You Know More About Coffee Than You Think
Here's a test you can try tomorrow morning.
Without telling anyone, change the coffee you brew. Don't say a word. Just use a different bag.
I guarantee they'll notice. They might say "this tastes different" or "did you change something?" or just make a face. But they'll notice. They drink coffee every single day, and their palate is far more developed than they realize.
"I don't really know anything about coffee"
I hear this constantly. From friends, from family, from people at events. "Oh, I don't really know anything about coffee. I just like it strong." Or "I'm not a coffee person. I just drink whatever."
But here's the thing. When I put two coffees in front of these same people and ask which one they like better, they always have a clear preference. Always. It's not even close. They can clearly say this one over that one, and they can usually tell you why. This one's smoother. That one's too bitter. This one has something sweet going on.
People aren't lacking in taste. They're lacking in vocabulary and framework. There's a massive difference between those two things.
Why the industry hasn't helped
I've been in the specialty coffee industry for 20 years, and I say this with a lot of love for the people in it: we've made this problem worse in some ways.
In trying to differentiate specialty coffee from commodity coffee, the industry leaned heavily into complexity. Bags are covered in descriptors like "notes of jasmine, bergamot, and stone fruit with a citric finish" alongside altitude, variety, processing method, and origin stories. The intention is good. Communicate what makes this coffee special.
But for most consumers, it's created confusion instead of understanding. They look at the back of a bag and think: I don't know what a washed process is. I don't know what SL-28 means. I don't know if 1,900 meters is high or low. I guess I'm not enough of an expert to appreciate this.
And that's exactly backwards. You don't need to understand processing methods to know what you like. You just need to taste a few coffees, rate them honestly, and let the patterns reveal themselves.
I've also seen roasters label coffees incorrectly. A family I've known in Costa Rica for 20 years, I've seen their coffee described wrong multiple times. I once saw a bag with a photo of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala on it, for a coffee from Costa Rica. Different roasters list different data points. Some mention the varietal and altitude. Some mention the processing method and roast profile. A consumer doesn't know which of these things to pay attention to or why any of it matters.
Roast level is not the whole story
There's another big misconception I run into all the time. People think that roast preference is basically the whole conversation. "I'm a dark roast person." "I only like light roast." Full stop.
Roast level matters. But it's one factor among many. And I've seen this play out dozens of times.
My parents are a perfect example. They think they don't like specialty coffee. Too fruity. Too acidic. Not for them. So I gave them a medium roast from Sumatra. They said it was fantastic. I didn't change their roast preference. I just found them a higher-quality coffee that matched what they already liked.
A friend of mine insisted he was just a dark roast guy. So I sent him a bag from Graffeo, this hundred-year-old roaster in San Francisco that does really great dark roasts. He loved it. Then I sent him a medium-roast Brazilian single origin. Loved that too. Then a Colombian. Same thing. Within three coffees, he went from "I only like dark roast" to "I think I like South American coffees."
And that makes sense, right? Most blends have Brazilian coffee as their base because Brazil grows about 65% of the world's coffee. So of course he liked that Brazilian single origin. His palate already knew it. He just didn't have the language for it yet.
The roast level was a starting point, not the whole picture. Origin, processing method, altitude, variety, all of these shape flavor in ways consumers don't realize they're already perceiving.
What Siip does with this
This insight, that consumers already have sophisticated palates but lack the framework to use them, is the foundation of Siip.
We don't ask you to learn about coffee. We ask you to rate coffees honestly. Loved it, liked it, didn't love it. That's it. Five seconds after each cup.
From those simple ratings, our algorithm maps your preferences across dimensions you don't need to think about: origin patterns, processing preferences, altitude correlations, variety affinities, flavor note tendencies. It discovers that you consistently rate washed East African coffees above natural-process South Americans. Or that you have an unexpected affinity for honey-processed Costa Ricans. Or that altitude above 1,800 meters correlates with your highest scores.
These patterns emerge from your behavior, not from expertise. And they're often surprising, even to experienced coffee drinkers who thought they knew their preferences well.
After 10-15 ratings, Siip is finding coffees you would never have discovered on your own but that fit your palate remarkably well. Not because you became a coffee expert. Because the system learned what you already knew about your own taste. You just couldn't articulate it yet.
Start wherever you are
You don't have to change how you make coffee. You don't have to buy a V60 or an AeroPress. You don't have to switch from dark roast to light roast. You can brew it in your regular machine and still notice the difference between a coffee you love and one that's just okay.
I always tell people: those nuances are harder to detect in a batch brewer versus a pour-over, sure. But batch brews can still be great coffees. You don't have to perfect the entire process to understand the difference between one coffee and another.
Download the free Siip app and start scanning coffees you already drink. You'll see match scores, farm-level details, and flavor profiles. But more importantly, you'll start building a taste profile based on your actual preferences. Not what anyone thinks you should like.
The Siip app is free on iOS and Android. Works worldwide, any language. Your subscription (from $14.40/bag, US) starts wherever your palate already is and gets better from there.