The Coffee Flavour Wheel
Explore the full spectrum of coffee taste — from broad categories to precise descriptors. Click any segment to learn more.
About the SCA Coffee Flavour Wheel
The Coffee Taster's Flavour Wheel was developed by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) in collaboration with World Coffee Research. First published in 1995 and comprehensively revised in 2016, it is the global standard used by professional cuppers, baristas, and roasters to describe and evaluate coffee.
The 2016 revision was grounded in sensory science — researchers conducted blind tasting panels with hundreds of trained evaluators to validate the full descriptor set. The result maps over 100 distinct flavour attributes into a clear visual hierarchy, from broad families at the centre to precise sensory descriptors at the outer edge.
At myroast, we use the wheel as a framework for our tasting notes — not a rigid checklist, but a shared language that helps us describe what makes each coffee distinct. Flavour tags on each product page are drawn directly from the wheel's middle and outer rings.
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Shop Specialty Coffees →How to Use the Flavour Wheel
The wheel is organised into three concentric rings. Start from the centre and work outward — the inner ring shows broad flavour families, the middle ring breaks these into subcategories, and the outer ring gives you specific tasting descriptors.
Tasting step by step
- Smell the coffee first. Aroma carries many of the flavour notes you'll taste — take a slow breath before your first sip.
- Take a sip and let it sit. Let the coffee coat your entire palate. Notice texture as well as taste.
- Identify the broad category. Does it lean fruity, floral, nutty, chocolatey, or something else? Find that on the inner ring.
- Work outward to refine. Is that fruit note more citrus or berry? More lemon or grapefruit? Use the middle and outer rings to pin down a precise descriptor.
- Click any segment on the interactive wheel above to read a description of that flavour and find coffees that match.
With practice, the wheel becomes a shared language — useful whether you're chatting with a barista, writing tasting notes, or simply trying to understand why one coffee tastes so different from another.
Free Interactive Coffee Tools & Resources
Taste Something New
Now that you know what to look for, explore our range of specialty coffees — each roasted to bring out distinct, describable flavour.
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