Cupping Beans from Panama

A wooden table is set with six sets of three glass cups filled with a few spoonfulls of freshly ground coffee. Six sets of glasses, each with a carton tray holding a handful of the roasted beans, with numbers, 1 through 6.

The scene looks set for a ritual.

Kees Kraakman, host of the evening, greets the small group of men who received his invitation. Each briefly introduces himself (some of them professional coffee roasters, a specialty coffee place owner, two professional baristas) and everyone gets a form to fill with impressions about the six different coffees on the table.

 In a few words, the rules of 'cupping' are explained for the one or two guests who are new to 'cupping'. There are different rounds to make and everyone remains silent as they first smell all the cups with dry coffee grounds, then the wet grounds after water of 92º C is poured to the brim of every cup, without touching the crust of coffee forming on top.

Next, a few of the participants are allowed to 'break' the crust and smell the first whiff of fragrance coming off the coffee underneath.

Soft jazz music is played in the background , filling up the silence of the men smelling and later tasting, looking very focused, taking notes, moving on to the next cup and back again to a few earlier cups to compare and think again. There seems to be no hurry.

Then, tentatively, they speak and compare notes about each of the six coffees on the table. Words like vibrant, leather, lemon, tropical fruit, mango, pineapple, a 'silky mouthfeel' for one, 'syruppy like honey' about another.

Finally, Kees reveals which number represents which coffee. All of these are from the Panamese farms of Graciano Cruz and one of his 'lots' yielded a coffee that is most everyone's favorite. The conversation continues and now some also nibble on the beans, trying to learn whatever the beans can tell them.

The beans are in London still, but some bags will arrive in Amsterdam soon.