The purpose is to spray coffee all over your tongue in order to experience a single, comprehensive jolt of flavor. Now roll the mouthful of coffee around your tongue, bounce it, chew it even. This exercise should give you a sense of both the body and the acidity of the sample. After all this, spit out the coffee, noting the aftertaste. Continue to taste as the coffee cools.
Some characteristics reveal themselves most clearly in a cooler coffee.
If your palate becomes jaded or confused, sip some cold water or eat a bit of bread. It is a unique method of brewing in which hot water is forced under pressure through tightly packed coffee, a cup at a time. It is a roast of coffee, darker brown than the normal American roast but not quite black. In a larger sense, it is an entire approach to coffee cuisine, involving not only roast and brewing method, but grind and grinder, a technique of heating milk, and a traditional menu of drinks. The sharp flavor and heavy body make it an ideal coffee to be drunk with milk and sugar, but hardly the sort of beverage to be consumed unsweetened or in large quantities.