Starbucks invited me to visit the cupping room in its Seattle headquarters.
Cupping is a coffee industry practice where experts test cups of coffee for quality.
Cupping was surprisingly technical, and I was impressed by how fast the experts moved.
When I was in Seattle for Starbucks investor day, the chain invited me to visit headquarters and see how experts test coffee behind the scenes.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
I visited the cupping room, where specially trained Starbucks workers taste hundreds of cups of coffee each day to ensure they’re high quality.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
We started with a geography lesson because Starbucks sources its beans from all three major coffee-growing regions in the world: Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Brazil, Vietnam, and Colombia are the biggest coffee-producing countries in the world, head of Starbucks Coffee Trading Company Tim Scharrer told Insider.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Coffee grown in different regions has different distinct flavor notes.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
The cuppers’ job in this room is to make that the base flavors of each type of coffee are exactly what they should be, so they can be used in Starbucks drinks, the company’s head of coffee and tea quality Andrew Linnemann said.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
With that information in mind, I put on a green apron to do my own cupping.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
First, all the raw green coffee shipments are inspected for quality, scent, and consistency, similar to how you might check produce at a grocery store, Linnemann said.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Then it’s roasted in small batches in an adjoining room.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
All the samples of coffee beans must be treated exactly the same way so they can be compared fairly.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Roasters carefully watch temperature and timing to ensure consistent beans.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Then, Starbucks provided me with a sample to test myself with one coffee from each of the three regions.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
After brewing, the coffee forms a crust on top.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
I used a spoon to “break” the crust, which released the aromas beneath.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
The three cups had distinct smells that came through, so it was important to rinse my spoon between them to keep them separate.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
It’s a messy process. “If you don’t get coffee on your nose, you’re doing it wrong,” Bonnie Hall, senior manager of Global Coffee Quality and Operations at Starbucks, told me.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
I learned that the roasting process also has an impact on flavor, sometimes leaving a “bready,” baking smell.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
It was kind of like wine tasting, where I suddenly noticed flavors I never had before once someone with more knowledge pointed them out to me.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
The Ethiopian coffee, for example, had a very fruity scent that stood out when I tried it alongside other blends, while the Sumatran was more chocolatey.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
For the next step, cuppers used spoons to take off any remaining grounds ahead of actually tasting them.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Then it was time to taste, under instruction from the experts.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Like wine tasting, coffee cuppers traditionally spit out the samples into a spittoon.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Using the spittoon was by far the most intimidating part because it goes against all my instincts to spit into a giant bucket in public.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
To taste it, I dipped a spoon slightly into the coffee and slurped it off the spoon.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Tasting was more challenging than it sounds too because you have to aspirate the coffee, which is basically loudly slurping it.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
This coats your taste buds and gets the aroma in your nose because smelling is key to tasting all the notes.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
While I moved slowly, trying to avoid getting coffee everywhere and noticing subtle flavors, the professionals moved shockingly fast.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
The cuppers sped down the line, scooping coffee up with a spoon in each hand before loudly slurping and spitting and moving on to the next cup.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
The Starbucks workers explained how this room is essential to the creation of every drink at Starbucks.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
All coffee is tested hot with these cupping methods that are standard across the coffee industry.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
With each variety narrowed down to its flavor profile, Starbucks coffee experts can experiment with combinations to see what works best for different blends, espressos, and cold brew.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
When Starbucks was developing cold brew, coffee experts tested these same blends under different conditions before landing on the standard 20-hour brew time.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
About 70% of the drinks Starbucks sells now are cold, but cupping hot coffee is still key to guaranteeing the quality of those drinks and developing new ones.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
The quality of Starbucks coffee, a multi-billion dollar business, is ultimately in the hands of just a few experts who taste nearly 1,000 cups per week.
Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
Do you have a story to share about a retail or restaurant chain? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com.
