today with three Monmouth coffees, it worked really well , and the final brew of each coffee was actually really balanced without the v60 etc getting in the way, I will definitely be doing this for any new coffee I get to see the base line flavours. Great video.
Wow! I went to the World of Coffee for the first time a couple of weeks ago and had been watching your videos just because I enjoyed the style and without knowing anything about you. There I picked up your Book, the world atlas of coffee, but didn't make the connection that you wrote that and just now I was like "wait, Hoffmann? I know that name... Oh! he's the guy I'm reading!" Thank you so much for all the Information you put out there and your book is an artwork of itself! Cheers!
Love the way you make learning about coffee simple, I find most specialty coffee shops don't have the time to take on new people in the scene and always go towards people with more experience which takes away the mentorship learning system.
Amazing video. Thanks a lot James for this kind of videos, you brought me back to when I was studying agronomy in Colombia. We did this several times at the factory where coffee is sorted "green".
I'm a beginner with a deep love for espresso. I've tried cupping twice since watching your video. It was fun and quite easy. I had to slurp few spoons to get a better taste - one spoon wasn't enough for me. Although it was hard to find words to describe what I sense, it was easy to distinguish different coffee beans. It was also very interesting how the taste changes with cooling of coffee. Thanks for inspiring me to try cupping!
James, ive only just got into coffee seriously and ive got a bit of gear (french press, Aeropress) and just started buying artisan fresh roasted beans. Just want to say that I love your non pretentious and approachable videos and ive learnt quite a bit from the info you give. Thankyou and happy new year. Mark
I come back to this video every now and again and the sheer simplicity in how you explain everything, just assuming people know something but not everything is absolutely amazing. You're a great teacher James, keep up the good work.
I've quietly enjoyed your videos for a while now. This one was great - I'd seen cupping but not looked in to it. As a newer person to coffee, I really appreciate the practical and simple accessibility that you've brought - please keep it up
From where I live, it's called Kopi Tubruk. Usually we add sugar or condensed milk. Probably the cheapest and most popular way of enjoying a cup of coffee.
I have been watching your videos for a while now and I've always loved them, but felt like they were just a little over my non-barista head. I feel like you made this video specifically for me as this is exactly what I've been wanting to learn. I've been really getting into the art of coffee in the past year, but have been struggling to truly discern different flavours. Thank you for this! I've got a couple bags around the house, I'm going to try this right now.
Even after two years of this being posted, it is still enjoyable to get pointers on how to sample and taste coffees that I might enjoy! Many thanks man
Every video I get more and more amazed about you James.. Your knowledge about coffee seem endless and combined with your skills at editing and teaching it makes your videos perfect. Thank you James!
Thank you for simplifying the process, I have cupped with a roaster and at home, most of us love coffee but are not professionals in the coffee industry so this was a great way to really learn to enjoy this process and learn at the same time. Thanks for keeping it real.
James, you create content that is highly informative and you explain concepts in an easy to grasp manner. At the same time it's really fun to watch. It's a treat whenever a new video comes up!
This is an awesome, simple, practical, no fuss video for everyone who wants to start tasting and exploring the wonders of coffee. Thank you James, I am waiting for your Masterclass. 😉
I love that he's doing it in three wildly different containers, even though he has a perfectly good cupping set over there. "You don't need equal sized containers, and to show you, I'm gonna do it in three of the most different containers I have."
Amazing video. My interest in coffee has been growing for quite a while now and this is the PERFECT guide to start developing my taste. Will give it a go.
Thank you so much for this! I want to learn more about coffee, but never knew how to really learn. So rather than actually knowing, I'm thinking "hmm, this one has a deeper taste" without having the slightest clue what that would even mean. I also never knew what I actually like, which results in me buying by price. Thank you for helping both me and my wallet!
Wonderful edit at the end, thanks for giving everyone a bit more caffeine confidence and I really look forward to the pallet video - something I very much struggle to wrap my head around.
