Practice makes perfect

Start your sensory journey with a game. Choose a vial at random, without looking at the name of the aroma. Smell the vial and/or the cap. You will detect a scent, but can you identify it? That’s more difficult. It may bring to mind memories from the distant or more recent past or evoke certain emotions.

If the images conjured up by the aroma don’t allow you to name it (though the word may be on the tip of your tongue!), try to identify which family it belongs to: fruity, floral, vegetal, woody, spicy, animal or toasty? This exploration can also be done in a group: discussions around the perception of scents are an enjoyable way to share the experience and delve into your memories. As you listen to each other, you may find the right answer. But be careful not to let yourself be influenced!

Then look at the number on the vial and find it on the list of aromas. Now that you see the name of the aromatic note, of course it’s obvious: you knew it! Repeat the exercise with another vial. Practise this way every day with up to ten vials, making sure to include the ones you didn’t manage to recognise the previous time.

This will develop your olfactory memory. In just a few weeks, you’ll be able to identify and,
above all, name these aromas, precious clues to the coffees you will taste.

To find out more, follow the advice and tasting protocols provided in Le Nez du Café books. Le Nez du Café 2.0 60 aromas includes a comprehensive leaflet with exercises and games to play alone or with others.

Rise to the challenge like a professional

Since the early 2000s, sensory training courses based on coffee have been using the aromas of Le Nez du Café to train professionals’ sense of smell. This is the case for the ‘Flavours and Aromas’ module of the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) and Q Grader certification, which have now been merged.

Here are some examples of the types of exercises they offer:

• Question 1: Here are three coffees of the same origin and variety, but with very different post-harvest treatments. Identify which coffee has used the ‘natural’ drying process, which has used the ‘honey process’, and which has been ‘washed’. Related question: a coffee is served with a dominant note of red fruit and a clear but not overly sharp acidity. Can you tell whether or not it was washed after harvesting?
• Question 2: These four vials of aromas represent four different types of acidity. Can you recognise and associate malic acid, citric acid, lactic acid and tartaric acid with the following flavours: lemon, wine, peach and apple?
• You’ve bought three coffees of different origins from your favourite roaster. Using Le Nez du Café, try to associate the aromas that best correspond to each one, by smelling and then tasting them at increasingly low temperatures: 70°C, 55°C and 40°C.
• Question 4: Ask for the same coffee beans roasted to different degrees. Can you match the light, dark and Italian roasts with their characteristic aromas and flavours?

Try to reproduce these exercises, choosing coffees from different origins, with different post-harvest treatments or from different roasters. There are infinite variables!