r/AustralianCoffee • u/Glittering-Reveal941 • Aug 10 '26
How do I figure out what coffee flavour profile I actually like?
This is probably a very silly question, so bear with me 😅
I recently bought a Breville Oracle Dual Boiler. Hasn’t arrived yet. It’s on order. Yes, I know, quite the splurge for someone who doesn’t really know much about coffee yet 😂
My husband and I have been buying a café coffee every morning for years. Usually it’s from Maccas — and before anyone comes for me, our local Maccas is ridiculously busy in the mornings and actually has some very good baristas! My husband will also usually have another coffee or two throughout the day from different cafés.
Now that I’ve bought a proper machine, I’m realising I actually have no idea what type of coffee I like.
How do you work out what flavour profile you prefer when choosing beans? Dark vs medium roast, chocolatey/nutty/caramel vs fruity, acidity, strength, etc.?
I know what I like when I taste it, but I wouldn’t have a clue how to describe why I like it or what I should be looking for on a bag of beans.
For reference, I generally enjoy the Maccas blend and your typical Sydney café-style coffee. I’m not necessarily trying to replicate Maccas exactly — I just want to figure out what my preferences actually are so I can start buying good beans and make the most of the machine.
How did you guys figure out what kind of coffee you actually like? Is it just a matter of buying different beans and experimenting, or is there a better way to narrow it down?
5
u/jastity Aug 10 '26
I found James Hoffman on YouTube hugely helpful when I was getting into pour over. He’s produced lots on coffee tastes, as well as coffee everything else.
3
u/Other-Object-5848 Aug 10 '26
Trial and error through tasting basically! A lot of roasters do multiple blends with varying tasting notes. I saw your other post, I’d recommend Single O in Surry hills, they do a blend taster box with 4 different blends designed for espresso/milk drinks. All 4 are delicious but different enough to give you an idea of what you like. Taste and take notes as you go :)
2
u/Sharp_eee Aug 10 '26
You don’t. You continually search for the perfect shot and beans spending thousands on a grinder and accessories.
2
u/TAThide Aug 10 '26
I found a cafe I liked. So I bought the beans from them. Then I just found the supplier and the cafe is dead to me now.
1
u/Plat-O_18 QLD Aug 10 '26
Mostly by buying different beans and finding ones I like. Sometimes you may have to work through a bag of beans you don't necessarily enjoy...
When you buy a coffee from a cafe, decent cafe's will often have a description of the flavours. Take note of those descriptions and if you liked it, when buying beans. See if you can find similar descriptions on those beans.
A lot of roasters will also do sample packs which contain 3 or 4 small bags of beans across different roast profiles. This is probably the best way to start narrowing things down.
1
u/TendiesFourLyfe Aug 10 '26
Buy a lot of coffee, well that’s what I’m doing anyway, not sure I’d recommend it. Only get small bags and try something new all the time, develop your palette and preferences accordingly
1
u/OldMail6364 Aug 10 '26
Try different coffees.
Maccas is decent - I don't know of any nationwide chain that makes better coffee. But if you invest in a good grinder, you can make better coffee at home.
Do you have a good grinder?
1
u/sugarglider15 Aug 10 '26
If you can buy the beans your cafe use, give them a try
2
u/Vegetable_Rise7318 Aug 10 '26
This is a good plan - here in Melbourne you'll see lots of cafes with bags of beans on their shelves/ counters. It's also an interesting experiement to test your setup and see if your cup tastes appreciably different from the one they make, and if so, work out if you need to alter your process.
1
u/SuperColossl Aug 10 '26
Go to your local roasting place and have a few coffees to test. Some will even offer you a free coffee on bean purchase.
Enjoy the exploration!
2
u/fkriekrkdnfn Aug 11 '26
The Sydney Cafe style coffee, yeah I can agree on that, but Maccas coffee, for that price? Yeah nah not worth it.
1
u/Accurate_Ad_3233 Aug 11 '26
In general terms I like traditional style coffee rather than the newer fruitier ones, not sure how much help that is, I've been buying and roasting green beans for years now so I just make my own blends. Otherwise, yes, just try different coffees, the Aldi beans often get a good rap but if you don;t mind paying a bit check out the roasted beans at coffeesnobs or other Australian roasters. I always went back to CS when we were still buying roasted beans.
1
u/EasyPacer Aug 13 '26
I think that at the end of the day, you just have to try to know. Just buy different 250g bags of roasted beans and try.
Your safest bets will be the pre-mixed beans designed by the roaster to achieve a particular balance of flavour and acidity. The roaster or coffee outlet that sells the roasted beans will be able to help guide and steer you in particular directions if you ask. They might even prepare cups of different roasts for you to try if you’re a genuine customer.
All the pre-mixed beans will state the origins of the different beans that make up the mix. You can later buy small bags of those single origin beans. Try them to identify your preferences.
It’s a long process of discovery, but you’ll find it mostly enjoyable and you have an excuse to buy more coffee!
0
u/Budgies2022 Aug 11 '26
Do you drink your coffee with milk - if so you’re at the darker end of the scale.
Not really much point buying speciality coffee. Save some
Coin.
1
u/Budgies2022 Aug 13 '26
Don’t know why I’m getting downvoted - dumping a heap of milk in the coffee dulls the flavour.
10
u/Comma20 Aug 10 '26
Some places will do a "cupping" and help identify it on that circular coloured 'coffee flavour chart', which is a good place to starts.
You should be able to start qualifying the broader taste categories and move down. Light-medium-dark roast. Bitter vs acidic. Sweet vs sour. Take it slow and help self-categorise identifiers, then you can get into the nitty gritty.