Coffee score or How coffee becomes specialty

The term specialty coffee was first used in 1974 in the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal. It was intended to describe the highest quality beans grown in specific microclimates. Today, a special evaluation is carried out to obtain the status of specialty coffee. Specialty coffee is only one that is rated by professionals at 80 or more points out of 100. This scale was created by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), and beans are evaluated only by certified coffee tasters (Q graders).

Kenya, Ethiopia and Colombia are considered the meccas of coffee, but India, Japan and other coffee growers are fast catching up. In order to grow coffee beans that can be assigned to a specialty class, they are grown only at specific times of the year, in good soil and properly picked (only ripe coffee berries are picked), and the traceability of the coffee is ensured (of course, exactly from which farm it came), the coffee beans are carefully supervised during all stages of preparation.

In order to assess whether the coffee can be classified as specialty, it is evaluated from two aspects: the quality of the green beans is evaluated visually, and the taste and aroma characteristics of the coffee are evaluated by tasting it. Visual inspection of coffee is performed by taking 350g of beans and counting how many of them are defective. Defects are primary (e.g. black or dried beans) and secondary (e.g. broken beans), and coffee is considered specialty if it has no primary defects and fewer than five secondary defects.

For tasting, coffee is prepared after roasting and grinding it, simply pouring hot water over it. Attributes such as smell/aroma, taste and aftertaste, acidity and bitterness, body, balance, integrity, cleanliness and flavor defects are evaluated. The overall taste of the coffee is also evaluated. It is given a score for the overall coffee experience, enjoyment.

The final score is summed up from all individual assessments. Points for defects are subtracted from the overall rating. The following overall rating scale applies:

• 90-100 - Exceptional - One of a kind

• 85-89.99 - Excellent - Kind

• 80-84.99 - Very good - Kind

• < 80.0 - Below standard quality - Not standard

A good coffee rating is a big responsibility for coffee roasters. Once the beans have arrived, we spend a lot of time profiling the coffee, testing different roasting methods and tasting it until we find that one recipe that brings out the roasted coffee in all its glory in your cup.

 

 

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