Flavour Pathways with Dale Harris

Today’s conversation is with Dale Harris, 2017 World barista champion, creator and trainer of the new course Flavour Pathways, Dale is head of research and development for Ozone and Hasbean coffee roasters and to top off his list of credentials, an incredibly lovely guy.

While developing his routine for the World Barista Championships in 2017 Dale went down a rabbit hole to the nether regions of flavour, from the development of flavours in coffee at the farm, through processing and roasting to the way in which we perceive them. The research conducted to create that routine started a journey that continues to this day.

In this conversation we cover many topics,

1. The importance of sensory skills for coffee professionals

2. How to develop sensory skills

3. The road to WBC and how this course was developed

One of the most interesting parts of this conversation was Dale’s views on describing flavours, and agreeing on flavour notes. We only touched on the subject, but it is a topic that needs to be explored further during Q&A sessions in the course. Dale argues that the most interesting conversations happen when there are disagreements about flavour notes, not when we agree on them. This has implications for standardization of flavour notes, and for calibration. What exactly are we calibrating on?

The conversation with Dale highlights the depths of his knowledge, it is the kind of expertise that can only be gained through years of applied work, curiosity and passion.

I hope you enjoy this podcast and look forward to reading your comments and seeing you on the course starting November 9.

Email us at info@coffeeknowledgehub.com, message on Instagram @coffeeknowledgehub

Dale is available on Instagram: @acousticcoffee

Music credit to: Luce (cotact info@coffeeknowledgehub.com for details)