Try coffee cupping to evaluate beans
Region, climate, soil and growing practices affect flavors – just like grapes
Coffee is so much more than just a cup of joe to give you a caffeine boost.
An industry of small batch roasters has popped up thanks to the Starbucks craze, sourcing and roasting beans with care and attention to every detail.
These artisan coffee roasters are treating coffee like a work of art in the same way winemakers approach their craft.
Just like wine, coffee has a variety of flavor notes. And just like grapes, each bean varies from another based on factors such as the region, climate, soil and growing practices.
If you go
French Truck Coffee: 1350 Concourse Ave. in Crosstown Concourse Hours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-friday; 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday Phone: 901-878-3383 Online: frenchtruckcoffee.com Coffee cuppings: French Truck Coffee occasionally hosts free coffee cuppings for the public. The next one will be at 10 a.m. Feb. 9. Call or stop by the coffee bar to reserve your spot. “Many people think that dark roast coffee is the most flavorful, but lighter roasts often have more complexity.”
Similar to how a sommelier tastes and judges wine, coffee cupping is the professional practice for tasting and observing the aromas and flavors of brewed coffee. A barista can judge a coffee by defined parameters like aroma, acidity and aftertaste.
This is also how coffee is tasted by producers and buyers around the world to check the quality of a batch of coffee.
“At least once a year, we go to the origin to meet with farmers to get the best coffee we can,” said Geoffrey Meeker, founder and owner of French Truck Coffee.
Meeker’s New Orleans-based company now has a Memphis roastery and coffee bar in Crosstown Concourse. French Truck Coffee specializes in providing artisan coffee that is roasted in small batches.
“We buy the best beans we can find, roast them in small batches and get them to you promptly,” Meeker said. “Your coffee’s roast date is right on the bag so you know exactly how fresh your coffee is.”
Coffee cupping is one of the techniques his team uses to determine which coffee beans to purchase, often sampling 70 at a time. Similar to being a master sommelier, it is an art form that is learned as the taster’s palate is trained over time.
The cupping process
Whether at a coffee plantation in Ethiopia or at your neighborhood coffee shop, coffee cupping is a several-step process to analyze and evaluate the coffee beans. It is also done as a blind tasting so you don’t know exactly what you are tasting.
Ideally, the coffee beans have been freshly roasted, most often within 24 hours. Depending on the purpose of the cupping, the beans will be either single origin or blends. When sampling at coffee plantations, the beans are evaluated individually. Coffee cupping of blends occurs when roasters are perfecting blends in house or when sampling for the public.
During a recent coffee cupping Meeker invited me to, we had four stations with different beans.
The first step is to evaluate the dry aroma of the beans.
Beans are pre-measured, down to the gram, Meeker said, and placed in a cup. To start the process, the beans were ground as we waited. It’s important for the beans to be freshly ground to experience the full dry aroma.
We each took a moment to smell the grounds, writing down notes about the aromas. One smelled of apricots, another had a chocolate aroma, one was fruity with notes of fresh berries, and another one smelled bitter to me.
It should be pointed out that the colors of each of the ground coffees varied widely. Meeker said this was due to the roasting process.
“Many people think that dark roast coffee is the most flavorful, but lighter roasts often have more complexity,” Meeker said.
The second step is to evaluate the wet aroma of the coffee beans.
Water, just warm enough to brew the coffee, is poured over the grounds.
“See how the water is foaming?” Meeker pointed out. “That means the beans are freshly roasted. When fresh, the carbon dioxide hasn’t exited the bean so it foams when water is added.”
Using the back of a spoon almost like a bulldozer, you push away the foam in the center of the cup and then smell the coffee’s aroma. “It’s called the break,” Meeker said.
Again, we took notes on the aromas coming from the coffee.
The final step is to actually taste the coffee, or in this case slurp the coffee.
Using spoons, the foam is scooped off the top of the coffee. The coffee will need to cool for a few minutes before tasting to avoid burning your tongue and to allow the flavors to emerge.
Taking a spoonful of the now lukewarm coffee to his mouth, Meeker demonstrated how you “slurp” the coffee across the top of your palate to actually taste the coffee fully.
“This is full immersion brewing, like French press coffee,” Meeker said. “This type of brewing extracts everything in the coffee.”
Because we were just tasting four coffees, we swallowed the beverage. If tasting 50 to 100 cups in a day, spitting out becomes a must.
The coffee notes
Meeker said every coffee, whether single origin or a blend, has distinct tasting notes.
Because tasting notes can vary from season to season, French Truck re-evaluates the notes each year for all of its coffees, even when sourcing from a long-term farmer.
We tasted two single-origin coffees and two blends.
The Ethiopia Kossa Geshe (Kossa Geshe is the name of the farm) offered hints of strawberries and cream and sweet orange juice.
The Peru Cajamarca is described on the label as “sweet and juicy with notes of caramel, apple and red grape.”
Le Grand Coq Rouge is French Truck’s most popular breakfast blend. It’s bold, rich and creamy with hints of chocolate and nuts.
The Premium Memphis Dark Roast was dark, smoky and earthy.
French Truck Coffee
Meeker started his business out of his laundry room, roasting beans to order and delivering them door to door in a Citroen 2CV truckette. “It was like I was a milk man,” he said. When he started, he could roast about 9 pounds at a time. Today, French Truck Coffee roasts tons in a day.
At the Crosstown Concourse location, they have a state-of-the-art roaster that uses a computer to monitor the temperature and roasting time to ensure each batch is roasted to its exact specifications every time. The machine can roast up to 1 ton of beans per day.
I was surprised to learn the roasting process lasts only about 10 minutes. I expected it to be more time-consuming.
While the beans are sourced from across the world, coming from farms in Kenya, Ethiopia, Colombia and El Salvador to name a few spots, all French Truck Coffee sold in Memphis is roasted at Crosstown Concourse.
“Coffee is a baked product,” Meeker said. “Think of it like a baguette that has a shelf life. Ideally, coffee should be consumed within 10 days of coming out of the roaster. That’s why we include dates on each bag.”
Each bag of French Truck Coffee is 12 ounces, making about 20 cups of coffee.
“People sometimes complain about the cost of our coffee compared to mass market coffees,” he said. “But the cost is really about 90 cents per cup, that’s a lot cheaper than Starbucks.”
In addition to its Midtown coffee bar, French Truck Coffee is available at many local restaurants and in grocery stores such as Whole Foods, Kroger, Fresh Market, Sprouts and Superlo.
Jimmy Lewis, who owned the nowclosed Relevant Roasters, brought French Truck Coffee to Memphis.
“Jimmy brought me to Memphis when Crosstown was in hard hat stage,” Meeker said. “I was instantly sold on the project and wanted to be part of something so special for a city.”
Originally the two were partners, but eventually Lewis sold his share to Meeker.
The Crosstown Concourse location is the company’s first outside Louisiana — there are five locations in New Orleans and one in Baton Rouge. At the coffee bar in Crosstown, they offer a wide selection of their coffees and brewing options.
“You can get what we call ‘just a cup,’ ” Meeker said, “or really geek out on your order.”
Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining Reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler@commercialappeal.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.