Hello to all HB Roasters.

i have searched through all the forum posts and have not found an answer to my question regarding the above mentioned subject, so i am posting this post.
i was wondering - if i am roasting only for Espresso, what should be my cupping procedure?
here are my questions -
1) do you wait 7-10 days before you taste it? (like you do before drinking espresso).

2) do you "cup" by way of espresso extraction, or do the usual cupping - grinding and putting hot water on it?

3) if you do the regular cupping - how it translate to espresso shots? i mean - if i am shooting for a certain taste profile (sweet chocolate - nutty with full body) - and try different profiles - will the taste difference between the profiles will be the same with regular cupping vs. espresso shots?

4) if i need to do my cupping with espresso shots - how can you compare between different profiles? do you extract on profile and then immediately extract another profile and only then compare between them?

thanks in advance for your help.

If I am roasting specifically for espresso, I will just wait and taste the shots once the coffee has rested for a few days. If I am not sure whether a coffee will be usable as espresso or not, often a standard cupping will provide some good clues, and with minimal waste of coffee or time. Espresso is generally best when made from a coffee that displays a rich dry fragrance, a fairly even balance between acidity and roast notes, and a good amount of sweetness on the cupping table.

Cupping in my opinion is really to evaluate the coffee as a whole. It's also for convenience and to save time. After all, if you have already bought the coffee and aren't deciding if you should buy a large stock of it, you can just roast it, (wait any number of days), brew it to any method and then evaluate. Cupping is more because this isn't really practical, and because you can get an idea of how things would go by doing a quick taste of the lightest "normal" roast.

Personally I pull shots on all coffees because of my Strega, but sometimes after a roast I will make it as a Aeropress in order to get an idea of how my roast went. It also gives me an idea how it might taste for espresso, or at least some of the flavors I could expect.

When I cup a coffee, even if it is intended for espresso, I will usually include a standard steep cupping so I can get some of the more subtleties of the coffee as well as the espresso character. I would certainly wait for it to degas a bit before use though.

Thank you all for your answers, but maybe i need to be more specific.

When I wrote - what is your cupping procedure for espresso - I actually meant - what should be my tasting procedure of the roasted coffee, in order to develop superior espresso roasting profiles.

For instance, let's say that I am roasting a certain bean and I am playing with different roasting profiles. If I will taste each profile by itself - they can all taste great, but I will have hard time to decide which profile is the preferred profile. You can't compare profiles one against the other this way.

Also - the way you extract your coffee on the espresso machine can affect the result.

So what I am actually asking is how do you develop espresso profile when it comes to tasting?

If I will grind the different roasted coffee and pull hot water on it, and I will find that one cup is better than the other cup in terms of body and sweetness, then may I assume that the same differences will be translate to espresso?

Also - if I am choosing the simple method mentioned above - can I cup the day after I roast?

What is the recommended grind level for this kind of cupping - in terms of fine to coarse grind?

thanks in advance for your help.

This is what I was trying to get at before; once you know you are trying to roast a bean specifically for use as espresso, then you should test your results by pulling shots, not by cupping. You can get a rough idea of whether a coffee might be usable as an SO espresso from a cupping, but cupping just doesn't tell you much about the success of a particular roast profile, in my experience.

-- The more quickly after cupping you roast, the quicker the turnaround time to adjust roasts. Tradition is twenty four hours. If you are in a hurry, and do it the same day as roasting, grind the coffee and let it sit four hours. Instead of aging for espresso shots, you can also grind a half hour to an hour ahead and get a similar result.

-- The best guide to espresso in brewed coffee is the taste after the cup has cooled to near room temperature. If the cup is more sweet than acidic, and has some caramel and body; it will have a large sweet spot for espresso. If it is light bodied and has no caramels, but is still more sweet than acidic, it will have a narrow sweet spot. If it is distinctly tart; you are in for a very hard time trying to pull shots.

I believe strongly in specificity. If you want to know how it will do for espresso, make an espresso with it.
I don't cup whatsoever since I don't suspect my customers enjoy their coffee that way either.