The Coffee Rating Table – Explained

You may noticed that I am using a simple table to rate the Japanese coffees I am writing about. In this post I will briefly describe the principals on which this tables are created.
First – the stars .

This is the most subjective criteria. In general I will give 3 stars for average coffee, 4 for something well above average and 5 for a coffee I can not leave without. 2 is for something I will never try again and 1 star for something really discussing. Actually most of the can coffees I tried in Japan were usually in the 3 and 4 stars range.

Second – the Energy content
This is a more precise criteria. 1 battery for 10 to 17 kcal per 100 ml, 2 batteries for around 30 – 35 kcal per 100 ml, 3 batteries for above 35 kcal per 100 ml, 4 batteries for 36- 65 kcal per 100 ml, and 5 for everything above 65 kcal per 100 ml.

The milk content – .
This is partially subjective criteria – not always the exact milk content is shown on the label. Usually you can see it written on the high milk concentration ones. Of course coffees with around 70 and above percent of milk content will receive 4 or 5 “cows” in the table but for the lower milk content coffees I have no choice but to rely on my feeling of “milkiness”.
The caffeine –
Unfortunately on Japanese coffees labels there is usually no caffeine content shown. So this is also somewhat subjective criteria.

Edited 20.03.2010

I had to add 5th category – sweetness .
I realized that one can not judge for the sweetness of the coffee based only on the energy content as many of the calories will come from the milk for example (and most of the Japanese can coffees do have milk added to them).

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts