Always have problem defining floral. Most of the time I can only taste sour and bitterness. Is it the same as Hifi? You can listen to the airiness but some ppl can't? sorry for the poor analogy.
CGW better not use, got security issue.
floral is aroma rather than taste.
If it smells like flowers to you (on top of the usual coffee smell) then it has a floral aroma.
Sumatran coffees are herbacous (note: "herb", not plant-like).
ethiopians are generally floral too, brazilians are not that highly aromatic but are often used to add body and chocolatyness to a blend. (Brazilians used to be very poorly regarded as they were a mass producer more than anything else. This is now changing)
All this is generally speaking and there are easily exceptions to the various regions...while I can easily smell something as being floral, ozonic, herbaceous, fruity, leathery, etc I'm not that good at picking out different "notes" eg. violets vs frangipani vs rose vs lily of the valley ......or strawberrys vs lemons vs limes vs oranges vs grape. Maybe I don't have the olfactory vocabulary or maybe coffee is just too complex, we pick up different notes during different nosings or have different interpretations.
some other flavour descriptors are actually interactions between taste (sweet, sour, bitter), aroma (floral, fruity) and mouthfeel (viscous, runny, oily, effervescent). So flavour descriptors like chocolaty or winey do not describe only taste but aroma (A combination of aromas) and mouthfeel as well.
I think illy has a book talking about this. can check it out to expand coffee appreciation knowledge...
*disclaimer, i'm no expert or have any formal training. Just sharing some ideas i picked up while doing this as a hobby.
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