by Carlo Odello

Trainer and member of the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters 

When I arrive in Taipei on Saturday afternoon, the city welcomes me by light rain that is getting heavier. It often rains here in Taiwan. My interpreter Raffaele always jokes about this and tells me that the rainiest city in the country is the one he comes from, which is even worse than Taipei!

When I get to the hotel I’m told that unfortunately I’m too early to check-in. I have to wait: Taipei is like a small Japan and yet they speak Chinese here – however I don’t intend to upset the orderly balance of this island. Raffaele, who apart from the Italian name is one hundred percent Taiwanese, suggests that we go and visit a good friend who has just changed his job. I think it’s a good idea. Three subway stops and twenty minutes later we get there.

The place is new and manages to combine Asian refinement with that modern touch that one can find in similar coffee bars in the United States (everyone knows that the Americans are good at exporting their formats). However, this one is not part of a big chain and it serves up the espresso of a famous Italian brand.

My friend wants me to try the coffee and give her my opinion on it. To say no in Italy would be rude, so never mind in Asia, where good manners are everything. And then again I haven’t had a real coffee in over 24 hours (why do they always serve up that dark broth on the flight?).

After a short wait we are served a cup of coffee of a known Italian brand. The first sip confirms what I had observed from looking at it: it’s under-extracted. It’s watery and bitter in the mouth and the aroma barely reaches my nose. It is well known that this coffee is delicate even when fully extracted, so under-extraction destroys it. The problem is not the quality of the product; you can drink far worse in Italy, as I tell my friend. With her beautiful Asian smile she asks me what I really think of it. And I explain the problem using all the tact that I possess. I do so in technical terms because she is a taster of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters.

She nods in agreement: it is under-extracted and she explains why. Basically, the owner of the coffee bar does not allow anyone to adjust the grinding, as he is probably terrified of the possibility of wasting coffee. In a country where the least that you can expect is rain, getting up to typhoons during the summer, grinding coffee correctly becomes very important.

I think to myself that the issue is not the owner of the bar who imposes this strict diktat. The point is the Italian brand which should probably check up more on what goes on in the bars that serve up its coffee. Business is business, but not checking what customers are doing in a turbulent market such as the Taiwanese market means that you stoop to the mediocre quality offered by the American and Japanese chains that are popping up everywhere on the island.

The good news is that meanwhile it has stopped raining and I can take up the road towards the hotel. The under-extracted coffee has given me a coup de grace: I’m totally ready to enjoy the comfort of my room now.

The 2011 Professional Master of Coffee Science and Sensory Analysis will be held in Brescia (Italy) from June 27 to July 1. The Professional Master will be taught in English.

The goal of this Professional Master is of providing, through sensory analysis, criteria and practical application tools for orientating production, along the whole production process, towards the achievement of a product able to ensure customers’ maximum pleasure.

Practical training will explain and illustrate the tools for recognizing through senses qualities and defects in the cup, how to obtain maximum sensory potential in extraction at the coffee shop, sensory analysis tests for assessing quality and stability of production result and, finally, sensory analysis data and the specific tests for fast selection of green coffee, roasting and blending methods, supported by scientific confidence. The whole with the aim of achieving consumers’ best satisfaction at cup stage.

More information: please download the form.

from the correspondent Antonello Monardo *

The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Wagner Rossi, signed a measure that delineates a series of criteria to ensure quality of coffee for the end consumer.   The new regulations will be applied to roasted coffee in both bean and ground forms.

The measure, which will go into effect in nine months, has already been published in the Official Register.  It will determine the requisites that will define the maximum percentage of impurities, setting the basic sensory standards for coffee, the second most consumed beverage in the country, second only to the water.

The coffee that is produced in Brazil, or imported into the country, can have a maximum impurity level of one percent.  The humidity in the roasted and ground coffee cannot exceed five percent.  Other specifications in the regulation have also been set, including the criteria for the coffee’s sensory characteristics at aromatic and taste levels, the definition of the acidity, bitterness and astringency, as well as the body of the coffee.

An expert accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture, who is either a technician or an agronomist specialized in coffee, will be entrusted with the sensory evaluation.  The test will be carried out in a firm accredited by the Ministry.

