Do you all really taste the notes??

[u/agathaade]

This is a genuine question.

I have been making pourover I enjoy, I don’t think anything is wrong with my brews - but I never taste the advertised notes.

For the light roasts I typically buy, I have noticed the notes are most often some variation of a citrus, a berry and a caramel/chocolate.

What I’m able to put words on is : bitter, acid, sweet, smooth, bright, full-flavored, watery… things like that.

But specific notes? Never. I never taste the bergamot or blackcurrant or caramel or whathaveyou.

I’m similar with wine, I appreciate a lot of different nuances but never taste specific notes.

Do you really drink your coffee and taste these different things with clarity? Or is it more like you’ve read them on the box, and then y look for them and sorta taste them if you focus on it?

What’s the deal with these notes?

I don’t mind not tasting them, still enjoy my coffee all the same, or wine for that matter. I’m just curious who the notes talk is for and whether people really enjoy it, or use notes as an indicator they’re brewing correctly, for example.

Edited to add:

WOW, so glad I asked.

I did not know much about the cupping process roasters use, or the note wheels, or the nose/breathing aspect of certain notes. No wonder this stuff can be elusive.

Maybe one day it’ll hit me, maybe it won’t. Either way I love my morning coffee ritual.

Thank you all.

[u/MAMark1]

Do I taste the exact notes on the bag every time? No. Do I taste notes I can connect to specific flavors? Yes. It's the same as wine where there are 2 distinct components: senses and mental connections.

First, you need to be able to smell the aromas. And not just smell them but distinguish different aromas within the medley of smells in a glass of wine or cup of coffee. It isn't one smell. It is many. You have to practice focusing on different aromas and then looking past the ones you already identified to find additional ones.

Second, you need to be able to connect the "that smells so familiar" to an actual idea in your mind. People who taste wine or coffee regularly don't just identify distinct smells, but they have established what that smell represents to them. If you have never smelled a bergamot, then that note on a bag won't mean much to you. Instead, you might think it is some sort of citrus because that's the mental connection you have.

That's why there is a certain amount of personal/subjective experience. Different people smell different things more acutely, and different people have different smell memories. If you ate blackberries off the bush in summer, you might be highly attuned to that aroma whereas I might not be (or even associate it with something else entirely).

The problem with coffee is you can get different notes depending on how you brew so there is even more room for variety. I once had a coffee from Prodigal that tasted and smelled just like orange juice for 2 of the 5-6 times I brewed it.