The latest versions of the Aroma Map and Flavour Wheel are now available on United Baristas.

Summary of 1.3 changes

• Enhanced legibility and typography for printing.
• Reorganisation of the citrus category on the Aroma Map for greater clarity.
• Improved descriptor consistency with the forthcoming Coffee Tasting Handbook.
• Aroma Map and Flavour Wheel now available exclusively on a white background.

Posters and Printing

• The Aroma Map and Flavour Wheel are now available as high-quality B2 posters, printed on 200gsm satin stock, from United Baristas Store.
• The downloadable A4 PDFs also benefit from enhanced legibility and contrast.
• The white background option for versions 1 to 1.2 was overwhelmingly the most popular, so version 1.3 is available exclusively on a white background.

Coffee Tasting Handbook

• Text changes improve consistency between the descriptors used in the Aroma Map and Flavour Wheel and the forthcoming Coffee Tasting Handbook, which will be published in the UK and US in October 2026.
• The Coffee Tasting Handbook is a step-by-step guide to appreciating coffee and identifying each coffee’s defining characteristics. It uses the Aroma Map, Flavour Wheel and Assessment Sheet, and is written for both baristas and coffee drinkers.

Testing

• We have continued to test updates through Masterclasses and with roasters. Thanks to everyone who has offered feedback and encouragement.

Downloading Resources

The latest versions of the Aroma Map and Flavour Wheel are always available to download from: unitedbaristas.com/coffee-tasting

The latest version of the Aroma Map and Flavour Wheel is now available to download from United Baristas.

Key changes include:

• Inclusion of Bergamot to Aroma Map
• Updated 'Vegetative' term to 'Vegetal'

Testing

We have tested various updates at Masterclasses and with roasters. Thanks to everybody that offered feedback and encouragement.

Summary of Changes

• Added Bergamot to Citrus on Aroma Map and removed Blood Orange. Bergamot is more useful as a descriptor and identifier for specific coffees
• Updated 'Vegetative' to 'Vegetal' to avoid confusion.

• Various design refinements

• Typo fixes

Download

The latest versions of the Aroma Map and Flavour Wheel can always be downloaded from unitedbaristas.com/coffee-tasting/

The latest version of the Coffee Tasting Sheet is now available to download from United Baristas.

Key enhancements include:

• Inclusion of Coffee Profiles horseshoe
• Addition of 'unpleasant' grade for coffees that don't meet the minimum standards of balance, alignment and complexity

Testing

We have tested various design and updates at Masterclasses and with roasters. Thanks everybody for your input, feedback and encouragement.

These changes reflect the importance categorising each coffee's profile as well as requests from roasters to be able to grade defective or unpleasant coffees on the assessment sheet.

Coffee Profile Horseshoe

The new Coffee Profile horseshoe allows you to quickly categorise each coffee using the Classic, Comfort, Clarity and Curious profiles. Its design reflects that the boundaries between some of the profile are porous.

We will provide additional instruction and guidance on Coffee Profiles in due course.

Summary of Changes

• Various design tweaks
• Removal of infrequently used Transparency - Body alignment scale
• Renaming of Assessment Box
• Renaming of Quality Scale
• Addition of Unpleasant to Quality Scale
• Additional of Coffee Profiles Horseshoe to Assessment Box

Download

Coffee Tasting Assessment Sheet version 1.2 was released in October 2025. The latest version can always be downloaded from unitedbaristas.com/coffee-tasting/#assessment-sheet

United Baristas now connects coffee people with coffee jobs better than ever. We've introduced a series of improvements to make hiring easier and more effective.

Hiring

New features for employers include:

• Add a header image and your brand logo
• View local people looking for work
• Enhanced integration with Company Profiles
• WYSIWYG editor for job description
• Optionally add an application closing date and job reference ID

Applying for Jobs

Making a job application is now easier than ever before. Plus, we've your applications are stronger:

• Streamlined application process
• Cover letter assistant is now integrated into United Baristas Jobs and available for each job listing. And, cover letters are even more personalised and professional.
• Apply for jobs with information from your United Baristas Profile
• When you set your Profile status to either 'Looking for my next job' or 'Open to opportunities', you profile is displayed to local employers.

