Equipment Required

You’ll need the following to take part in the tasting:

• Your set of 4 coffees from the project.

• A coffee grinder, ideally a burr grinder

• 4 cups or small bowls. Ideally the same size. These can be between 150ml (5oz) and 250ml (8oz). You can use bigger if you want.

• A digital scale, accurate to at least 1g.

• A spoon per person. Ideally a coffee tasting spoon, but a soup spoon or dessert spoon is also totally fine.

• A kettle

• Suitable brew water (More detail further down)

• Internet access and a device for streaming video

• A way of taking notes. You can use this tasting sheet linked here.
  

Do I need special water?

Having suitable water for coffee brewing will improve the tasting experience. Some roasters have sent mineral packets to create coffee specific water. These usually require mixing with distilled or de-ionised water. These can be hard to find, and Zero Water Filters are a good option to produce empty water to mineralise. With Third Wave Water I’d recommend using twice as much water to dilute the packet as they recommend, though using the normal recommendation is also completely fine.

If you aren’t making recipe water (and don’t worry if you’re not) then making sure the water is relatively soft and neutral tasting is the minimum requirement. Something like a standard drinking water filter from companies like Brita or BWC is a good choice.

What Do I Need To Prepare Beforehand

During the tasting video we’ll be weighing and grinding the coffee. However, you may want to be ahead of the game. You can weigh out the coffees at a ratio of 60g/l of water.

PLEASE NOTE: a 250ml cup will not hold 250ml of water and coffee. Aim for 80% of the capacity. So for a 250ml cup, I would grind 12g of coffee and add 200g of boiling water.

The grind should be medium fine.

How Long Will The Tasting Last?

The stream will run for around an hour, including Q&A, but the tasting will take 30-40 minutes including set up time. If you’re watching the tasting guide afterwards I’d still plan on around 30-40 minutes to get the most out of the experience. If you want to see a previous stream, to get an idea of how it will work, then you can watch one below.

Are There Any Videos I Should Watch?

Yes, they’re just below!