The new Coffee Flavor Wheel offers essential training on how to understand the flavors and aromas of coffee. Photos courtesy SCAA.org.

We do this with a flavor wheel: a chart that identifies the different flavors and aromas of the particular food. Then, as we taste the food, we learn to identify its specific flavors and aromas by referencing the wheel.

Take a look at THE NIBBLE’s Chocolate Flavor Chart and Olive Oil Flavor Chart, plus the seminal Wine Flavor Wheel developed at UC Davis, which not only identified all the flavors but grouped them for the first time.

Twenty-one years ago, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) created the Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel to help professionals identify the sensory attributes of any particular [brewed] coffee bean. It became one of the most valued resources in the industry.

Earlier this year, the SCAA released an updated version, which is a valuable tool for any coffee lover who wants to better understand it. The Coffee Wheel is instrumental to understanding flavor attributes—what we call flavor notes.

Using the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon as a foundation, dozens of industry professional—sensory experts, research scientists, coffee tasters, buyers and roasters—collaborated for more than three years to update the Lexicon and the Wheel.

The SCAA notes that this is the largest and most collaborative piece of research on coffee flavor ever completed, and provides a new set of vocabulary for industry professionals.

“This groundbreaking new tool will shift the way our industry thinks about and utilizes coffee flavor,” said the news release.

Here are more details about the research and development that went into creating the wheel.

An 18″ x 25″ poster of the wheel is $20 at Store.SCAA.org.

We have a much more simplistic list of coffee aromas and flavors on TheNibble.com.
 
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