Why Every Coffee-Lover Should Participate in a "Cupping"

Step one is to assess the "fragrance," the scent of the dry grounds. This is not to be confused with the "aroma," the scent of the grounds after hot water has been added. For the fragrance, you just stick your nose in the coffee pot and inhale deeply a few times. You go around the table from pot to pot, jotting down which flavors you smell in the first column of the form next to the numbers. As a newbie, I found this stage especially challenging (um, they all smell like coffee?), so I stuck with the broader descriptions, such as "cereal," "citrus," and "nutty."