Do you ever wish you could consistently dial in coffee exactly the way you like? Welcome to the club! Improving your brews begins with the ability to taste and identify conditions of extraction, and progresses through regular practice. For the most part, we all have the same ability to taste and perceive flavors, but building a memory bank of information to draw from each time you brew is a real coffee brewing superpower.

In this second installment of our Advanced Brewing Skills Lab, we'll show some simple techniques that coffee professionals use to help new baristas calibrate to the flavors of under-extraction, over-extraction, uneven extraction, and even extraction. Once you're able to recognize these subtle characteristics, it becomes much easier to plot a course towards a better cup.