Uhm, yes. You’ve read that right. Eight·een.

I was lucky enough to join Uggy Café’s first ever cupping session. In layman’s term, coffee tasting. I know I love drinking coffee and I can’t go on a day without having a cup or two (or more). But, I’ve realized how much I don’t know anything about it. It’s just coffee and it makes my day. I mean, I wasn’t really curious about the name of the coffee, who grows and roasts it. Are you? I can only say the brand of the café and compare it to another, like, “I like Tully’s coffee jelly than Starbucks'”. HAHA! Lame. Sometimes, I’ll just have those 3-in-1 and they are, mostly, too sweet.

In this cupping session, I’ve seen what it was to be a coffee enthusiast. It always amuses me to see people enjoy and really love what they are doing. It’s inspiring. Uggy Café is the first ever specialty coffee shop in our town. HOW COOL IS THAT?

We had an informal setting. It’s not the usual cupping session that professionals and roasters really do but it was informative and fun nonetheless.

When I saw these cups perfectly queued on four tables, my first thought was, “aren’t they too many?” LOL I didn’t actually count until I was given the paper. Yep, there were 18 different coffee beans that we didn’t know the names of.

Each cup was numbered 1-18. They didn’t put which coffee it is so our judgement would be pretty much raw.

Dry Fragrance

The first thing they did was to grind the coffee beans. After that, we got to smell each cup one by one. At first, I had a hard time figuring out the smell. I mean, they all smell like, well, coffee beans. But, as I shake it a bit, I knew there were more. I liked how others smelled like tea or grassy. Some were a little spicy. There were others that smell like those frozen meat. I know, weird. Or maybe that was just me!

We were told that we could put something like a memory that the smell remind us on the sheet. It didn’t have to be the actual smell if we can’t describe it that way. I remember putting farm on mine. You know that feeling when you are in a countryside and you can smell the field? Yes, that. Nostalgic. I also put petrichor there. The others joked about putting the smell of their exes and such, it was really funny! 😆

Wet Aroma

Then, it was time for some brewing. GAAAAD! THE SMELL! IT WAS SO GOOD. IT WAS HEAVEN. 👌👌👌

 

As they put on the water, crusts of the coffee grounds started to surface. I think we waited 4 minutes before we got to smell the coffee. The thing with this second part is we didn’t just smell it. We had to break the crust. We did it as we smell the coffee while pushing away the crust with a cupping spoon three times. It was only did once in each cup, though. After the process, everyone could just sniff it like how we normally smell things.

I’ve noticed that some smelled the same as its grounds. The others were either milder or stronger.

Finally, we got to taste all the coffee.

I seriously prefer the citrus-y ones more than the ones with strong bitter taste. Some tasted like tea, which is a surprise. Those are the ones that smelled grassy and flowery. I also tasted something like lemon. The Nestea kind. There were others that remind me of rum and wine. Someone asked about the acidity of the coffee. I forgot the answer. HAHAHA! I don’t speak coffee science but if I’m going to think of chemistry subject, maybe it has to do with the pH. You know how pH 7 is neutral and the lower the pH gets, the higher the acidity. I think lemons are about pH 2 if I remember that correctly. That’s pretty sour for a coffee, I guess. However, I like them. I think I’m going to be diversified and try other blends more.

These are the things we don’t usually recognize or acknowledge when we go to coffee shops. We just drink coffee and enjoy them with friends or family. It’s nice to know these things once in a while. I’m actually looking forward to more cupping sessions! If you’re wondering how is my heart, I didn’t palpitate. I mean, we just slurped a spoon of each. Hehe

These are the coffee brands that we tried (they also sell it in store):

Uggy Cafe

Menu

Address: 227 Don Justo Guido St, Bgy San Pedro, Angono, Rizal
Email: uggycafe@gmail.com
Contact Number: +63 9498805611
Store Hours: (closed on Mon) Tuesday to Sunday 3:00PM to 11:00PM

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The café is literally on the same street where I live. Lemme know whenever you’re going!

Oh, I almost forgot! The 🏆 2017 Philippine National latte Art Champion 🏆 was there at the cupping session. I mean, WOW. There’s art everywhere.

Check Uggy Café on Instagram