Public Cupping at South Melbourne Market

In the coffee industry, 'cupping' is the formal name we give coffee tasting. We use this system of tasting as an opportunity to evaluate our current and newly arrived coffees, our recent roasts, and coffees gifted to us by friends from other roasteries, both near and far. For customers and newcomers, it is a great way to compare coffees side by side and to begin to develop your palate. When coffees are experienced comparatively, their different flavour profiles emerge. Over time you can identify a Kenyan coffee just by its taste, and you will know what we mean when we describe a coffee's mouthfeel, or identify its flavour as fruity or winey or milk chocolatey.

At a cupping, there are up to 5 coffees on the table. We always taste blind – i.e. we don't know until the end of the session which coffee is which, to avoid preconceptions of what a given coffee 'should' taste like. We start by assessing the dry aroma, then the wet aroma. Then the fun bit: the slurping and spitting! Our staff will guide you through the evaluation, explaining what we look for when we assess and score the coffees.

Please register your attendance to this event to secure your spot - we can only accommodate a maximum of 8 people. The $5 payment we have asked for is a donation towards a charity - the Santa Clara foundation in Guatemala, where we support local children's education with the money collected at our cuppings! You can read more about it here.