Excellent- easy - fun - instructions - just started up our own roaster .... love to have our friends cup with us .... often times coffee videos want you to become a NASA Scientist.... first , then a coffee specialist second !?! We just love coffee ... and want to share it !! Thank you for all your videos- you keep the fun in coffee !!!!
brilliant thanks! I've done plenty of comparative tastings for wine and various alcohols, and was wondering how to do it with coffee. I'll definitely be trying to source/scrounge a few different coffees and set up a little tasting using this format! ... Now to watch the follow up vid as well! Perfect, easy, approachable learning, thank you!
This is the first time I didn't skip the Skillshare endorsement, just because I wanted to stare at the temperature counter on the top right corner! 😂😂😂
Video was, of course, excellent. Your presentation of ads is so wonderfully produced that I can't bear to skip them. Your sponsors should be paying you triple their usual rate!
Cupping is a very educational experience that helps to differentiate between good quality and bad quality coffee but also coffee and also coffee that has been processed in different ways. This also helps to find different likes or dislikes for certain types of coffee. After cupping the first time I found I really like honey processed coffee.
I love your youtube channel man; The quality of information and the simplicity of how you try to educate your audience are superb. Now I'm doing a "back-read" of your videos Thank you and keep it up.
Thank you James. As always, a thorough but simple explanation to dive in slowly (the first tip toe!) in a technical subject. I appreciate a lot the way (sometimes the sarcastic 😁) you engage with to give us quality teachings. Continue doing so please !👏
James, I have a new bag arriving this week, and a couple older ones. This should be the best way to really figure out how coffees age, and how fresh grinds can taste different from 4 month old stored ground. Your videos helped me out with picking the right hand grinder (Hario Skerton ftw!), and this series should really help in understanding the tasting notes which I've completely not understood at all. Had a coffee the other day that was supposed to have notes of vanilla cookies and chocolate, and all I tasted was...a hint of citrus :|
My husband and I did this today with the same coffee processed three different ways: washed, natural, and honey. Really fun and interesting! We definitely noticed the brighter, fruitier notes of the natural processed coffee and the rich, malty, nutty taste of the honey processed coffee. Big ups to our local roaster, Maple Leaf Coffee Roasters (Illinois), for running this series of coffees from the same producer.
The sincere accessibility and transparency that you use when discussing coffee is genuinely heart warming
Have learned a great deal from your channel. The tasting process is a great idea. George Howell is around the corner. His Ethiopian is sweeter initially. I know the beans oxidize over time. I try to purchase a pound within 10 days of roasting. When you do home tastings, are your coffee beans fresh?
Gary, you’re not kidding. It’s terrific.
I read you comment in Mr. Hoffmann's voice
Yes. Thank you
One thing that should also be pointed out: coffee cupping is a great way to show your friends what all the fuss is about. I had people who don't even drink coffee come over and they were 100% certain all coffee will taste exactly the same to them and they were shocked to discover how different it can be even to them.
I also like to do them in a way where I invite a couple of friends and they each can bring their own coffee to taste so we all have something new to discover and experience.
i want to be your friend
@@s0undnin let me know if you visit Slovenia :D
Coffee is the new whisky
I know what you mean. I don't drink whiskey and I don't really like it. However I once did a tasting using a sample pack of four different whiskeys and it was very enjoyable. I could so easily taste the differences, different strengths, flavors and aromas. It was such a pleasant experience. It gave me a whole new perspective on whiskey.
This is exactly how I was converted. I hated coffee, could not understand for the life of me why anyone would drink it. Then an associate who was a roaster invited me to join him in cupping some roasts he was experimenting with, and I was blown away by how much I learned about good coffee in that one sitting.
It's now almost twenty years later and I'm still learning!
