Ok. I admit it: I’m a gadget freak. But what would life be without these all to often oh so useless, pricey machines that sparkle like jewels and make cool sounds?
Please don’t answer that question.
I have for a while been looking for an easier way to jot down cupping notes. My writing can sometimes be less than legible after hurriedly writing down notes on pieces of paper while cupping. Enter the iPhone! This little companion plays me music, entertains me with games and useless applications (and once in a while puts me in touch with other people.). Why can’t it be my cupping notepad?
This has bothered me for a while. Most of the crew at TW are loaded with iPhones just waiting to get that little bit more useful. Well, I’ve heard your pleas (even though you didn’t realize you were making them.)!
I have “modified” an application called Tap Forms (opens in iTunes) to double as a cupping form, and it works! You can even export the results. I’ve made an excel sheet that I can paste these results into so that they later on can be compared and stored.
As you can see I’m very thrilled about this, and it will last at least until I spill the first coffee on the iPhone. I enclosed some pictures below so you can gaze upon this wonder… Click on the pictures to see large versions.
(By the way, the cupping notes in the pictures below are just an example and not from an actual cupping of Mountain Top. It’s a great coffee, and I’m enjoying it as a single origin espresso at the moment.)
Ok. Finally I’ve managed to make a new version of the cupping form I had made after looking through all the cupping forms I could get my hands on.
I was going to post it long ago, but the harddrive of my mac died and with it all my work.
So now I’ve painstakingly made a new version of the old form. I decided to make some changes to it. It’s based partly upon the Cup of Excellence cupping sheet and is intended to be used either as a full CoE cupping sheet or just a simple descriptor cupping sheet where you can disregard the point scale all together, or you can even choose to use both.
Personally I’d like to be able to have a cupping form that could be used not just for the full thorough cuppings.
I find it sometimes a bit difficult to read my hastily jotted down numbers on a CoE cupping sheet so I decided to make them more like volume nobs. No illegible numbers, just plain lines. I feel that this way it’s also easier to read at a glance after cupping.
Next time I’ll post the cupping sheets I’ve managed to reclaim after the harddrive crash.
Feel free to download and use this form, but if you do please give me some feedback on it and don’t use it for commercial purposes.
Edit: I looked through the cupping form recently and discovered that if you added 36 as per the normal CoE form you’d end up with 108 points max instead of the desired 100. I have changed the form so that you add 28 points extra instead to get to 100 in the end. I also changed “Flavour” to “Taste” as per suggestion.
Small changes:
I decided it was time for a brush-up on the look of my blog. I feel the new theme is more tidy and neat and has the features you’ll look for at a glance.
Big changes:
I’ve been offered a new and challenging job at Norway’s biggest specialty coffee roaster and green beans importer Solberg & Hansen. I happily accepted the offer and will start a new chapter in my work life on the 27th of April.
I’m sad to leave Tim Wendelboe as it’s been a great place to work, but I’m very glad to get to work at S&H which will offer new possibilities and challenges. I’ll get back to this in more detail when I start at S&H.
Thats it for now.
Ola
