We’re taking a closer look at a new offering from Counter Culture Coffee. The new blend, Sabor, celebrates flavor perception while showcasing Counter Culture Coffee’s Tasters Flavor Wheel and offers a challenge to coffee drinkers—drink the coffee, and tell CCC what you think it tastes like. “There’s no one right answer,” CCC’s website explains, “but there is excitement in being able to articulate an experience and joy when consensus is reached with others.”
The front of the package, designed in-house by lead designer Amanda Hakanson-Stacy, offers broad flavor descriptors (chocolate and fruit) and packs every single flavors found on the wheel on the side panel inviting the drinker to “find your flavor.”
The release of Sabor coincides with the company’s new version of the Taster’s Flavor Wheel—”a slightly more modern design with some vocabulary tweaks to reflect what we’re currently tasting”—as well as a Spanish language version.
“Access to education has always been really important to us,” Education Support Specialist Ben Helfen tells us, “we do free tastings on Fridays, we do free educational events regularly, and in 2013 we wanted to have a flavor wheel that anyone could download for free as well. Over the last couple of years, we’ve really wanted to have a Spanish version that mirrors the English version that was also free to download. One of the major challenges, though, is that Spanish isn’t a monolithic language. A word that means one thing in Colombia could mean something completely different in Guatemala. We’re still identifying a lot of these nuances and will be making minor updates from time to time, but we’re excited about what we have so far! It’s been a big team effort, a lot of our Spanish-speaking staff and producer-partners have helped a ton.”
A portion of the Spanish language Taster’s Flavor Wheel (courtesy CCC)
“At the end of the day, our hope is that the Spanish wheel is a helpful resource to the many coffee-drinking Spanish speakers in North America, whether they be professionals or consumers.”
Sabor is available now at cafes serving Counter Culture Coffee and online.
Zachary Carlsen is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge.