New SCAA-WCR Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel

Discuss flavors, brew temperatures, blending, and cupping notes.
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Marshall
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#1: Post by Marshall »

SCAA's Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel was created over 20 years ago and has become a familiar sight in cupping rooms around the world. It has been reproduced in several forms, including the coaster that sits on my desk. It has also been copied and modified to suit the purposes of other organizations.

SCAA determined several years ago that some of the descriptors on the wheel caused confusion and that advances in sensory science could add useful input. Over the past two years teams of researchers, sensory panelists and coffee industry experts have been working on an updated flavor vocabulary (the "Sensory Lexicon") and a new wheel to represent it. This project of World Coffee Research involved two universities: Kansas State and Texas A&M. SCAA collaborated with World Coffee Research and U.C. Davis on the wheel's design and final content.

The wheel was unveiled at this past weekend's Sensory Summit in Davis and made public this morning. A poster will be published in February. Other publications that will support the use of the wheel will follow.

Link here: http://www.scaa.org/chronicle/2016/01/1 ... ttributes/
Marshall
Los Angeles

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JK
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#2: Post by JK »

http://www.scaa.org/chronicle/2016/01/1 ... ttributes/
Lily Kubota, Content and Communications Manager, SCAA wrote:One of the most iconic resources in the coffee industry, the Specialty Coffee Association of America's Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel has been updated for the first time in its 21-year history. The foundation of this work, the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon, is the product of dozens of professional sensory panelists, scientists, coffee buyers, and roasting companies collaborating via World Coffee Research (WCR) and the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA). This is the largest and most collaborative piece of research on coffee flavor ever completed, inspiring a new set of vocabulary for industry professionals. This groundbreaking new tool will shift the way our industry thinks about and utilizes coffee flavor.

(cont'd)
http://www.scaa.org/chronicle/wp-conten ... .18.15.jpg
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I'm on a Mission from God!

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yakster
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#3: Post by yakster »

The World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon gives a lot of background information including definitions and reference standards for the sensory attributes listed in the Flavor Wheel: http://worldcoffeeresearch.org/images/p ... 1_2016.pdf
-Chris

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HBchris
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#4: Post by HBchris »

How does stack up to the counter culture one:
https://counterculturecoffee.com/learn/ ... avor-wheel

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Marshall (original poster)
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#5: Post by Marshall (original poster) »

yakster wrote:The World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon gives a lot of background information including definitions and reference standards for the sensory attributes listed in the Flavor Wheel: http://worldcoffeeresearch.org/images/p ... 1_2016.pdf
Yes. One of the keys to the new wheel and lexicon is a set of standard references that can be bought (or shipped) almost anywhere in the world. Don't know what "blueberry" tastes like? Here's your reference standard:
Blueberry
The slightly dark, fruity, sweet, slightly sour, musty, dusty, floral aromatic associated with blueberry.
REFERENCE: Oregon Fruit Products Blueberries in Light Syrup (canned)
PREPARATION
Aroma: Put 1 teaspoon of syrup from canned blueberries in a medium snifter. Cover. (Intensity 6.5)
Flavor: Serve blueberries in a 1-ounce cup. Cover with a plastic lid (Intensity 6.0)
Marshall
Los Angeles

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Marshall (original poster)
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#6: Post by Marshall (original poster) »

HBchris wrote:How does stack up to the counter culture one:
https://counterculturecoffee.com/learn/ ... avor-wheel
They're not in competition. FYI, the owner of Counter Culture, Brett Smith, is the Chairman of the Board of World Coffee Research and helped spearhead the project.
Marshall
Los Angeles

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another_jim
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#7: Post by another_jim »

It's a big step backwards: the old wheel was reality; this one is appearances only.

This wheel is a lovely little flavor thesaurus. The old wheel divided tastes, flaws and aromatics. The aromatics were arranged by the molecular weight of the compounds creating them. These were somewhat off and merited more research; but scrapping the scheme entirely leads to huge loss:

The old wheel gives the flavors in the order they appear during roasting and extraction. The new wheel gives us .... pretty adjectives.
Jim Schulman

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Marshall (original poster)
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#8: Post by Marshall (original poster) »

another_jim wrote:The old wheel gives the flavors in the order they appear during roasting and extraction.
Although this description is widely repeated, it wasn't quite true.
Marshall
Los Angeles

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JavaMD
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#9: Post by JavaMD »

Here is a link to an article on some changes to the coffee flavor tasting wheel originally proposed through the work started by Ted Lingle.

http://www.scaa.org/chronicle/2016/01/1 ... ttributes/

there is a download to the newly published world coffee research flavor lexicon which is a free pdf file.

Thought it was worth a share for those who didn't get the announcement from the SCAA.

Steve Egge

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Marshall (original poster)
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#10: Post by Marshall (original poster) »

Nick Cho has an interesting post on it today. Summary: it's an improvement on the old wheel, but (like the old wheel) many of its benefits will lost on users who don't read the instructions (i.e. the Sensory Lexicon). http://bit.ly/1njuX2y
Marshall
Los Angeles

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