"I consider the measure a milestone in the national coffee production," the Minister said.  "It is a form of respect to the Brazilians who are accustomed to drinking and appreciating coffee."  According to the Ministry, the regulation will also increase its market value which has been growing, on average, by 5% a year, making Brazil the second largest consumer of coffee in the world.

The new legislation has been approved after three years of work by government representatives and members of the private sector, such as the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association.

* Antonello Monardo is living in Brasilia since 1992 and he his delegate of the Italian Brazilian chamber of commerce and industry. Working for café gourmet and special, he won the gold medal at the International Coffee Tasting 2008. He works on and manages classes for barmen and barwomen, he takes part to conferences and events in universities, spreading the culture of the quality coffee.

by Carlo Odello *

Some people still believe that simply by virtue of being Italian we are entitled to talk about espresso with greater authority than others. It is a comforting thought cherished by many. And yet it could not be further from the truth, at least in some of the markets much coveted by us Italians.

Let’s take Japan, for example, a country that loves Italy and its products: the food, wine, fashion, history (because history is also a product that has to be sold through adequate marketing; who knows, perhaps sooner or later some of our politicians will wake up to this fact). Italian espresso therefore has an advantage over the other products. And yet let no one believe for a moment that being Italian is enough in itself to sell coffee in the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese are careful buyers: their selection of products is extremely accurate, long and complex. But once they choose a product, they stick to it faithfully, unless of course the supplier himself turns out to be unreliable.

Let’s take the USA, which have a very strong home market boasting thousands of coffee roasters. The specialty coffee and the so-called Third Wave dominate the market. And the West Coast, from Portland to Vancouver via the legendary Seattle, is a stronghold of espresso made in the USA (but luckily there are exceptions, such as Caffè Umbria which stubbornly and successfully continues to offer the tradition of Italian-style espresso). So let’s face it: the Americans are only relatively interested in Italian espresso.

What is the best way to enter both the Japanese and the American markets? Training, of course. The Japanese want to have certainties rather than half-truths. They want to have the tools to judge the quality for themselves. For this reason they appreciate the tasting courses designed to teach how to assess the quality of Italian espresso. As for the Americans, we just need to explain to them our espresso: the training periods are therefore vital to explain to them the importance of our seven grams per cup, of our 25-millimeter extraction, the centrality of the blend, and so forth.

A student of mine, who is a celebrity barista, told me recently in California: “The coffee tasting course has opened my eyes on what you Italians mean by espresso”. There are still many more eyes to be opened. And only through training can real culture and experience be passed on. The rest is important but nowhere near as effective.

P.S. Talking about training: from 18th to 20th May there are advanced courses in Brescia run by the International Institute of Coffee Tasters.

* Trainer and member of the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters

by Carlo Odello *

Consumer Reports, operating in the field of mass consumption product assessment in the United States since 1936, have just tested 37 leading coffee blends on offer on the American market. Their report reads:

None of the 37 caffeinated and decaffeinated varieties tested by Consumer Reports coffee experts earned an Excellent or Very Good rating.

And that would be fair, as we know that the American market is accustomed to all sorts of products, mainly of mediocre quality (mind, the same could be said about us). The following statement is less convincing:

However, java lovers can still find at least a few Good cups of coffee. Starbucks House Blend and Green Mountain Signature Nantucket Blend Medium Roast perked to the top of the 14 caffeinated blends that earned a Good rating from Consumer Reports.

At 26 and 23 cents per cup respectively, both the Starbucks House Blend and Green Mountain Signature Nantucket Blend Medium Roast offer a good combination of taste and price. Both have an earthy, woody taste, but Starbucks was found to be a fairly bitter to very bitter darker roast, while the Green Mountain has green/sharp flavor.

In other words, the findings point out that, despite their earthy and woody aroma, Starbucks and Green Mountain lead the ranking of the tested coffees. Which could make sense, as such blends might at any rate be the less unappealing in the ambit of American coffee for mass consumption. But it is surprising to find out that Consumer Reports’ assessment is however positive. That means that two intolerable faults, such as earthy and woody aromas, are tolerated after all.

Such America is absolutely different from the one influenced by the Third Wave (or is it already Fourth Wave?) and by specialty coffee which, leaving aside some twisted principles, pursue total quality. And by no means equal to those Italians who continue proposing high level products, either exported from fatherland or produced in the States by operators of Italian descent.

