Coffee Shop Introduces 'Honesty Menu' Describing What Customers Actually Taste

A specialty coffee shop in Portland has introduced what it calls an "Honesty Menu" that replaces traditional tasting notes with descriptions of what the majority of customers actually perceive when drinking the coffee. The menu, posted last Monday at Extraction Theory Coffee, replaces notes like "Ethiopian Yirgacheffe: bright acidity, jasmine, stone fruit, dark chocolate finish" with the revised description: "Tastes like coffee. Slightly different coffee than the other one. You will not be able to tell the difference but will nod as if you can." Owner and roaster Benjamin Cupping explained the change as "an act of radical transparency" after conducting a blind tasting with sixty customers. "Fifty-seven of them described our single-origin Kenyan as 'good' or 'fine.' Three said 'fruity.' None said 'bergamot with a lingering Meyer lemon finish,' which is what I had written on the bag." Other revised menu items include: - Guatemala Huehuetenango: "Smooth. That's the only word you'll use and it's fine." - Sumatra Mandheling: "Earthy, which here means 'tastes like it was stored near dirt.'" - House Espresso Blend: "What you imagine coffee tastes like. Reliable. Will not surprise you." Customer response has been polarized. Long-time patrons have expressed displeasure at the removal of aspirational tasting notes, while new customers have reported feeling "less stupid" when ordering. "I used to just point at the menu and say 'that one' because I couldn't pronounce anything," admitted customer Sarah Plain. "Now I feel seen." Cupping plans to introduce an honesty scale for milk alternatives next month, starting with "oat milk: tastes like regular milk wished it was different."