2:45 that was some top tier editing
Oh ayo its moga. If you're looking for more coffee content, lance hendrick and sprometheous are good sources for all things coffee. They're kinda on the nerdy side of coffee youtube but still really good. Congrats on the new house and I hope you'll enjoy coffee as much as Mr. Hoff does
Quite random to see you here. European Coffee Trip would be another recommended channel!
was cool how he did it.
I work at a trattoria in Mexico, we've been serving really bad coffee for years untill I decided to change that, It's been two months now since I've started this journey, now, people really loves the coffee we make and it's 80% thanks to you and your videos, now, with the rest of the coffee I have on the restaurant (cause believe, I've tried a lot from specialty coffee shops of my zone to supermarket coffee) I'mma try to cup all of them, maybe it's not best cause they're not recently grounded but I'm pretty sure that'll be fun 💕 ☕
Kettle temperature is the best, funniest way I've seen of indicating the length of an ad break. Brilliant idea that made me smile (and watch the full ad break).
That ending, exactly what I didn't know I needed. Apologize for nothing James
Exactly this. Thanks for making my day James!
lmao...im glad i read this before the ending..
I just brought some too
I love your spoon transition @2:46! Its very smooth and I re-watched it at least 8 times trying to figure out how the spoons were edited in.
I'm gonna guess the spoons were edited out before they appeared
im high rn and i thought i was hallucinating when that happened
James is a fan of magic/sleight of hand, so I wouldn't be surprised if he did this as seen, no editing 😊
@@slothc if you look frame by frame it looks like he's wiping something away... a green cloth
James is cgi
James. Explain your spoon sorcery.
its probably taught on skillshare
Nich J it’s probably a skill you acquire by cupping hundreds of cups of coffee 🙄
@@jameshoffmann I must have watch that bit 5 times ! Silly can be good!
An impressive magic trick
Two tripod shots mixed together with keyframing. One shot with no spoons and one with. More impressive is the amount of effort he put in! lol
I saw James, I clicked on James. I am happy now.
UPDATE: I absolutely love how James manages to simplify a process that's perceived as 'pretentious' to a lot of coffee drinkers.
The beauty of explaining the technical reasons for the why things are performed a certain way (so us amateur home baristas can learn) and the admission that there is also a degree of pretension to the procedure when a lot of industry professionals get together.
13:50 was the most majestic 5 seconds of this channel's history. Beautiful.
OMG I missed it the first time, I stopped the video when he started saying "comment down below" and stuff. Glad you mentioned this! 😂
I attended a cupping during a coffee workshop once. They had three different coffees in 6 cups and we had to find the pairs as a group. Interesting exercise for beginners and you encourage a discussion in the group!
You could never be thanked enough for bringing your humility and honesty to this part of the coffee world.
Your inclusiveness will bring new fans to this world. This bring more consumers as well, which brings more opportunity for production, shops, accouterment and manufacturers.
Yes he can be. He’s thanked plenty enough by the huge $$$ from all our views.
That spoon edit was so god damn smooth, you're getting too good at this
Inspired by Derren Brown perhaps? Loved it, a very understated flourish!
It was so smooth I had to watch it three times.
@@kepakko me too, I was like "where were the spoons before?"
I love how james simplify the process even though it's already simple
Please we need many of you in my college
I love the way you present this and not being pretentious about it.. I know near nothing about coffee but I've been writing poetry forever and anytime someone asks me for a advice I try to talk about it in the same way.. just have fun it's not so precious and special and you're just as capable as anyone else of figuring it out
This did inspire me to do my own cupping at home. I did the thing you said I didn't have to, and bought 3 different bags of coffee to compare to two bads I already had (one frozen, one in use). I was surprised by the results, though. I'm someone who' have enjoyed coffee since I was in my teens, but I wouldn't characterize myself as a connoisseur. Still, I have opinions on what I like.
In the comparison I find it pretty easy to identify the acidity and sweetness, and I also got one coffee that tasted chocolatey and another that tasted delicate. I wasn't able to put any words on texture or body, though. I suspect that would need more practice to pick out.