Yet if, as we love doing, we compare ourselves to the United States we will realise that mediocrity is promoted by many in our country, too. And that such people, forgive me if I sound a little old fashioned, are active in educating the mass to appreciate faulty and disappointing coffee. This time the States do not rank first.

* Trainer and member of the board of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters

by Luigi Odello

Secretary General of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, he is also a lecturer at the University of Udine, Verona and at the Cattolica in Piacenza. In addition he is the Chairman of the Taster Study Center and Secretary General of the Italian Espresso National Institute

There is a strange combination in the chemicals of foods, which can be very useful to understand how the coffee industry is less mature than that of wine.
Both drinks contain the trichloroanisole (and their companions), perceptible at the level of one part per trillion (threshold of perception in the air, in coffee and wine is a little higher), which is seen by our sensory system as a threat and then declined in the most categorical way.
In fact, even a suburbs medium-level restaurant refuses to replace a bottle of wine to a customer if it is corked, while for coffee, people close their nose and drink. Yet from a data base we have been filling for years we understand that a significant amount of coffee on the market has trichloroanisole concentrations well above the threshold of perception, even 500 times. Yet they continue to circulate without limits.  
However, if we go on talking about defects we can consider geosmin’s smell of rotten wood and earth, pyrazine that gives a vegetable taste (pea, chicory, depending on what accompanies it and on the levels of presence), dimetilsulfide and dimetildisulfide, both donors of fetid scents, or the more calm vinylguaiacol that, when highly concentrated, confers smoke and burnt taste.
These are just some examples, because in the course about the defects in the coffee, which the International Institute of Coffee Tasters is developing, the tasters will have the opportunity to try about twenty, spending an unforgettable day. It is necessary to make this step to create an embankment to the product of poor quality circulating unpunished on the market to accurately identify and tell the barista that he can drink it himself!  
Precisely for this reason many topics related to sensory vices and virtues of coffee, as they originate and by which compounds are given, will be discussed during the modules of the Professional Master of Coffee Science and Sensory Analysis which will be held on next 22-24 September.
 

by Carlo Odello

Have you ever tried to drop a line to the customer service of the big multinational coffee companies? We have and we have posed them the sort of question that any careful consumer asks himself: how do you check the quality of your product? We found the address of the customer service or, if they did not have one, the name of the most appropriate person on their corporate websites. We wrote to the companies using a private email address and signed the request. We asked them all the same question: which method do you use for measuring the quality of your product?

This is an unnecessary question when it is down to quality in other sectors. It is already a few years since the car manufacturing industry, just to give an example, has started publishing the results of its safety tests and devotes special focus to them when promoting its product. Coffee is a different story: some companies show the plantations in their ads on television and some others take you in paradise. The overall impression is that not all of them are ready to openly deal with the issue of quality. This is, as we shall see, confirmed by our brief, albeit, accurate analysis.

We had three different categories of replies. Four companies – Nespresso, Illy, Diedrich and MacDonald’s – explained to us in sufficient detail how they measure the quality of the finished product. Vague replies category: Starbucks suggested we should visit their corporate website (which was not that useful), Nestlé replied they would have come back to us. Lavazza told us that quality tests take place everyday and that these tests are certified. The other four companies – Tchibo, Sara Lee, Dotour and Segafredo – have not even replied. We have not been able to contact Costa Coffee because there was no useful contact indication for the common consumer on their website.

Here goes what McDonald’s, Diedrich, Illy and Nespresso said. The Italy customer service for McDonald’s ensured that they use “only products and ingredients that match the highest quality standards and that have been officially approved by competent authorities”. They informed us that “the choice is made on organoleptic evaluations – defined by a panel of tasters – representing the average consumer – who has positively rated the current supplier”. Diedrich gave a more detailed reply saying that the coffee samples are tested before purchase and delivery and that they are also subject to a visual evaluation aimed at spotting any defects of the green coffee. Each roasting process is cupped before it goes to packaging. Also Illy provides great details, informing us that they select the coffee batches and then they make an electronic control on the colour of the beans so that they can discard the flawed ones. They also add that, during the production process, 114 checks are made. From Nespresso, we received a reply by their technical & quality manager Alexandre Bolay (perhaps they smelled the rat?). He said that all throughout the production line there are quality inspections and tasting sessions. The daily production is benchmarked against a reference production: blind testing is done and if the correspondence between the sample and the reference product is lower than 60%, corrective measures are applied to the recipe.

