Strange cupping experience - need advice.

[maxmaut]

Background - my favotire Nicaragua coffee is no longer roasted in my country (hopefully until the next harvest). Since I am typically an Ethiopia guy I've decided to buy all ethiopia's I've tried and tasted previously from my favorite roasters. Some of them are boutique roasters, some are catering to coffee shops but sell through their websites to enthusiasts, it was a mixed bag.

I ended up with 10 coffees in a blind test. Two of them were from a local roaster from my city. I drink them quite often because it's covinient to buy without shiping, and one of them (Yirgacheffe) I enjoyed a ton, and so did my wife. She would often ask which one did I brew today because it tastes so good, and every time it was this Yirgacheffe. So after the blind tasting today this coffee scored last. It tasted really muddy, erathy, and the flavors were extremely muted. I thought maybe this is one of those ethiopias that produce a lot of 'dust' when ground, and maybe it cleans up really well when filtered, so I decided to actually brew it (V60).

I brewed it back to back with another coffee that scored #3 in my blind test. I sifted them both on a kruve with a 300 micron bottom sieve, to make sure all the fines (even the less fine fines) are gone.

Tasting them back to back revealed exactly same results as during the blidn tasting - Yirgacheffe was much more earthy/muddy and much more muted vs. the other coffee which I've enjoyed a ton.

So now I'm questioning myself. I was having this coffee so often, and was not noticing these 'issues' with the way it tastes, until I actually compared it to other options. But also I've realized that when you compare things, you tend to favor thsoe, that stand out a bit more. The coffees that 'won' all have very bright taste profiles - much fruitier, more acidic, generally more pronounced flavors. Three of them were naturally processed, so obviously had more pronounced nuances. But I am not sure now, if I've picked them because I like them more, or because there was something that was more prominent about them.

How do I untangle this? Any suggestions?

Thank you!

[bobR]

Ok, this may be a way off response but... I have noticed that my smell and taste can become a bit acclimated over a period of time drinking the same coffee. Not that it gets bad, it just becomes "less exciting". I start a new coffee and sometime down the road go back to the original and the tastes stand out more again. Maybe just me! My other comment...unless you have a crappy grinder, I have not seen improvements from sifting and usually just see a loss in complexity.

[DamianWarS]

Background - my favotire Nicaragua coffee is no longer roasted in my country (hopefully until the next harvest). Since I am typically an Ethiopia guy I've decided to buy all ethiopia's I've tried and tasted previously from my favorite roasters. Some of them are boutique roasters, some are catering to coffee shops but sell through their websites to enthusiasts, it was a mixed bag.

I ended up with 10 coffees in a blind test. Two of them were from a local roaster from my city. I drink them quite often because it's covinient to buy without shiping, and one of them (Yirgacheffe) I enjoyed a ton, and so did my wife. She would often ask which one did I brew today because it tastes so good, and every time it was this Yirgacheffe. So after the blind tasting today this coffee scored last. It tasted really muddy, erathy, and the flavors were extremely muted. I thought maybe this is one of those ethiopias that produce a lot of 'dust' when ground, and maybe it cleans up really well when filtered, so I decided to actually brew it (V60).

I brewed it back to back with another coffee that scored #3 in my blind test. I sifted them both on a kruve with a 300 micron bottom sieve, to make sure all the fines (even the less fine fines) are gone.

Tasting them back to back revealed exactly same results as during the blidn tasting - Yirgacheffe was much more earthy/muddy and much more muted vs. the other coffee which I've enjoyed a ton.

So now I'm questioning myself. I was having this coffee so often, and was not noticing these 'issues' with the way it tastes, until I actually compared it to other options. But also I've realized that when you compare things, you tend to favor thsoe, that stand out a bit more. The coffees that 'won' all have very bright taste profiles - much fruitier, more acidic, generally more pronounced flavors. Three of them were naturally processed, so obviously had more pronounced nuances. But I am not sure now, if I've picked them because I like them more, or because there was something that was more prominent about them.

How do I untangle this? Any suggestions?

Thank you!

the cupping table can be relative to the cupping table where you end up making a scale of the sweetest, most acidic, earthiest, etc... so the muddiest, earthiest doesn't make the coffee stand out as muddy/earthy isolated it just makes it more earthy or muddier than the rest of the coffee you cupped with it. 10 coffees is an ambitious cupping table and I would try and reduce home cuppings to no more than 5 at a time. blind cupping also should reduce bias but it doesn't eliminate it as we can still have a bias towards specific characteristics and when we hear a word like earthy we may associate it with "bad" when that simply may not be the case. you can try and simplify your method by picking the best of 3 but not the best based on a checklist simply the one you enjoy the most out of the 3 then use that to isolate what you think the best is of many and you may find it differs from your cupping results. I also wouldn't overthink it, if you enjoy x coffee outside of the cupping table then it's a win.

[yakster]

Ok, this may be a way off response but... I have noticed that my smell and taste can become a bit acclimated over a period of time drinking the same coffee. Not that it gets bad, it just becomes "less exciting". I start a new coffee and sometime down the road go back to the original and the tastes stand out more again. Maybe just me! My other comment...unless you have a crappy grinder, I have not seen improvements from sifting and usually just see a loss in complexity.

I notice the same thing which is why I like to change up coffees, otherwise you don't realize how good the coffee your drinking is.

[another_jim]

Here's a guess at what happened ...

You like that Yrg not because it is muddy or earthy, but because it is an Yrg, with a floral aroma, and a pit fruit and green tea flavor. If you had cupped it next to five other Yrgs, it probably would not have fared well. In that case, it is almost certain your wife and you would have liked the better Yrgs more than the one you have. But you cupped a lot of different coffees, so the ones with clean, crisp flavors that you don't much like beat out the one with muddied and faded flavors you do like. This is a common problem with Ethiopian coffees, since they often take a long time to get delivered, and often have a bad provenance, i.e. going through too many middlemen who mix and match lots.

If this story is close to the truth, the moral of the cupping is not to switch your preference, but to get fresher and more transparently sourced Yrgs. The exposure of flaws like faded or poorly prepped coffees is what cupping is about. I love Yrgs; some are vivid, but some taste only like a faded photograph of the vivid ones. But if the faded photograph is all I got, I'll still go for it.