Still, what surprised me is that the coffee I liked the best in the cupping is not the same one I liked best brewed. In the cupping, two coffees stood out to me as exceptionally good, while the others were all merely good. And one of my favorites ended up in the merely good pile.
I suspect I know why, though. I've always made my coffee the same way, quite strong and with a scoop. And ... I think maybe different coffees need to be brewed differently to be the most enjoyable they can be. I kinda sounds obvious when I type it out, but I've never thought about it that way before. It makes me kind of excited to experiment with how I make my coffee in the morning.
Such a great video, and ended up doing a cupping at home because it seemed simple. It was a lot of fun, a little more work than I expected but worth it! My wife has always thought she loved dark roasts, but we learned that the region more than the roast color had a bigger impact for her and her favorite of the bunch was actually a light roast that she said she enjoyed so much she would drink without any dairy.
Brett Fuller
What was the coffee she enjoyed most?
Hey Mr. In my country this is one way of enjoying coffee too. It's name is tubruk method. But, we usually break the foam 4 times. 1/4 part of the mug, 1 minute wait each. And the last part we not scrap off the foam, we gently stroke the foam until it's gone. If you break the foam like we do you'll get thicker foam and more delicious coffee. Good luck Mr!
My wife and i (in our 60's) are pretty new to the world of coffee (other than instant). My wife refers to James as the David Attenborough of the coffee world and we love him. So easy to learn from and just so genuine.
James has such great integrity here, avoiding advertising his own brand.
I must say as a consumer that Square Mile has the most ingenious and effective coffee packaging that I have ever encountered.
Found this channel after watching Cooking with Alex. So glad I did! I love how unpretentious you are with the process and encouraging people to try it out. So good!
I've been a participant in a few coffee cuppings, but I've never orchestrated one myself until today!
Thank you, James! My parents and I compared two barrel-aged coffees from the same roaster. One was aged in Scotch whiskey barrels, and one was aged in Texas bourbon. The cupping took a bit of work to set up, but it ended up being so much fun. And the process of tasting and talking about the coffees was wonderful. We enjoyed both coffees, but we all gave a slight edge to the bolder flavor of the Texas bourbon coffee.
After knowing nothing about coffee 3 months ago and now having read your book and seen all your fabulous videos, I had a period of making GREAT coffee. But now I suddenly constantly second quess myself and have a hard time tuning in on new coffees. I hope it's just a phase... Thanks for all your inspiration and thoroughness!
As a high school English teacher, I am so impressed by James' teaching ability. I've learned so much from him.
Just to clarify, depending of the altitude is going to vary from boiling point. At sea level it's 100C, here in Quito it's 92C.
This is very important when cupping, it's a great advice from James that it's necessary to wait the 10 minutes gap. Also, at our altitude (2800masl) it's interesting to play a little with the pressure of the espresso machines! Great video!
For just under 11years, I served in the USMC. Now that I am out, I realize that I was drinking some of the worst coffee I could have ever had, lol. I found you channel and have invested time and a little cash into coffee. It has changed my outlook completely! Side note.... my wife is now enjoying it even more than I am. Thank you Mr. Hoffman. I look forward to learning from you weekly.
Been wondering for years why the cupping brew method is so different from the more popular general methods. I’ve finally got a decent explanation, thanks!
After watching a few times, I suddenly picked up on the clever spoon spreading, including the sound. Details. Love it!
Having discovered James' channel some weeks ago and gone down the Aeropress brewing route, I have been experimenting with various supermarket beans in terms of grind, water temperature etc. I decided to try a cupping and also purchased a single source coffee from Redber. I deliberately chose the Ethiopia Sidamo bean to see if I could tell the difference of a more acidic, lighter roast over the darker supermarket coffees.
The cupping preparation was good fun and performed according to James' instructions with due care taken over weights and recipe levels at 60 g/L. After brewing and preparation for the requisite time it was obvious how different the Ethiopian coffee was going to be just from the colour, being much lighter than the other supermarket coffees.
