The coffee bag says floral and citrus. It smells wonderful as you grind the beans, and the aroma while pouring builds anticipation. Then you sit down, take a sip and think: ‘Why does it only taste sour?’
It is tempting to change the beans, adjust the grind or even buy an aroma cup. We first separate two questions: do you enjoy the coffee’s balance of acidity and bitterness? And do you feel comfortable with the way you smell and sip it? If you already like the coffee and simply want to experience its aroma and the way it enters your mouth more clearly, that is when we would seriously consider changing the cup.
A cup can change where your nose sits in relation to the coffee, how the rim feels against your lips and how you lift it to drink. It is worth comparing, but it cannot turn a coffee with no floral aroma into flower tea.
Acidity is not the same as fruity aroma
‘Citrus’ on the bag does not mean the coffee will taste like orange juice. Tasting acidity still leaves another question unanswered: what does its aroma remind you of?
Acidity, sweetness and bitterness are part of taste; smell also gives you associations with fruit, flowers, nuts or roasted foods. If you are just starting out, record these broad categories first. You do not need to distinguish ‘orange’ from ‘grapefruit’ in one sip. The SCA guide to using the Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel also begins with broad categories before moving into finer distinctions.
Try this with your next sip: smell the cup opening from a comfortable distance, then take a small sip. Breathe normally after swallowing and notice what remains—acidity and bitterness, a familiar aroma or both. If you cannot name it, ‘like roasted food’ or ‘I can’t tell yet’ is enough. There is no need to use the bag as an answer key.
Your nose plays a part when you ‘taste aroma’ too. Aromas can enter through your nostrils, or travel from your mouth through the back of your throat into your nose. What you smell at the cup opening does not have to match what lingers after you swallow. The NIDCD explanation of smell describes both pathways.
Treating these as two separate experiences makes it less likely that you will decide a coffee ‘has no fruity aroma’ simply because the first sip tastes acidic.
If you miss it in the first sip, save some for later
Even with the same cup and the same coffee, your impression may change as it cools. Next time, do not finish it all at once. Notice it once while it is still warm but comfortable to drink, again when it is cooler, and again near room temperature. At each stage, write down only: ‘What do I smell at the cup opening? What remains after I swallow? Do I like this sip right now?’
In a trained-panel study using three coffees served at four temperatures, ratings for several aroma, flavour and mouthfeel attributes changed with temperature. Read the study by Chapko and Seo. This does not mean coffee gets sweeter as it cools, or that every coffee has the same best drinking temperature.
If it becomes easier to describe what you taste once the coffee has cooled slightly, you will know to save some for that stage next time. If you prefer the mouthfeel while it is still warm, you do not need to let it go cold in search of flavour. As the coffee sits, its temperature, resting time and the amount left all change together. The point is to find the stage you enjoy, not to attribute every difference to temperature.
This is also where a small cup is useful: you can divide a pot of coffee into several pours and pay attention to one small serving at a time. A smaller capacity does not guarantee more aroma. Sometimes the real change is simply that you no longer overlook what you notice the second and third times you lift the cup.
Want to know whether the cup makes a difference? Start with water
When comparing coffee cups, we begin with two cups already at home and pour the same amount of room-temperature water into each.
Ignore aroma for now. Notice how thick or thin each rim feels against your lips, how far you need to tilt the cup before the water reaches you and how easy it is to control the amount in each sip. Once coffee flavour is taken out of the comparison, it becomes easier to say: what matters to me is the way that first sip feels.
If you already prefer one cup with water and later find it comfortable for coffee too, you cannot call all of that enjoyment an ‘aroma boost’. The rim and the way you drink can be reasons enough to change cups.
Only then brew a pot of coffee. Gently swirl the coffee server, then divide equal amounts between two clean cups with no lingering odour. Wait until both are comfortable to drink and alternate between them at similar temperatures. When you repeat the comparison on another day, switch which cup you try first. Record ‘the aroma at the cup opening is clearer’ separately from ‘I prefer drinking from this one’.
After comparing, use the situations below to choose your next step. On a phone, swipe sideways to view the table.
| What you notice repeatedly | What to do next |
|---|---|
| You already prefer one cup with water, and it also feels comfortable to drink coffee from | When choosing a cup, start with the rim, the grip and the amount in each sip. There is no need to begin with a complex aroma-focused cup design. |
| You have no clear preference with water, but often prefer the aroma from the same cup when drinking coffee | Try again with another brew or on another day to see whether the preference remains. It is a personal clue that an aroma cup may be worth exploring further. |
| Your result keeps changing with the tasting order or as the coffee cools | Keep your current cups for now and find the drinking stage you enjoy. There is no rush to buy a new one. |
| The coffee in both cups is too sour and bitter for you | First check the coffee dose, water volume and grind recommendation against the roaster’s recipe, then adjust one thing at a time. This comparison cannot yet tell you whether the problem is the beans, the brew or the cup. |
The same amount of coffee also reaches different heights in different cup shapes. You can see what each cup looks like and know which one you are using. This is a way to find your preference, not an experiment that can isolate cup shape, temperature and expectation.
