We are still ecstatic about having attended our first public cupping session with Yellow Rooster Coffee Imports this past weekend! We’ve been cupping at home since the start of our journey, but with COVID and all, had not been able to attend a public session. Yellow Rooster Coffee Imports made it happen and we are so thankful we were able to attend and meet all of their team plus other coffee roasters! They are located in Tampa and thankfully Grandma kept the kids and we were able to take a nice, pretty straight forward drive there.
Yellow Rooster Coffee Imports is a team of coffee professionals that have established relationships with coffee farms in South America making it possible for roasters, no matter the size of their business, to access a variety of specialty coffee beans and share them within their community. They were not only professional, but they welcomed us with open arms and didn't mind all of our questions and "picking of their brains"... Had to take advantage of seeing them in real life :)
Cupping is considered the world-wide standard method for evaluating green coffee and used to compare production roasts. It doesn't require any specialized equipment or filters making it a pretty fair way to compare roasts. The quantity of coffee and water is a specific weight, the entire process is timed, with certain times where the "crust is broken" and certain times when we taste... even the "slurp" is suggested to be done in a very specific way in order get the best impression of the tastes.
The first set of coffees we cupped were natural process coffees. This is considered to be the traditional method of processing coffee. The second set of coffees were rare/exotic coffees processed in not-so-traditional ways. These coffees definitely take some time getting used to but once you get the taste buds adjusted, they are really, really pleasing. The origins included Mexico, Peru and Costa Rica. We look forward to adding on of these to our offerings soon :)
Keeping the excitement growing and excited to keep learning... #littlebylittle
Cheers,
Emily & Julio