My favoured brew is Americano and I have been drinking at numerous cafes for years but also using a moka pot at home with ground, supermarket coffee. As such, I think I know what I like but don't really think I have what you might call a discerning palette.
After waiting for the cups to cool down I started the tasting which was also good fun and very interesting. I have to say all the supermarket coffees tasted pretty much the same, which is to say quite dark with a strong, lingering after taste. The Ethiopia Sidamo though was much lighter, fragrant and fruity and so very different from all the other coffees.
Before the tasting I would have said that maybe the Lavazza Rosso or the Guatamalan Espresso might have been my favourites, either of which have been my daily brew of late since getting the Aeropress. I did quite like the Ethiopia Sidamo though as it was very pleasant so will experiment with that over the next few days in the Aeropress to see if I truly prefer that sort of light, fruity coffee over the darker brews that I have been drinking for several years.
Sainsbury's Guatamalan Espresso #4
Aldi Alcafe House Blend #3
Lavazza Rosso
Tesco's Finest Costa Rican #3
Redber Ethiopia Sidamo GR2
Always super helpful James, thank you!
Howtocoffee?
Real recognize real
Damn. I would never expect an alcohol nerd channel in the coffee nerd section of youtube!
You make this so welcoming , friendly, user-friendly, and accessible to people who might have been scared away from the industry cuppings. This is how coffee should be... open and welcoming. Thanks for being a great leader in the industry for everyone. Cheers!
I had no idea this was even a thing until a few weeks ago when a friend of mine mentioned it. I’ve since done several of these, I home roast so it’s fun to do little experiments and see how changes in the roast session change the coffee flavors. Also how different beans compare of course. Thank you for this! It’s a total blast.
Doing a cupping in the morning. Three Geshas from three countries. I’m strangely nervous; I’m a coffee dork and have been for, 25 years maybe? And it’s just my best friend coming over. But I’ve never “held a cupping!” This video has helped, like all of them do.
Thank you, Hoff.
So happy that James simplified the entire cupping process, so that mere mortals can learn to enjoy coffee even more 🥺
You made this sound so complicated at the beginning but it paid off because your demonstration then seemed easier and achievable, it was a good presentation and very well arranged. Top way to explain!
Hello! I'm from Ukraine. It’s a shame to admit, but at 50, I don’t know much English. But everything is clear to me from what the author says. Very interesting, thanks! I am now your fan! )))
Don't know if you'll see this but I found your channel recently through Reddit. I recently got into coffee late last year and I have learned a lot from just watching your content and reading your book. Just wanted to say thank you
Once, I was too lazy to bust out the coffee maker that I just dumped a bunch of grinds in my mug, poured hot water over it and drank it that way. Years later, I find out that the fancy people called that 'cupping'.
On a different day way back when, I was again too lazy to use the coffee maker but this time, I didn't want to chew grinds while I drank coffee so I placed a paper filter with coffee grinds above a similarly sized strainer and casually poured my hot water through there. Surprisingly enough, I also find out years later that the fancy people called that 'pour over'.
Long story short: My teen years were pretty weird.
The first one is the also known as the classic dorm room Turkish/ Greek coffee.
The first one is we called in our country as "tubruk" style.. Very origin style to enjoying a cup of coffee..
the first way was actually how I started drinking coffee. I liked that it was weaker and I could choose the volume. And it seemed more natural than instant coffee.
This is also how many people drink coffee here, especially on construction sites or generally at work. We also call it Turkish coffee.
Same here :) I actually like it better
I once put grinds in tea filter bags and let it sit for a while before taking it out. Yet to find out what it's called.
"Just gently..."
