Coffee Writing

How to Describe Coffee

How do you communicate a flavor? How do you tell others what coffee tastes like? How can you write about coffee in a way that is understandable by the average coffee drinker? These and other similar questions are common whether you are opening a coffee business or are a coffee lover that wants to know what coffee to buy next. Describing coffee is a translation of what one experiences while drinking it to somebody who still hasn’t. It is of supreme importance in copywriting and content marketing, for obvious reasons: a coffee that is described in good detail, with words that can be understood by anybody, can more easily be found interesting by potential customers, and lead to “converting them” into buyers.

Sunday, November 21, 2021 | 9 minutes Read

Why I became a food writer

I’ve written about how I became a food writer previously. In that article there’s the not-so-short story of how it dawned on me that I liked food and was knowledgeable enough to write about it, as a full-time job. Becoming a food writer explains the “how” of me becoming a food writer. This article tells the “why”. If you’re just interested in my advice on how to become a food writer, go read the previous article and skip this one. No hard feelings, I understand.

Monday, January 18, 2021 | 7 minutes Read

Decoding Coffee Descriptions

Coffee descriptions have left many drinkers baffled. I bet half of consumers barely read them. Understandably. Many descriptions are either too vague (“sweet and strong”) or seem unrealistic (“lemon meringue with undertones of sandalwood”). Fact being, the vast majority of us are not trained nor take time to train in tasting what we ingest. We simply find something tasty, understand in general what we like, and learn to favor sweet over savoury, or fatty over bitter and so on. Generally speaking, we only taste superficially what we eat and drink. And why wouldn’t we? We aren’t food critics or sommeliers, we just want to enjoy a good dish or beverage. Nothing wrong with that.

Sunday, November 1, 2020 | 8 minutes Read

How to Write About Coffee

How to tell a taste? A smell? A mouthfeel? How do you communicate what your taste buds are telling you to a person that is not with you, not even in your country or even on the same continent as you? It appears to be impossible. And to actually describe what one’s tasting in all its complexity may well be impossible. But we try anyway. Writing about coffee entails describing it. Making yourself understood by those who never tasted the same coffee as you. Perhaps some who have never had the chance to try even a similar coffee. Food writing and coffee in particular is a hard task. Coffee has plenty of different taste profiles, more so than wine; it goes without saying that the most difficult aspect of writing about coffee is making the taste profile comprehensible to the readers. But before this, it is important to clarify a few aspects of coffee and the coffee culture.

Friday, October 2, 2020 | 9 minutes Read