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0 Introduction
The Sensory World of Coffee

The next time you sit down with a cup of coffee, pause before you take
that first sip. Allow yourself to actively engage your senses over that
cup.

You feel the warmth of the freshly brewed coffee in your hands—it
radiates heat through the cup, which you sense as you run your thumbs
over the mug’s smooth ceramic surface. Or maybe it’s a paper cup,
lighter in the hand—you wrap fingers around the rough texture of the
paper cup sleeve. You see the heat of the coffee radiate into the air in
curls of steam. Maybe you add cream to your coffee and watch the little
swirling eddies of white-brown as they mix in, the whole color of the
brew changing as it blends. Even if you are not usually aware of it
consciously, all your senses are engaged in this cup of coffee—even
before you take a sip.

Now you take a sip or, better, a slurp—a big noisy one. This is how you
have learned to truly taste, and the slurp has the desired result: as you
feel the warm coffee spray across your palate there are immediate
sensations. The temperature of the brew, the weight and texture of it on
your tongue, rich and full or delicate and fleeting, or somewhere in
between. And your mouth comes alive with the sensations of flavor—
intense, layered, maybe complex, bright or subtle. If you do not pay
attention, you will miss them. But then that would mean … another sip.

Learning Objectives
:
 At the end of this module, learners will be able to:

Describe how drinking coffee is a sensory experience

Articulate how sensory skills are used by baristas
Explain the art of pairing and how coffee and food pairings can
transform an experience
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