The smell of coffee is one of the great joys in this life. As professionals we take this important sensory aspect of coffee and build tools and protocols around it so we can fully and accurately assess a coffee's quality and ultimately serve something consistently wonderful to our customers. In order to do this we need to bring balance, calibration, and objectivity to the personal tastes and experiences we all bring to the cupping table.  Today we on the Rate of Rise series from Roast Magazine we will be diving into this subject of scent and calibration with the author of the Jan/Feb 2022 Roast Magazine article "Exploring Scent", Sandra Elisa Loofbourow! Sandra is the Director of Coffee Content for The Crown, a certified Q Grader and Assistant Instructor, and a Q Processing Generalist. She brings with her a depth of experience as a roaster, green buyer, and barista. Sandra is co-host of the bilingual podcast Cafetera Intelectual and chair of the Good Food Awards Coffee Committee. In this conversation we cover: Journey of honing her own sensory skills The role of scent  Passion guiding sensory pursuits  Emotions and scent Why this sense is underdeveloped Consensus and price discovery Bringing objectivity to personal experience  How big does your circle of calibration need to be How we are always calibrating Le Nez Du Cafe Having clear goals First steps and resources to improve your sense of smell Links: https://royalcoffee.com/the-crown/ https://www.cafeteraintelectual.com   Subscribe to Roast Magazine! Use code "ROR" to get $5 off   Related Episodes: RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters RoR #2: Exploring Quality Control w/ Spencer Turer of Coffee Enterprises RoR #3: Making Contingency Planning a Reality w/ Andi Trindle Mersch of Philz Coffee RoR #4: Practical Thermal Dynamics w/ Candice Madison of Royal Coffee / The Crown Oak RoR #5: Time and Color in Roasting w/ Morten Munchow of Coffee Mind” RoR #6: Buying Less and Doing More w/ Ever Meister RoR #7 Illustrative Sample Roasting w/ Mike Ebert of Firedancer Coffee Consultants ROR #8 How Post-Harvest Processing Impacts Flavor w/ Siva Subramanian and Byron Holcomb of Olam Food Ingredients RoR #9 Inside the Roaster’s Tool Kit w/ Kat Melheim of Black and White Coffee and The Coffee People Zine RoR #10 : What Your Broker Wishes You Knew w/ Scott Merle of La Minita Coffee