Coffee Glossary
Acerbic: an acrid or sour flavor. A fault in coffee sometimes due to over heating. Like when you leave the glass coffee pot on the heater and taste it a few hours later.
Acid: Nothing to do with pH level. A sharp taste especially with Arabica coffee beans. There are 3 types: desirable, sour, and process acidity.
American Roast or Light Roast: medium, light brown coffee bean.
Arabica: a type of coffee plant; the other is Robusta.
Aroma: The notes you smell in coffee; from floral to fruit to herb. Not associated with acidity or flavor.
Body: Heaviness, Richness or thickness of the coffee when tasted.
Caffeine: a stimulant.
Canephora: coffee species such as canephora robusta or canefora Arabica.
Chaff: when roasting, the paper like substance akin to peanut skin.
Cherries: coffee beans are actually called coffee cherries. Bean is a slang.
Chicory: a flavored coffee additive to make it stretch further with a bitter taste. From the root of the chicory plant.
Cinnamon: dry, light brown bean, sour taste, but darker than light cinnamon roast.
City Roast or Medium Roast: medium brown bean.
Coffee: a water beverage infused with coffee cherries, known as coffee beans.
Crema: The oily substance present in espresso.
Cupper: an expert coffee taster.
Decaffeinated/decaf: coffee with at least 97 % of the caffeine removed.
Fermented: Changing sugar to acid, a flaw.
Fragrance: smell from floral to spicy.
French Roast: dark, brown oily roast used for Espresso dark roast.
Full City Roast or Full Roast: Dark roasts.
Hydrolyzed: over-extracted instant coffee taste due to over processing.
Italian Roast: darker roast than French Roast.
Light Cinnamon Roast: dry, light brown bean, sourish taste.
Light French Roast: middle, dark brown with oily surface, caramel - bittersweet.
New England Roast: middle light brown coffee bean.
Roast: the darkness a coffee bean is roasted.
Robusta: type of coffee plant. Generally, higher in caffeine than Arabica.
Spanish Roast: very dark brown (nearly black), shiny coffee bean.
Taste: coffee tastes acid, mellow, wine, bland, sharp or sour.
Varietal: type of tree, growing region or plantation.
