How To Cup (Taste) Coffee At Home 

The sincere accessibility and transparency that you use when discussing coffee is genuinely heart warming

James. Explain your spoon sorcery.

2:45 that was some top tier editing

That ending, exactly what I didn't know I needed. Apologize for nothing James

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.

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 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 💕 ☕

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 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.

13:50 was the most majestic 5 seconds of this channel's history. Beautiful.

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!

That spoon edit was so god damn smooth, you're getting too good at this

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.

So we're not gonna mention that editing when he conjured the cupping spoons?

"Just gently..." (Slurp heard across the English channel)

Always super helpful James, thank you!

Fourth wave - it’s when you’re teaching the whole Planet 🤗

I love how james simplify the process even though it's already simple Please we need many of you in my college

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! 😂😂😂

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

12:17 "Astonishing array of bizarre noises" - James Hoffmann

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!

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!

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.

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

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!

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!

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.

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.

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."

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 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.

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

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!

So happy that James simplified the entire cupping process, so that mere mortals can learn to enjoy coffee even more 🥺

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.

This is a fantastic video James. I've been overwhelmed with the idea of developing my taste and how to go about it, and this is a great reminder to keep things simple. To make the notion of cupping seem achievable and approachable is so great. Keep up the excellent videos as always!

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!!!

Can't believe I've never heard of this! Sounds like a great weekend activity to introduce my friends to some finer coffee varieties!

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!

I genuinely love your excitement and passion for coffee

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!

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!

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.

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

James, thank you for simplifying the process and emphasizing the fun.

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. 😉

Very excited about this video. I just bought my first set of cupping bowls and spoons so this is perfect timing!

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.

After watching a few times, I suddenly picked up on the clever spoon spreading, including the sound. Details. Love it!

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

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.

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".

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'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!

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.

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.

Really well put, you’ve cut straight to the core of cupping coffee and the logic of the process.

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!

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 so much for this video James, it's my first time trying and it was amazing to realize the difference between 3 different coffees and start in this amazing world of coffe tasting and to realize what I really love of coffe. Greetings from Mexico 👏👏

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

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 !👏

I truly appreciate these videos James , thank you so much for your time on them. I'll try to contribute when I can on your patreon to keep this excellent content going :)

Minimal jargon and ego when teaching Smooth sponsor transition / video editing Awesome content regarding coffee. Thanks as always!

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

I really appreciated the spoon transition, hats off to you sir.

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!

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.

Another great video! Probably my favourite after the v60 technique one. We have a done a few now and really enjoy it. It's astonishing and fascinating how much the taste changes as it cools.

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.

Love the shout out to Umeko on the spoons! Also great recommendation on grinding finer. Switched over to that a few years back and have really enjoyed how it resembles a filter coffee quite nicely.

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!

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.

Absolutely love thissssss... Finally some proper education on tasting .. a fantastic gateway to enjoy coffee more .. thank you .. can't wait for part 2

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!

I really loved the musical slurping. Made me smile.

Thanks James! Really enjoyed this. You take the complexity out of cupping and make it enjoyable. Thumbs up!

Hi James! Thanks for the great tutorial on how to do a cupping. I just did my first one, with 4 samples of light roast coffee I got from Angel's Cup. It was really fun! Having the ability to taste side by side definitely made the differences between the coffees more obvious. The biggest surprise was a surprisingly good Robusta from Thailand, that was well balanced and had interesting notes of licorice and root beer. I also felt slightly validated when I was able to identify a natural process Ethiopian, the blueberry was unmistakable! Overall a great experience and can't wait to try it again soon!

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.

"This is mostly to cover our insecurities and make us look like we know what we're doing" 🤣🤣...Jim's sense of humor is so unpredictable and savage

That slurp beat at the end was perfect!

Hi James, I recently landed on your channel and how glad am I that I did. I appreciate your intellectual honesty about these processes and love your creative style. Keep it up and all the best!

Excellent job Mr. Hoffmann, it's always a pleasure to learn something new!

I have just started my own roasting at home, so I greatly GREATLY appreciate the video, my friend. Cheers!

The spoon reveal was awesome! I'm going to try some cupping this weekend.

I hope you don't get bored with making vids. Have been learning so much.

James, thank you for sharing your vast coffee knowledge. I sincerely enjoy and appreciate your videos!

Great video! As a coffee enthusiast wanting to get into the industry, this video is perfect! 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

Every video from James Hoffman is a crisp and lovely presentation, thank you!

This is probably the best (and useful) clip you posted, James! Thanks!

This one was really fascinating. Good job, James.

James, I love your encouraging manner. Thank you.