The tactile, physical sensations you experience on your tongue and other parts of your mouth when you drink coffee all fall in the category of body. Think about milk. Skim milk and 2% milk are both milk, yet they have noticeably different "mouth feel". The 2% milk feels heavier because it is heavier. The same applies for coffee. Some coffees have lighter, more delicate body and some coffees feel like you could eat them with a knife and fork.

Unlike the acidity scale, the Body scale on our website is a quantitative judgment. Higher up the scale the heavier the body. There are qualitative adjectives to describe the different characteristics of body such as dense, oily, buttery, viscous, thick, thin, etc, and you might come across some of these words in the description of the coffee. Once again, more or less is neither better nor worse; it's all up to individual tastes.

It's important to remember that the strength of the brew and/or the brewing method can greatly affect the body of the coffee. Our ratings are based on consistent brewing method.