(Slurp heard across the English channel)
Fourth wave - it’s when you’re teaching the whole Planet 🤗
We were thinking of doing some cupping today coz we have 3-4 different coffee beans. Then I remembered just about a year ago, my brother and I learned so much from your videos when we were just starting out with home brewing. Thanks for sharing your valuable coffee knowledge, James 😊
I liked this video for your very effective ad placement. This is the first time I have enjoyed the storyline of the way a youtuber promotes a website.
Love it. I had no idea they simply brewed each dose in it's own vessel! I will for sure be trying this with some local roasters soon. Thanks James!
James, I'm really greatful for all the knowledge you share with people. It's pleasure to listen to what you speak but more important, how you speak about coffee. Couldn't be more simple and easy to understand what's your message on a specific subject. Its pleasure to experience how you combine mastery of vocabulary and tone of your voice. You are a truly great man! Thank You!
8:35 temperature in the up right corner was a subtle but a touch.💯. Appreciate the extra effort.
I find it nice that you give your viewers a couple options here. Like you don't need super fancy stuff, though it helps but then again coffee equipment could be expensive.
I still find myself having a hard time with sensory, when I do cupping (which I have not had an opportunity to do a lot) it is not something you could really teach because you have to train your palette yourself. People I cup with already have notes in mind however I just taste acidity and bitterness or sweetness, I really couldn't pinpoint yet what it exactly is. Excited for the next part. Anyway... Thanks for this James! 😊
It is hard as hell. It is really harder than say mastering Basic Latte Art Pattern which can take months for a total noob like me. IMO, the key is simple: taste 21 to 35 of different coffee a week! But simple doesn't mean easy or feasible or even applicable to your daily life. BTW, a cupping instructor told me that if I want to get really really serious about cupping and sensory skill, then I should purchase Le Nez du Cafe set and organic acid kit set in order to seriously train my tongue and my nose
i´m really happy, now i can improve my sensibility in a way more fun tecnique, thank you James!!! you are helping a simple brazilian coffee enthusiast!!!
For general people in Indonesia, that is how we make our coffee. Just put coffee ground into mug, pour water, and... done. Enjoy coffee with lot sedimen in the bottom of mug.
Kopi tubruk , the names come from when the water is poured the coffee and the sugar looks like collide each other, even today people brew it without sugar they still naming this technique 'tubruk'
He already mentioned it's like a French press but it's more similar to cowboy coffee
@@SiopaoSauc3 yep , this simple method has lot of name in lot of culture
U mean tubruk?
Unfortunately, usually done with powder-find grinds from gnarly blends and a pound of sugar. If people like it like that, good for them! I'm happy, though, that third wave coffee is getting huge in Indonesia and more subtle coffee techniques are taking off, and not just for fancy folks.
4 years later just getting into coffee, it’s 2023, and if you ever see this I’m extremely grateful for this content!
This was great! I train young people in hospitality and this was an interesting exercise which was fun and generated a lot of conversation amongst the group (not always easy to do), I particularly like and relate to your emphasis on curiosity, not uptight analysis. Bravo.
I hope you don't get bored with making vids. Have been learning so much.
i love how accessible you’ve made this seemingly inaccessible activity! I’ve been doing pour-over this year, and now i’m excited to try our more coffees this way
Tried cupping for the first time with 5 different coffees today. Enlightening. Though I would be a chocolate and caramel guy but a floral Bolivian honey geisha won the day. Thank you James for your enthusiastic guidance.
Thank you James for sharing. I would love more and more people do cupping at home. That's exactly how I started. It was fun, it was interesting and... This year I was competing in World Cuptasters Championship :D There is nothing magical about cupping. Most important you have to be curious and enjoy it. Calibration of sensors takes time, but it will come.
James, you show immense passion for coffee in each of your videos, but this might be the most heartfelt, most sincere, most impassioned I’ve seen you. I absolutely love this video because you so clearly love the event of cupping and truly want others to share in this joy (which I’m sure is why you held the worlds largest simultaneous cupping!). Wonderful video and thank you!
