Coffee Language 02: Subject-Dependent Does Not Mean Arbitrary

Taste is subjective is one of the most familiar phrases in coffee—and one of the least examined. But subjective can mean many different things: private, personal, variable, preference-based, unverifiable, or arbitrary. These are not the same. Sensory experience necessarily depends on a perceiver. Yet once that experience is described, compared, trained, calibrated, and evaluated within shared frameworks, the question becomes more interesting than simply asking whether it is subjective or objective. Subject-dependent does not mean arbitrary. In Coffee Language 02, I explore the space between private perception and shared sensory judgement—and what makes professional agreement meaningful without pretending that individual perception disappears. Subject-Dependent Does Not Mean Arbitrary is now available on my website. Read the full essay through the link in bio.