Flavor Wheel (SCA)

The SCA Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel is the industry-standard sensory reference tool for describing coffee aromas and tastes, most recently updated in 2016 through a collaboration between the SCA and World Coffee Research. Its concentric ring structure moves from the innermost broad categories (fruity, floral, sweet, nutty/cocoa, spices, roasted, green/vegetative, sour/fermented, other) outward to progressively more specific subcategories and then to precise individual descriptors — for a total of approximately 110 defined attributes, each grounded in real sensory reference standards (physical samples used in Q Grader training). The wheel is used in cupping sessions, producer feedback, packaging notes, and Q Grader examinations to align a shared vocabulary across languages and cultures.