Ok, not really. But as you you know, I love to share a good NPR story, and as I was in my car this morning I heard one. It was about Tracy May Adair, master coffee cupper at Folgers. Yes, that's right, master coffee cupper. I had never thought about this before, but apparently, every batch of coffee has to be tasted to make sure that they all have the exact same taste. Which makes sense. If you go to buy Folgers, you want it to taste like the last batch of Folgers you had. As I was drinking my Starbucks (which I brewed, not bought), Morning Edition was bringing me joy once again.
The funniest thing is this: these people do not sip the coffee, they slurp it, creating a "mist" of coffee in their mouths. Adair pointed out that most of your sense of taste involves "smelling from inside of your mouth" anyway. Then they spit the coffee back out, which is a good thing since one person tastes anywhere from 60 to 400 cups a day. Adair does not taste every single cup. She has "calabrated" the palates of the nine other testers who work for Folgers to be exactly like hers. It's kind of funny to think that the taste of every cup of Folgers coffee is based on the palate of one woman- that's power!
Unfortunately, I don't think I have a future as a coffee tester seeing as they probably don't let you put copious amounts of creamer and Splenda in the taste samples:)
Enjoy your coffee, and have a wonderful day!
1 comment:
Its funny that we both blogged about coffee within a week of each other. Although that job sounds unique and challenging, I'm not sure if I would enjoy it. I'm going to start listening to the morning edition though, sounds like a great source for interesting information. Happy birthday btw, isn't being an adult fun?
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