What you need to know

• Existing listings automatically benefit from relevant new features - but you may wish to update them with additional info.

• Some features require you to be signed in or have an active Company Profile subscription.

• Support Centre articles are being updated — can’t find an answer? Just open a support ticket.

We have been working on backend updates to United Baristas Jobs and are now rolling out some design and function changes. The greatest changes are to:

• job listing templates

While we implement these changes some components might not display correctly or work as expected, including:

• new image headers and the new summary box

• special characters might not display as expected

• local job listing cards

Applications and Cover Letters are working normally – and already have some improvements

There have already been updates to the job application process and cover letters. We will continue to add new features as we further update United Baristas Jobs.

We'll make a announcement once all the changes have been implemented, but we've already:

• Streamlined job applications and enhanced job application emails. Plus, applications now integrate with your United Baristas Profile.

• moved Cover Letter Assistant into United Baristas Services

• further improved the quality of cover letters

With summer approaching, we’re once again reviewing the carbon footprint of our services.

Digital platforms are an increasingly significant contributor to global carbon emissions. Since launching Marketplace – with the aim, in part, of reducing the coffee industry’s environmental impact – we have conducted an annual review of our footprint. Our objective is to reduce the emissions generated per user each year.

Since 2019, we’ve reduced the carbon footprint of our services by more than 75%. Explore our journey: https://unitedbaristas.com/action/climate-change/#our-footprint

There have been several noteworthy developments and trends from the past 12-18 months.

Structural Improvements

Bringing all United Baristas services together has significantly reduced overall emissions.

For example, each page view of a job listing now uses just 50% of the electricity required by the previous version of Jobs. And consolidating services also enabled us to implement more efficient database tables, lowering the intensity of search queries.

In addition, all our servers are now powered by renewable electricity.

Recent reductions

The majority of content on United Baristas is user-generated. Over the past year, we’ve made further cuts to emissions by:

• Enhancing page caching across our services
• Optimising image handling and serving content in WebP format
• Improving how we deliver video

These changes have improved load speed while reducing resource use.

Ongoing challenges

Like many online services, our sites are frequently crawled by bots. While we continue to restrict a range of crawlers, bot traffic remains an ongoing challenge. Wherever practical and beneficial, we block bots to reduce server demand.

We’ve also embraced the use of AI. Some applications are integrated into our services, while others are used internally for administrative purposes. At present, we don’t yet have a reliable method for estimating the associated emissions. As our use of AI grows, we’ll need to find ways to monitor and account for these impacts.

We’ve also seen increased traffic from AI platforms. While it’s encouraging to know our content is being referenced, we are mindful that AI responses typically require more energy than traditional web searches.

The bigger picture

United Baristas’ emissions are minimal, especially compared to the energy consumption of an espresso machine or the overall footprint of a coffee shop. We are committed to further cutting our own emissions but appreciate that the great opportunity remains helping the coffee industry better understand its environmental impacts and identify viable, sustainable strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of cup of coffee.

Explore the actions we’ve taken:

https://unitedbaristas.com/action/climate-change

Coffee tasting notes can better connect coffee drinkers with beans and brews. At present, descriptors often hinder more than they help.

Use the new Coffee Tasting Framework to systematically assess colour, aroma, mouthfeel, taste and flavour.

The framework can:

• identify a coffee's defining characteristics
• explain why some coffees are tastier than others
• provide language to accurately and compelling communicate each coffee's flavours

Coffee Tasting Framework

The framework consists of three parts:

Coffee Assessment Sheet: A guide for assessing colour, aroma, mouthfeel, taste and flavour – plus evaluating tastiness based on mouthfeel, balance, ‘alignment’ and complexity.

