Describing Coffee to Coffee Drinkers

What we might learn from the National Coffee Association’s Drinking Trend Survey

Inherent within the idea of specialty coffee is the fundamental premise that specialty coffee is not a commodity, but rather, a highly differentiated product. Not only does a Guatemalan coffee taste different than a Kenyan coffee, but a Guatemalan coffee from Huehuetenango tastes different than a Guatemalan coffee from Ayarza, and two coffees from Huehuetenango can taste different too. While this is all very basic to our understanding of specialty coffee, things can become complex when it comes to describing highly differentiated flavors and aromas. Complex and specific.

Within the coffee industry, complex and specific tasting notes are an important part of buying and selling at transaction points along the supply chain. But what about the last link in that chain? What words work for coffee drinkers?

Well, it just so happens that the National Coffee Association (NCA) regularly asks coffee drinkers this very question. Actually, they ask them this question: 

“Here are some things that a coffee company could say about their coffee. What effect do each of these have on your interest in buying their coffee?” 

Respondents were asked to rate each term on the list below as:

• Much more likely to buy 
• Somewhat more likely to buy 
• Unaffected 
• Somewhat less likely to buy 
• Much less likely to buy

Subtract the combined percentages for any term above from 100 to learn the “unaffected” percentage. For example, 50% of respondents report being unaffected by use of the word “Balanced.”

I suppose we could argue with the examples (e.g.) chosen for some of the terms, though all of them except “earthy” are legitimized from a cupping if not a consumer standpoint by their appearance on the Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel (earthy appeared on an older version of the SCAA wheel as a fault). We could argue that respondents are reacting to the examples themselves and not the categorical words like fruity or floral. And words like vegetative, earthy, and herb-like are a tough sell for the average garden variety coffee drinker. It’s hard to imagine how “Green or vegetative” even made the list of choices.

I think that trying to capture aroma too is problematic here, so aroma can come along for the ride but I’m not going to speak to it directly (rose and jasmine appear on the flavor wheel only as aromas while floral alone can be a flavor along with chamomile and black tea). Nevertheless, I think this data set from the Fall 2023 NCA survey does tell some interesting and useful stories. 

When we communicate with each other, coffee pro to coffee pro, about flavor, it’s functional. We’re attempting to place a given coffee into a realm where it’s subjective value and potential utility can be considered with some establishing context, like flavor geography. This story takes place in Massachusetts (fruity), in the city of Boston (citrus), in the Beacon Hill neighborhood (blood orange). We might not always align on the neighborhood—this tastes more like Back Bay (navel orange) to me—but generally speaking there is increased alignment at the city level and even more at the state level. If you tell a coffee trader you’d like to sample some citrusy coffee, there is a high probability that you’ll experience the coffees they send you as citrusy. 

Even when flavor descriptors border on esoteric—I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted tamarind—or veer toward poetics, the purpose is practical. Flavor notes are part of the process of buying and selling coffee. 

These tasting notes often remain attached to a coffee as it moves into the consumer marketplace, but at that point their purpose has changed. No longer embedded as one aspect of a complex purchasing process, flavor notes on a bag of roasted coffee are there to inspire a relatively simple purchase decision.

Looking at the list above, some of the words that coffee drinkers indicate are most likely to pique their interest are words never used at a cupping table. The words “rich” and “smooth” don’t just lack specificity, they are almost anti-specific. And yet, more than half of the people surveyed say those words work for them. And what’s more, almost half indicate words that are very common at a cupping table don’t work for them at all. 

Over 40% of respondents report drinking a specialty coffee beverage yesterday and 53% say they had a specialty coffee beverage during the past week. I’m not sure we can or should ignore their preferences. At the same time, using the word “rich” will feel uncomfortable for most specialty coffee roasters because we don’t know what it means really, even though there is a long tradition of using that word in coffee. 

I’ll admit to some amusement with the idea of trying to achieve industry-wide alignment on the meaning of “rich” using the SCA cupping form. This little thought experiment will quickly reveal the challenge of the word. For a coffee to achieve the designation of “rich,” I imagine outstanding flavor and heavy body (full-bodied is the dictionary definition when applied to a drink) with moderate sweetness and acidity. Your imaginings will likely differ from mine. 

And anyway, mining the list above for words to use on your website or a bag of roasted coffee might not be the first/best take away.

For me, the first thing to look at is how the data falls out, with very broad but familiar terms at the top, and very specific and unfamiliar terms at the bottom where they even have a negative “score.” For people who taste and talk about coffee flavors almost every day, it’s easy to lose perspective. Fruity, floral, and spice, are all very common regions of flavor at a cupping table. Not so, apparently, among many coffee drinkers. It’s a good reminder that the Coffee Tasters Flavor Wheel is a tool of the trade and was never really intended to provide language for marketing and selling roasted coffee to consumers. Flavor Wheel terms almost always benefit from additional “off-the-chart” drill-downs.

All of this is not to say roasters should avoid listing floral, fruit, and spice notes when present. It’s more of a “yes and” thing. Because palates come in such a wide variety, I think we should speak to them all, painting with both a wide brush (bold) and a fine point pen (dark chocolate). 

And it might be helpful to use the survey results to prompt prioritization when it comes to listing flavor notes for consumers. As it happens, the order of the answers rather precisely reflects the popularity of flavored coffees as seen in another question in the same survey:

“What flavor was your coffee/coffee beverage?”

Top six answers, in order:

1. Vanilla
2. Chocolate
3. Hazelnut
4. Caramel/Toffee/Butterscotch
5. Irish Cream
6. Pumpkin Spice

Aside: If you are a professional taster, it might be hard to see caramel, toffee, and butterscotch all lumped together like that, but remember, your perspective compared to the average coffee drinker is, relatively speaking, a little unusual. 

It’s a small point to make, I know, but an interesting idea to me that we might choose to always identify the sweet notes first, followed by nutty/cocoa, then spices, then fruits, then floral, and end with herbal descriptors, if/when more than one of these flavor regions is present.

Above and Below the Fold

Perhaps we can read the results of the “things that a coffee company could say about their coffee” survey question as giving us permission to be vague “above the fold” and specific “below the fold” when communicating flavor to coffee drinkers. Maybe we could even frame it as vague and comforting as well as specific and discomforting because it’s clear that some coffee drinkers will be uncomfortable when they see something like “Grape Jolly Rancher” on a website or bag of coffee.

“Above the fold” is an old newspaper term that simply refers to the first things seen/read, including the headline. There might be value in capturing more coffee drinkers with “Smooth and Sweet” or “Full Bodied Dark Roast,” or, dare I say it, “Rich and Balanced” while, at the same time scooping up the more sophisticated palates with our Jolly Ranchers, blackberry cobblers, golden raisins, and marzipans. Just be prepared to explain what you mean by “rich” if anyone asks.