These were their replies. Said this, our test was mainly on the external relations of these companies. The interesting thing to note is that from at least two thirds of the companies we had no useful reply. Actually, Tchibo, Sara Lee, Dotour and Segafredo have not replied at all. We thought this was a bit odd given that quality is the battle field of a wealth of marketing and communication initiatives. In particular, Starbucks vague reply comes as a surprise: they said that, due to the volume of queries they receive, they cannot give interviews or reply to requests for data or provide information on the company other than what is already in the public domain. This comes in a moment when Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, is fighting against what he defines as a weakening of the Starbucks experience.

In general, talking about the absent companies, and they did this deliberately, we get the impression that their marketing is still based on the assumption that the consumer is passive. They do marketing strongly focusing on promotion rather than information. The point is that now the consumer, when choosing the product, relies on means like other people’s opinion and the Internet which are not that sensitive to the sort of imposition-based marketing style.

by Roberto Zironi

He is professor of Food Industries at the University of Udine and president of the Department of Food Science in the same University. In addition, he is the chair of the scientific committee of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters and vice-president of the International Academy of Sensory Analysis.

The definition of specific markers which describe a coffee all throughout the production process makes it possible to monitor and optimize both its hygienic-sanitary and sensorial quality so that levels of acceptability can be set and anomalies in the composition of the final aroma can be spotted.

Among the various components which contribute to the creation of the aromatic profile of a coffee it is not easy to establish which of them can be defined as markers of quality in that it is necessary to mediate between the characteristics seen as related to the specific coffee and the place of origin and the market needs.

In order to identify the markers of quality for coffee it is necessary to examine the components which determine the positive aromatic characteristics typical of a specific coffee along with the components generated during the roasting process. The point is that while the flaws, as explained in the previous issue of Coffee Taster, come from a few chemical species, the positive elements are the result of the interaction of tens or hundreds of different molecules. Currently, the specialists are trying to identify the individual markers of quality or the simple connections between the elements transformed during the roasting process.

The chemical compounds that produce such distinguishing features are present in the raw material and they undergo major transformations during the roasting process which not only occasion significant transformation of the individual original compounds, but also combines them creating synergies and antagonisms which contribute to determining the final aroma of the beverage.

It is important to note what follows:

• the body is given by fats, macromolecules and colloids;
• the perceived acidity is given by the aliphatic volatile and non volatile acids, chlorogenic acids, phenol acids and inorganic acids;
• the bitterness comes from compounds such as caffeine, trigonelline and chlorogenic as well as chinic acids;
• the sweetness comes from the sugar compounds still present after the roasting process;
• the fruity and flowery notes typical of coffees from south America are given by aldehydes, ketones and alyphates.

Moreover, there are several other sets of compounds which contribute to the overall aroma, for instance the furnas – which give the caramel note, pyrazines – toasted note, tiazoli, pyrroles, phenols and thiophenes.

The ratios between such compounds have an impact on quality. For example, the ratio between 4-vinilguaiacol and 4-etilguaiacol, elements which – taken on their own – are characterised by markedly different aromatic notes, is responsible for distinguishing traits, in terms of aroma, of the Arabica and Robusta.

In collaboration with: E.Cossio, F.Battistutta

by Luigi Odello

Secretary General of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, he is also a lecturer at the University of Udine, Verona and at the Cattolica in Piacenza. In addition he is the Chairman of the Taster Study Center and Secretary General of the Italian Espresso National Institute

The coffee production cycle is long and, especially, all too often there is no contact between the various stages: whoever harvests the beans in the tropical countries rarely has an idea of how they will be processed and of the expectations of the final consumer.
We want to focus on this last element in that coffee, a successful one, in the future must be able to satisfy the desires of the consumers. It must be said that satisfying expectations is something that goes from the ritual modality to the place where you drink coffee. Having said this, the most important aspect is sensory trends.
Resorting to the ten points identified by the Taster Study Centre, we can try and define the profile of the winning coffee.