Hey, thanks for the video, tried this today with three Monmouth coffees, it worked really well , and the final brew of each coffee was actually really balanced without the v60 etc getting in the way, I will definitely be doing this for any new coffee I get to see the base line flavours. Great video.
Wow!
I went to the World of Coffee for the first time a couple of weeks ago and had been watching your videos just because I enjoyed the style and without knowing anything about you. There I picked up your Book, the world atlas of coffee, but didn't make the connection that you wrote that and just now I was like "wait, Hoffmann? I know that name... Oh! he's the guy I'm reading!" Thank you so much for all the Information you put out there and your book is an artwork of itself!
Cheers!
Can't believe I've never heard of this! Sounds like a great weekend activity to introduce my friends to some finer coffee varieties!
Love the way you make learning about coffee simple, I find most specialty coffee shops don't have the time to take on new people in the scene and always go towards people with more experience which takes away the mentorship learning system.
Amazing video. Thanks a lot James for this kind of videos, you brought me back to when I was studying agronomy in Colombia. We did this several times at the factory where coffee is sorted "green".
I'm a beginner with a deep love for espresso. I've tried cupping twice since watching your video. It was fun and quite easy. I had to slurp few spoons to get a better taste - one spoon wasn't enough for me. Although it was hard to find words to describe what I sense, it was easy to distinguish different coffee beans. It was also very interesting how the taste changes with cooling of coffee. Thanks for inspiring me to try cupping!
James, ive only just got into coffee seriously and ive got a bit of gear (french press, Aeropress) and just started buying artisan fresh roasted beans. Just want to say that I love your non pretentious and approachable videos and ive learnt quite a bit from the info you give. Thankyou and happy new year.
Mark
I come back to this video every now and again and the sheer simplicity in how you explain everything, just assuming people know something but not everything is absolutely amazing. You're a great teacher James, keep up the good work.
I've quietly enjoyed your videos for a while now. This one was great - I'd seen cupping but not looked in to it. As a newer person to coffee, I really appreciate the practical and simple accessibility that you've brought - please keep it up
From where I live, it's called Kopi Tubruk. Usually we add sugar or condensed milk. Probably the cheapest and most popular way of enjoying a cup of coffee.
I have been watching your videos for a while now and I've always loved them, but felt like they were just a little over my non-barista head. I feel like you made this video specifically for me as this is exactly what I've been wanting to learn. I've been really getting into the art of coffee in the past year, but have been struggling to truly discern different flavours. Thank you for this! I've got a couple bags around the house, I'm going to try this right now.
Even after two years of this being posted, it is still enjoyable to get pointers on how to sample and taste coffees that I might enjoy! Many thanks man
Every video I get more and more amazed about you James.. Your knowledge about coffee seem endless and combined with your skills at editing and teaching it makes your videos perfect. Thank you James!
Just last week, i got 10 coffee bean samples from my sister for my birthday... grat timing, thanks! :)
Thank you tremendously for this video. I love the subtle humor. I'm aiming to build a career in marketing writing for cafes, and this is a great help
your last name is egg I feel like getting into coffee is a wasted opportunity
Thank you for simplifying the process, I have cupped with a roaster and at home, most of us love coffee but are not professionals in the coffee industry so this was a great way to really learn to enjoy this process and learn at the same time. Thanks for keeping it real.
James, you create content that is highly informative and you explain concepts in an easy to grasp manner. At the same time it's really fun to watch. It's a treat whenever a new video comes up!
This is an awesome, simple, practical, no fuss video for everyone who wants to start tasting and exploring the wonders of coffee. Thank you James, I am waiting for your Masterclass. 😉
James, thank you for simplifying the process and emphasizing the fun.
Amazing guide! I set up coffee cupping session in our office based on this and everyone loved it!
I love that he's doing it in three wildly different containers, even though he has a perfectly good cupping set over there. "You don't need equal sized containers, and to show you, I'm gonna do it in three of the most different containers I have."
