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.