- Also called: flavor notes, cupping notes
- Availability: Common
Tasting notes are a roaster's shorthand for what they perceive when cupping a coffee. The notes are descriptive analogies, not ingredients: a "blueberry" Ethiopian natural does not have blueberry in it. The vocabulary is anchored by the SCA Flavor Wheel, which gives cuppers a shared lexicon. Brooklyn specialty bars print tasting notes on their menu cards, on bag labels, and increasingly above the manual-brew bar.