Why does a stronger aroma not always mean a better cup of coffee?
An easy point to miss when choosing an aroma cup is that ‘I notice a difference’ and ‘I like it’ are not the same thing.
In a study with 276 participants, Carvalho and Spence compared three cup shapes. Participants rated the tulip-shaped cup higher for aroma intensity. Another shape received higher acidity and sweetness ratings, but did not also receive a higher preference rating from general consumers. Read the research abstract.
The study did not test Sharing Cup and cannot identify the best cup shape for every coffee. Its useful reminder for choosing a cup is not to ask only, ‘Which one is strongest?’ Ask yourself, ‘Do I want another sip?’ too.
That is why we will not judge aroma for you from the width of the cup opening alone. Where your nose sits when you lift the cup, how much you actually pour and which mouthfeel you prefer are all answers you can take from the comparison you just made.
If you want to change how it feels to lift your cup each day
I’m Felina, the designer of Sharing Cup. I first began paying attention to the amount in each sip and changes in temperature when I drank coffee from a small, gongfu-tea-style cup at a Hong Kong coffee shop. That experience later became the starting point for Sharing Cup S Size. At first, I simply wanted to make a cup I would be happy to keep using. The range gradually grew from there to suit different ways of drinking.
For anyone who already likes the coffee they drink and wants aroma to become part of the everyday drinking experience, our first recommendation is Sharing Cup Alpha Size.
Its recessed rim is made for the act of drinking: sip from the recessed side and your nose can sit closer to the space above the coffee’s surface. The capacity of around 230ml suits everyday coffee or tea when you do not want to keep refilling. Choose it if you already enjoy smelling coffee close to the cup opening and want to connect that action with each sip.
That is our design intention. Whether the aroma is more noticeable and whether the cup feels comfortable to drink from still depend on the drink, the liquid level, your face shape and your posture.
If you enjoy comparing aroma from different drinking angles, Sharing Cup Beta Size adds an integral central aroma column. As the drink flows past, part of the column can become wet, leaving a drink-contact surface higher inside the cup. We use this design to explore a more concentrated aroma experience. How much of the column becomes wet changes with the liquid level and the way you drink.
Beta’s recommended fill is around 190ml. The area around the column needs more careful cleaning, and we do not recommend placing a drip bag in the centre. It suits someone willing to spend time trying different ways of drinking; it is not an upgrade from Alpha. If you simply want both aroma and an everyday cup, Alpha is our more direct recommendation.
If the comparison shows that small servings are what you really enjoy, consider the S Size, at around 60–65ml. For an everyday coffee-and-tea cup with a capacity of around 170ml, consider the M Size.
If too much gear on your desk is the problem, the L Size can hold a suitably sized dripper or drip bag directly, so you can drink from the same cup afterwards. Around 300ml is the cup’s recommended capacity, not a target water volume for a drip bag. Actual use still depends on the size of your brewing equipment and the liquid level.
Sharing Cup is slip-cast in small batches in Hong Kong. We chose this production method to realise the thin rim, body curves and recessed sections in ceramic cups made for everyday use, while keeping the profiles within each batch as consistent as possible.
We recommend hand-washing the entire range; the cups are not dishwasher-safe. For Beta, clean carefully around the central column too.
Try the same approach with your next pot of tea
Whether you divide tea between S Size cups or use M Size or Alpha Size for an everyday cup of tea, you can pay separate attention to the aroma at the cup opening, the feel of each sip and the serving size you prefer. These aroma-focused coffee cups are also made for drinking. They are used differently from the traditional aroma cup used separately to smell lingering cup fragrance in gongfu tea.
Before changing cups next time, finish this sentence for yourself: ‘I want to keep the coffee’s ______, but when I drink it, I wish ______.’ Do you want to divide it into small sips, have a more comfortable rim or let your nose sit naturally closer to the cup? Once you have an answer, visit the Sharing Cup collection to compare cup types and glaze colours, and you will have a much clearer choice.
If you are still stuck at ‘I know there is an aroma, but I cannot say what it reminds me of,’ read How Can You Practise Sensing Coffee Aroma without an Aroma Cup.
Product and collaboration enquiries: cs@mycoffeestage.com