Amazing video. My interest in coffee has been growing for quite a while now and this is the PERFECT guide to start developing my taste. Will give it a go.
I genuinely love your excitement and passion for coffee
That slurp beat at the end was perfect!
So we're not gonna mention that editing when he conjured the cupping spoons?
Dan Dan was also going to point this out. A true wizard!
yes, it was brilliant, I loved it!
You know he spent some time putting that together! Skillshare seems to be working! ;)
He's a spoon sorcerer
spoonomancy.
Thank you so much for this! I want to learn more about coffee, but never knew how to really learn. So rather than actually knowing, I'm thinking "hmm, this one has a deeper taste" without having the slightest clue what that would even mean. I also never knew what I actually like, which results in me buying by price. Thank you for helping both me and my wallet!
Wonderful edit at the end, thanks for giving everyone a bit more caffeine confidence and I really look forward to the pallet video - something I very much struggle to wrap my head around.
Excellent- easy - fun - instructions - just started up our own roaster .... love to have our friends cup with us .... often times coffee videos want you to become a NASA Scientist.... first , then a coffee specialist second !?!
We just love coffee ... and want to share it !! Thank you for all your videos- you keep the fun in coffee !!!!
I really loved the musical slurping. Made me smile.
brilliant thanks! I've done plenty of comparative tastings for wine and various alcohols, and was wondering how to do it with coffee. I'll definitely be trying to source/scrounge a few different coffees and set up a little tasting using this format! ... Now to watch the follow up vid as well! Perfect, easy, approachable learning, thank you!
I have just started my own roasting at home, so I greatly GREATLY appreciate the video, my friend. Cheers!
This is the first time I didn't skip the Skillshare endorsement, just because I wanted to stare at the temperature counter on the top right corner! 😂😂😂
Minimal jargon and ego when teaching
Smooth sponsor transition / video editing
Awesome content regarding coffee. Thanks as always!
Love the exaggerated flourish at 2:47; James you absolute wizard.
I came back to watch this again and now to give it a go so that I'm up to speed ready for the worlds largest coffee tasting. Cant wait!
I really appreciated the spoon transition, hats off to you sir.
Video was, of course, excellent. Your presentation of ads is so wonderfully produced that I can't bear to skip them. Your sponsors should be paying you triple their usual rate!
Really well put, you’ve cut straight to the core of cupping coffee and the logic of the process.
Cupping is a very educational experience that helps to differentiate between good quality and bad quality coffee but also coffee and also coffee that has been processed in different ways. This also helps to find different likes or dislikes for certain types of coffee. After cupping the first time I found I really like honey processed coffee.
Very excited about this video. I just bought my first set of cupping bowls and spoons so this is perfect timing!
I love your youtube channel man;
The quality of information and the simplicity of how you try to educate your audience are superb.
Now I'm doing a "back-read" of your videos
Thank you and keep it up.
Never knew why baristas preferred cupping over a normal brewing method, but now I know. Thanks James!
Thank you James. As always, a thorough but simple explanation to dive in slowly (the first tip toe!) in a technical subject. I appreciate a lot the way (sometimes the sarcastic 😁) you engage with to give us quality teachings. Continue doing so please !👏
James, I have a new bag arriving this week, and a couple older ones. This should be the best way to really figure out how coffees age, and how fresh grinds can taste different from 4 month old stored ground.
Your videos helped me out with picking the right hand grinder (Hario Skerton ftw!), and this series should really help in understanding the tasting notes which I've completely not understood at all.
Had a coffee the other day that was supposed to have notes of vanilla cookies and chocolate, and all I tasted was...a hint of citrus :|
My husband and I did this today with the same coffee processed three different ways: washed, natural, and honey. Really fun and interesting! We definitely noticed the brighter, fruitier notes of the natural processed coffee and the rich, malty, nutty taste of the honey processed coffee. Big ups to our local roaster, Maple Leaf Coffee Roasters (Illinois), for running this series of coffees from the same producer.