Q: What has flavor tasting traditionally felt like to ordinary coffee enthusiast? Difficult to grasp? Hard to communicate? Or are courses expensive and too academic?

As an innovative company specializing in specialty coffee equipment, STARESSO has cultivated over a dozen professionally trained and internationally certified tasters, along with experienced baristas, brewers, and roasters. Many of us have gone through the journey from passionate amateurs to professionals, and along the way, we’ve deeply experienced the challenges of talking about coffee flavors with friends.

That’s why we aim to make systematic flavor tasting more accessible. We want coffee enthusiast to enter the world of tasting with ease — understanding their own preferences, appreciating differences, and enjoying meaningful conversations about coffee. To achieve this, STARESSO is partnering with specialty coffee shops worldwide to launch the “10K-People Flavor Matrix Tasting Event Worldwide,” with the goal of introducing more than 10,000 coffee enthusiasts each year to the science of flavor tasting.

On March 22, 2026, supported by Mr. Wenbo Yang — champion of brewing, latte art, and roasting in the U.S. — we successfully held our first stop of the event in Seattle. It attracted strong attention from the global coffee industry, and more specialty cafes are joining us to promote this initiative.

Based on feedback and refinement from our first event, we’ve structured the core experience into three modules:
• 1. Devil’s Water Intro — Training to perceive sweetness, acidity, and mixed taste systems
• 2. Professional Cupping — Using the patented 3-in-1 Burr System of the STARESSO Flavor Matrix Grinder to compare flavor development (frontmidend), sweetness, acidity, body, and aftertaste
• 3. Practical Brewing Comparison — Brewing with grinds from the 3 burrs to experience the differences in flavor profile, sweetness, acidity, body, and aftertaste

By transforming abstract terminology into structured, first-hand sensory experiences, flavor becomes easier to understand and communicate.

Since the very first coffeehouse was established, cafés have been at the heart of spreading coffee culture. In today’s booming specialty coffee era, the original mission of specialty cafes matters more than ever. STARESSO hopes to collaborate with like-minded specialty coffee shops around the world to make flavor tasting more accessible — bridging the gap between personal preference and the true value of specialty coffee.