HOW COFFEE FLAVOUR IS DESCRIBED

Notes of
blueberry?

Coffee bags often list flavours that are not ingredients.

Blueberry, dark chocolate, honey: these are descriptions of aroma and taste, borrowed from familiar foods. Coffee science has its own shared vocabulary for them, a lexicon of 110 attributes and a flavour wheel built from it.

DESCRIBED not added

Check a note

A cup of black filter coffee on a wooden table beside a few fresh blueberries and a square of dark chocolate — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

Notes are comparisons
General in, specific out
Trained tasters score them
A shared language for flavour

THE SHORT ANSWER

A note is a
comparison.

Tasting notes say what a coffee resembles.
The coffee world has a shared word list for them.

THE BAG

Like, not with

The coffee lexicon is purely descriptive: it lets tasters say a coffee tastes or smells like something, not that it contains it.

Check a note

THE TASTERS

Scored on a scale

Trained panels rate each attribute on a 15-point intensity scale, so a coffee might score blueberry 4 wherever it is tasted.

How it is done

THE BEANS

Roasting builds aroma

Studies of roasted coffee have identified more than 1,000 volatile compounds in the air above it, the raw material of every note.

See the numbers

A QUICK NOTE CHECK

Where does it sit
on the wheel?

The coffee flavour wheel runs from broad categories in the middle to specific notes at the edge. Pick a note to see where it sits. The bar shows how specific it is.

Note check

Choose a tasting noteFruityBrown sugarDark chocolateSmokyCardboard

FruityInner category

One of the broad, general groups near the centre of the wheel. Berry and citrus notes sit further out under it.

Brown sugarMiddle tier

A subcategory under Sweet, with more specific notes such as molasses, maple syrup, caramelised and honey beneath it.

Dark chocolateOuter note

A specific note under Nutty/cocoa, then Cocoa, alongside plain chocolate. Nutty notes such as hazelnut and almond are its neighbours.

SmokyOuter note

A specific note under Roasted, then Burnt, next to acrid and ashy. These come from the roasting side of the wheel.

CardboardOuter note

The wheel also names less welcome notes. Cardboard sits in the Papery/musty group beside stale and papery.

Source: Spencer, Sage, Velez and Guinard (2016), Journal of Food Science, table of final wheel categories.

Based on the Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel structure published by Spencer and colleagues in the Journal of Food Science (2016).

TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING

Many molecules,
a few hundred words.

One figure on the chemistry in the cup,
one on the vocabulary used to describe it.

1,000+

Volatile compounds identified in the headspace of roasted coffee

Only some have a strong impact on typical coffee aroma, which is why researchers measure their odour activity.

AROMA · CZECH J. FOOD SCI. 2011

110 attributes

Flavour, aroma and texture attributes in the coffee lexicon

Each comes with a reference for measuring its intensity. The lexicon was built at Kansas State University's Sensory Analysis Center.

VOCABULARY · WORLD COFFEE RESEARCH

Sources: Budryn and colleagues, Czech Journal of Food Sciences (2011); World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon.

FROM LEXICON TO WHEEL

How the words
were organised.

The current flavour wheel replaced one first drawn up in 1995. Its layout came from a sorting experiment rather than a committee.

Build a word list
World Coffee Research's lexicon defined coffee's attributes, each with a reference so tasters can calibrate what, say, lime or cardboard means.
Sort the words
72 people, including trained panelists at UC Davis and coffee industry members, sorted 99 attributes into groups of similar flavours without tasting.
Cluster and map
Statistical clustering found 9 main classes, and a similarity map set where each group sits around the wheel.
Train the tasters
For research, a panel of 5 to 7 tasters trains for six to nine months to score attributes consistently with the lexicon and each other.

A close-up of freshly roasted brown coffee beans with a faint sheen of oil — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

A row of small white coffee tasting bowls with spoons on a long table, a hand lifting a spoonful to taste — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

WHY IT MATTERS

Words that
researchers can use.

World Coffee Research says the lexicon was created so scientists can link flavours to molecules, varieties, farming and processing, and breed coffees that taste better as well as resist disease and climate change.

The 2016 wheel itself was designed as a communication tool for everyone from producers and roasters to baristas and consumers, so a note on a bag and a note in a lab can share the same word.

Questions

Questions people ask

Is there blueberry in coffee that lists blueberry notes?

Tasting notes describe what a coffee tastes or smells like. The World Coffee Research lexicon calls itself purely descriptive: it lets tasters say a coffee resembles blueberry and how strongly, not that fruit was added.

Where do coffee flavours come from?

From the compounds in the roasted bean. More than 1,000 volatile compounds have been identified in the air above roasted coffee, and only some have a strong impact on its typical aroma.

What is the coffee flavour wheel?

A chart of coffee flavour words, from broad categories in the centre to specific notes at the edge. The current Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel, published in 2016, replaced a 1995 original.

How do professional tasters agree on flavours?

Research panels use the lexicon's references and a 15-point intensity scale, training for six to nine months so that tasters in different places give the same score for the same coffee.

Why do some notes sound unpleasant?

The lexicon and wheel describe all of coffee's flavours, not only good ones. It includes notes such as cardboard, musty, rubber and petroleum alongside fruit, sugar and spice.

Notes of
blueberry?