SCA Sensory Skills Foundation

Description

SCA Sensory Skills Foundation

This course is designed to help you understand how we taste coffee and how to evaluate it professionally. As your trainer, my goal is to build your confidence in identifying flavors, aromas, and key sensory attributes while teaching you how to apply structured tasting methods used in the specialty coffee industry. By the end of the course, you will understand not just what you are tasting, but why you are tasting it — and how to communicate it clearly.

In this course, you will learn to:

• Understand how human senses influence coffee perception
• Identify key attributes such as acidity, body, sweetness, and bitterness
• Recognize common fragrance and aroma references
• Conduct an SCA-style cupping using descriptive and affective methods
• Differentiate specialty coffee characteristics
• Apply sensory evaluation skills in daily café operations or quality control

Course Overview:

Sensory Assessment Overview
– Defining Sensory Assessment
– Three Sensory Methods (Descriptive, Difference, and Affective)

Physiology and Sensory Attributes
– Physiology and Human Anatomy
– Basic Tastes
– Basic Aromas

Identifying Sensorial Characteristics in Coffee
– Acidity, Bitterness, and Mouthfeel in Coffee
– Aromas in Coffee
– Communication and Language in Sensory Analysis
– Introduction to the SCA Flavor Wheel

Cupping Protocol
– Defining Cupping
– The SCA Cupping Methodology
– SCA Coffee Value Assessment Protocol
– Core Sensory Equipment and the Cupping Room