Coffee cupping is an important coffee tasting technique used by professionals. 'Cuppers' often taste coffees from a range of sources side-by-side, so as to note the subtle taste differences between coffees of different regions. Cupping is also used to taste defective coffees, and/or defective roasts.
Cupping usually involves laying out a table for a number of coffees. Unground roasted and unroasted beans are displayed for reference.
Lightly roasted coffee is ground and the aroma is evaluated before it is used. The ground is then added to a cup followed by just boiled filtered water.
After 2 minutes the coffee is stirred to get another sense of the aroma. Once the grounds have mainly sunk (another 2 mins) the coffee is slurped and tasted, and the flavours and aromas noted.