SCA Sensory Skills Foundation 2. March 2022 – VIRTUAL

What?

At CoffeeMind’s Virtual SCA Sensory Skills Foundation you spend a day exploring your senses to the maximum! We take you through a wide range of taste and smell experiences and the theoretical mechanisms underlying them. The aim is to give you a basic understanding of the most important principles in sensory physiology, psychology and methodology. On top of that, the course contains a few cupping sessions.

Before the live virtual course you will get instructions on how to prepare the samples for the course day by doing the short instructional e-learning course available in your CoffeeMind account

Why?

No matter where you work in the coffee industry, a basic understanding of sensory science is important, as we all work to ensure high quality and excellent taste of the coffee.

You should sign up for this course if you want to get a better understanding of how we taste and smell, and how we determine and talk about coffee flavour and quality.

How?

Before the course begins you receive a sensory kit; a box full of tastes, aromas and coffees to give you a hands on experience throughout the course.

The shipping costs for this box will be charged separately as it varies greatly from region to region. Expect around €20-30 for Europe and between €50-150 for the rest of the world.

The course integrates interactive exercises and theory, allowing you to experience the theoretical concepts on your own palate. Various watery solutions, aromas and natural references are tasted and smelled to gain deeper understanding of what flavour truly is.

Practicalities

The only requirements for participating in this highly practical course is:

• Cupping cups (regular coffee cups are fine). A minimum of 6 is required. Ideally similar size of approx. 200ml.
• Spoons
• Napkins
• Scale
• Coffee grinder
• Kettle (large enough to boil water for 4-5 cups à approx. 1-1.5 liter)
• 6 liter mineral/filtered water for coffee brewing
• 8 x 0.5 liter bottles with mineral/filtered water for basic taste dilutions
• One grapefruit
• Table salt
• Internet access capable of running zoom meetings of high quality and no interruptions. Please test this before the course.
• A microphone and a webcam with good sound and image quality. A bad sound and image quality will affect the experience of the course for everybody.
• A quiet room (or superb microphone noise cancelling equipment)
• SCA Sensory Foundation book by Ida Steen is not a requirement but could help you prepare for the course: Amazon UK, Amazon DE or Amazon US

Prerequisites & SCA Certificate

• No experience required
• The course provides you with key information enabling you to get your SCA Sensory Skills Foundation Certification
• A successful participation in this course will provide you with the opportunity to do the SCA Sensory Skills Foundation online written exam and acquire the corresponding certificate. Please note that if you choose to progress to the SCA certification, there is an additional fee charged by SCA administered by us for issuing the certificate. Prices and procedure are described here: SCA’s certificate fees