Coffee Aroma Map: 101 key aromas grouped by dominant aromatic compound, plus a method for plotting aromas to appreciate quality.

Coffee Flavour Wheel: A continuous wheel of 73 distinct, natural flavours grouped by family, with adjacent flavours placed side-by-side.

Despite all the possible aroma and flavour combinations, tasty coffees commonly share three traits: a pleasant mouthfeel, harmonious taste balance and strong alignment between taste and flavour.

You can explore the new Coffee Tasting Framework at https://unitedbaristas.com/coffee-tasting/

Rationale

Specialty coffee needs to better match coffees to consumers to ensure their satisfaction and support specialty coffee's price premium.

Current flavour descriptions are not fit-for-purpose. They often confuse coffee drinkers more than they help. Plus, poor quality tasting notes give the impression that tasting coffee is difficult, subjective or a hoax. This is an unpardonable position to be in for an industry that defines itself by the quality of its coffee.

More info: https://unitedbaristas.com/articles/ideas/reinventing-the-wheel/

Writing Tasting Notes

Write coffee tasting notes that sell, guide and delight.

Tasting notes are simultaneously marketing copy to encourage sales, a promise to the consumer and a translation of a sensory experience into a narrative. Good tasting notes typically combine factual information, accurate descriptors combined and evocative descriptions.

A guide to writing tasting notes: https://unitedbaristas.com/articles/guides/how-to-write-coffee-tasting-notes-that-sell-guide-and-delight/

Marketplace has a new design, enhanced integrations and is easier to use. You may need to transition to new fields when updating a listing created before April 2025.

Enhancements and updates

• It's easier to search and scan coffee equipment listings on Marketplace for key information with the new design. Plus, it's easier and faster to list new items.
• We also added Rolling listing plans, so for a monthly fee the listing remains live until you cancel it. It ideal when you need to sell multiple units of the same item, for example you have a a dozen cartons of coffee cups to sell.
• Marketplace listings are now more deeply integrated with Directory and Equipment, so relevant information is presented when you need it.

Transition away from legacy features

New options are now available for some listings.

If you created a Marketplace listing before April 2025, fields that are discontinued will remain available when editing for the duration of your listing, but not necessarily displayed to the public – please follow the notes when updating listings.

And, when updating a listing created before April 2025, you may be forced to transition to new fields to ensure that your listing is displayed correctly.

We are updating Marketplace listings to prepare for new functions and general improvements.

As we update templates, there are several impacts:

• Marketplace listings may have awkward styling
• Components may be displayed multiple times on the same page
• Some components are common across United Baristas Services, so aspects of other pages on Equipment, Events and Jobs will be temporarily skew-whif

When adding, or updating, a Marketplace listings:

• new options will be available for some listings

• when editing listings created before April 2025, fields that are discontinued will remain available when editing for the duration of your listing, but not necessarily displayed to the public – please follow the notes when updating listings
• when updating a listing created before April 2025, you may be forced to transition to new fields

Why are we doing this?

We are refining the design, making it easier to list and buy items, adding new functions and deepening integrations with other United Baristas services.

Disruptions

Apart from some temporarily awkward styling and changes to fields, disruptions to functions and features are expected to be minimal. This is part of our strategy to make smaller, but more regular, updates to United Baristas services and a benefit of the improvements we made to United Baristas over 2024.

Should you encounter an issue, please check our current status and reach out to Support if the issue persists.

We've rolled out updates across United Baristas Store to make buying new coffee equipment easier and to prepare for forthcoming updates across United Baristas.

• Mahlkönig grinders are now available on United Baristas Store, including the new E80W GBS
• Coffee companies can opt to pay in 3 or 12 monthly instalments with Iwoca
• Deepened the integration with United Baristas Equipment for enhanced product-specific information
• Added refurbished equipment section for used equipment being sold by United Baristas

Explore Store 👇

https://services.unitedbaristas.com/store/