Increase in the number of taste-aware people
In future we will have more and more time availability and a part of this will lead to an increase in the number of taste-aware people. The sort of people who attend courses to regain their ability to make autonomous choices through an effective use of sense organs. We can see this trend already: just come to think about the 5.000 people who attended the courses of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters. The increase of such people will, as a consequence, bring about a more demanding research for the satisfaction of the pleasure that can come from coffee. Ultimately, this will mean that people will point out to each other the good and bad products available on the market. The quality-minded companies will have a certain alley, all the others will be penalised.

Evolution of the analytical approach to taste
The increasing conviction of the inability to have a role in handling the major social issues will lead individuals to create for themselves some micro cosmos where they can find self-confidence, self-satisfaction and, in general, rewards. The small pleasures in life will become increasingly important and coffee is, undoubtedly, one of these. Greater attention will be devoted to the quality of what we drink and people will want to match taste and knowledge so that they can boast their specific competence.

Decline of gender differences
Males and females will be more and more similar in terms of tastes and, ultimately, of consumption. Coffee will become a way of getting together and the places where to drink it will become a sort of a stage of social life. This will be the background against which new rituals and sensory experiences will be sought for.

Looking for the lost sensory experience
We do not know to what extent this is true but many people say that coffee no longer has the aroma it used to, that intense and varied smell that you could find everywhere inside the bar. The diffusion of consumption systems that pay less attention to the olfactory quality – take automatic machines – and of a certain type of blends for home use – where, when you are lucky, only the aroma of roasted beans dominates – have deprived the consumer of an effective offer to a demand which, probably, has its origins in our genes. Well, the future will be characterised by a wealth of individuals looking for these sensory experiences.

Back to genuine aromas
Power, perfection, deepness: these are the three distinguishing qualities of an excellent cup of coffee. The Italian espresso owes a bit of its international success to these expectations of the consumer, even if they are unconscious. It is a strong sum of aromas and, when these are good, they are at the heart of a sublime moment of sensory satisfaction.
The preparation method is important because it can extract the very best from a blend but there is always the other face of the coin: if the blend is of poor quality, the negative sides of it will be even more noticeable compared with extracting via softer methods (e.g. filter and moka pot).
The return to genuine aromas will also reduce the trend to some experiences, such as aromatisation of coffee, whilst producing an increase of traditional matches, i.e. with milk or, in some cultures, with distillates.

The floral goes universal
Floral is the smell of life itself and is climbing the stairs of appreciation. In the coffee it finds its best expression in the varieties ripened at high altitudes – where the difference in temperature between day and night is sharper – subject to wet processing and then left for fermentation in pure and fresh waters. The not-too-strongly-roasted blends which have high quantities of the floral aroma will benefit from this and the same goes for consumption of pure varieties, single-origins which are becoming increasingly popular in Italy.

Decline of the fruity
The fruity aroma is one of the big favourites in that it is a promise of easily absorbable energy sources. Over time, in the industrial economies, it has been widely used to make products such as drugs more pleasant, hence being associated to negative things. In the coffee it almost always goes hand in hand with the floral and it is less strong than other sensations, consequently it will have no influence on consumption.

Cultural contaminations
Globalisation will produce a parallel and transversal flattening off of different consumption methods. If, till yesterday, Italy drank espresso and the US the filter coffee, already now, but especially tomorrow, the Americans will want espresso and Italians will be looking for other preparation methods. The segmentation between the various types will happen depending on the time of day: a long coffee for the morning, might be a single-origin, an espresso at the mid-morning break, a moka after lunch, for example.
The popularity of machines that are fed with coffee in beans, making it possible to have different preparations, will support this trend. And coffee will become more and more a ritual and always less of a habit.

Looking for softness
The world needs caresses. Therefore, from a tactile point of view, the coffee will be required to be more and more silky and absolutely astringent. The Italian espresso prepared with good-quality blends will be better positioned because it will have body, it will be syrup-like and creamy. Beverages such as cappuccino, which due to their nature have a remarkable tactile tenderness, will be rewarded. And with cream being criticised because of health issues, it will be up to traditional genuine beverages to satisfy the need for softness.

