East 9th Coffee Cupping

On Thursday June 24th, Nathan Lilly, lead barista, Samantha Bako, Elizabeth Jadud and Wes Johansen cupped two Ethiopian coffees in order to compare the difference between the two cups.  Before they added the water, they noticed that the grounds from one cup had fragrant blueberry overtones, and the other smelled earthy and grainy.  These differences carried into the brewed cups as well.  The difference was that one Ethiopian cup (the fragrant one with the blueberry overtones) was our freshly roasted coffee, and the other cup was a stale sample of very old Ethiopian beans that Nathan had mysteriously procured.  Nathan had set the table with the two cupping cups, a cupping spoon for each participant, a water glass, an opaque ceramic spit cup (GREAT IDEA, Nathan!) and a hot water spoon rinse glass at each place also.  Great set up and very interesting comparison of two coffees.