Looking for sensory consistency
Even if the consumer is not an expert taster, her/his subconscious verifies the level of consistency between the perceptions given by the various sense organs or between the perceptions of a different nature given by the same sense. In the coffee, the floral/fruity must keep a certain relationship with the roasted/spicy, the acidity with the bitterness, the bitterness and the roasted note with the colour of the creamy froth. From a coffee prepared with filter or moka, nobody expects neither the creamy froth nor the syrup-like touch, while for an espresso this is of paramount importance. And you name it.

Final observations
To wrap up, the coffee for the future will be the type of coffee capable of satisfying both taste and knowledge, the ritual moments and the needs of the life torn between increasingly hectic working styles and the desire to enjoy leisure time and, especially, through the little pleasures and the time we devote to ourselves. For coffee, if satisfactory from a sensory point of view, we can imagine what follows:

• a new interest in single-origin varieties;
• increase in consumption of coffee in beans both at home and at the workplace thanks to the new machines which make it possible to immediately grind coffee and prepare different types of it;
• greater use of single-dose coffee both at home and at the workplace;
• survival of traditional methods, e.g. the moka pot in Italy, which leave margins for a remarkable rituality and enable an adequate use of single-origin varieties;
• growth of Italian espresso in the world.

by Luigi Odello

Secretary General of the International Institute of Coffee Tasters, he is also a lecturer at the University of Udine, Verona and at the Cattolica in Piacenza. In addition he is the Chairman of the Taster Study Center and Secretary General of the Italian Espresso National Institute

The espresso taken at the coffe shop is one of the few products of the ‘Bel Paese’, Italy, associated with the idea of pleasure that you pay for all the same, be it good or bad. Actually, its price depends more on the geography – in the South of Italy it is cheaper – than on the degree of pleasure it can give.
Hear this out: two coffee shops in the Loreto area in Milan; both nice and rather big in size. The first one is Bar Gatto, with tables outdoors. I step inside an there is a sparkling counter behind which is a shiny Faema positioned in a way that makes it possible for the barista never to turn his back on the clients. I ask for a coffee and promptly the barista prepares it with the machine. I am not able to fully see the operations he is performing but it seems to me that he is doing things professionally. Here comes the first surprise: after having finished his job he comes round to me and says: “Listen, I prepared two cups because I will drink one myself, just choose the one you like most”. Believe me, for a second I thought I was not really in Milan. I give a look at the two espressos, in one of them there is a white spot – the same old story: the two exits of the filter-holder never give you two identical coffees – and so I go for the other one. Nice hazel-shade creamy froth with a fine texture, the smell is flowery. To the palate it is silky, with a fine balance between bitter and acid and then it develops a complex aroma in which you can distinguish the toasted bread, the cocoa, dried fruit and nuts. I ask for the name of the blend because I cannot possibly spot it: Prestige by Covim. I say that the coffee is nice, sit there and chat for a while and then I pay: € 0,80.
I carry on my tour in the various coffee shops looking for the sort of quality in the espresso that has been defined by the International Institute of Coffee Tasters and shortly after I walk in another elegant coffee shops with an attractive name: Bar del Corso. Once again, the staff is polite. I start speaking about the price of a cup of coffee in Milan, a very popular topic at the time. They guarantee they will not increase it till the moment the supplier will increase the price of the blend. I ask for a coffee and immediately the bar tender removes the filter holder from a nice Cimbali, he fills it with a strong stroke, he presses it with energy, he wipes any coffee grounds off the rim of the filter, he fastens it and observes the coffee while it pours in the cup and stops the machine at the right moment. No doubts that he knows what he is doing and he is professional.
He hands the coffee over to me and I observe it. The colour of the creamy froth is right but the texture is rather coarse. The notes of straw, dry grass and wet earth are clear to the nose. To the palate, it is thick and has a good body but as you swallow it the tongue becomes rough and the interior of the cheeks wrinkles. With regard to sensations perceived at the back of the throat, the notes are just the same notes perceived by the nose but even stronger and more annoying. I pay for it: € 0,90. I keep in my mind the name of the blend: Hardy. I then head to the following bar but I am accompanied by an astringent sensation that does not want to leave my mouth. I hope I will be able to find something better but I no longer want to have any more coffee and I am afraid I will not be able to be a fair judge for the sample I will taste.