Professional Barista Training | WBRC Coffee Competition Simulation | FrontStreet Coffee Barista Assessment Process

Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

To ensure consistent and stable in-store production, FrontStreet Coffee baristas occasionally conduct internal assessments as a daily evaluation reference. These mainly examine barista expression skills and knowledge of beans, including explanations of bean origin information, brewing methods, and descriptions of flavor, aftertaste, acidity, and more.

Today, I'll act as a 'judge' in this explanation... haha~~

Some of you may have noticed that FrontStreet Coffee conducts periodic "spot check assessments." Why do we hold these assessments? Besides testing our familiarity with coffee beans, more importantly, it's to present everyone with a good cup of coffee and allow people to enjoy the taste and story behind each coffee. How are these assessments conducted? Of course, it's not as simple as brewing a single-origin coffee. What's the specific process? First, let me introduce the scoring record we use:

World Brewers Cup (WBrC) Score Sheet

1. Wet Aroma

Basically, the characteristics of coffee's wet aroma correspond to its production origin. However, the intensity of wet aroma is usually related to coffee freshness, measured by the time between roasting and use, and is also affected by how well the packaging isolates moisture and oxygen. Wet aroma refers to the fragrance of the coffee liquid. Generally, the wet aroma of coffee is not as obvious to the sense of smell as dry aroma. When identifying wet aroma using our sense of smell, we typically do this while the coffee is still hot, using the evaporation of the coffee liquid to detect the wet aroma.

2. Flavor

Flavor represents the main characteristics of coffee and is the "middle section" of the sensory experience, including various tastes, smells, aromas felt in the nasal cavity, and mouthfeel between the first impression from wet aroma and acidity and the final aftertaste. Flavor combines all taste bud perceptions and retro-nasal olfactory impressions of coffee. This scoring item must include the intensity, texture, and complexity of taste and wet aroma, evaluated through vigorous slurping that engages all taste buds in this taste assessment. If you're unsure how to describe it, you can refer to the flavor wheel:

3. Aftertaste

Aftertaste is defined as the duration for which positive flavor characteristics (taste and aroma) remain on the back of the tongue after the coffee has been swallowed or spat out. After slurping, the various tastes, aromas, or textures that remain in the mouth—good flavors linger longer, such as sweetness, which remains clearly in the mouth or even spreads after spitting out the coffee.

If the aftertaste is short or has negative characteristics, thereby reducing the experience of the cup of coffee, it will receive a lower score; if this aftertaste enhances the experience of the cup of coffee, it will receive a high score. Conversely, no aftertaste or a very short one results in a low score.

4. Acidity

Acidity with positive flavors is often described as the "brightness" of coffee. Good acidity is not like vinegar; even when bright and lively, it can exhibit diverse acids like citrus, berries, or sweet lemon, as well as melon-like sweet acids or the crisp fruit acids of just-ripe apples. When it has negative flavors, it's described as "sourness"—bad acidity is like unripe fruit or vinegar, while some undesirable acids are like overripe or spoiled fruits, where fermented acids or rotten fruit can be detected.

At its best, acidity gives coffee sweetness, a lively texture, and fresh fruit-like flavor characteristics, and is typically a characteristic that can be felt and evaluated immediately when drinking coffee. However, overly strong or prominent acidity can be uncomfortable, and excessively high acidity may not be appropriate for the flavor characteristics of the coffee.

The final score marked on the horizontal scoring scale must reflect the quality of acidity perceived by the judge, based on the flavor characteristics expected from the coffee's origin's terroir or other factors (roast level, brewing use, etc.).

During assessments, we require that coffee-related information, including origin details, variety, and processing method, be linked and conveyed in the coffee presentation. Whether acidity intensity is high or low, if the acidity quality is good, it will reflect well in the scores and overall impression.

5. Body

How should we understand body? A viscous espresso can be described as body manifestation. Besides viscous espresso texture having high body, juiciness can sometimes also give a high body feel (imagine drinking soup, juice, or good tea). Body is not some iconic taste that our palate can detect, but rather a feeling, a sense of weight.

The quality of body is based on the mouthfeel of the beverage, especially the feeling between the tongue surface and the upper palate. Coffee with "heavy" or "light" body may both receive high scores in texture evaluation because the liquid has good quality tactile sensations in the mouth. However, some coffees with relatively "light" body may also provide pleasant sensations in the mouth. Coffee with heavier mouthfeel, or coffee with lighter body, can both receive relatively high scores in body texture performance, although their intensities are completely different. Reference: [What is coffee body? How to brew coffee with body?]

6. Balance

Balance refers to whether the various scoring items of the coffee are harmonious. Balance integrates all elements of the coffee, including flavor, aftertaste, acidity, and body, presenting complementary or contrasting sensations. If the coffee lacks certain aromatic or taste qualities, or if some characteristics are too strong, the balance score will be lower. For example, although the acidity is bright, does it still transition to sweetness? Although the texture is viscous, is it not astringent? If the various flavors of the coffee are harmonious, this item will score high.

7. Overall Impression

The "Overall Impression" score reflects the judge's most comprehensive and complete feeling about the brewed beverage. If a coffee drink performs well on many levels but is "not quite there," it will still receive a lower score. To receive a high score in this item, the coffee must fully present its unique terroir characteristics in flavor and meet the expectations based on these characteristics. The best example: if a judge has certain preferred traits that cannot be properly highlighted in individual scoring items, the score for overall impression might be higher to reflect the performance of these traits. This item allows judges to evaluate based on their personal perceptions.

Record the beverage's score on the scoring scale by drawing a line and circling it on the intensity scale to indicate the degree of quality. If the measured degree changes (if certain characteristics enhance or diminish after cooling), draw another line on the intensity scale to indicate the new degree, and draw an arrow to mark the direction in which the score was finally modified.

Scoring Scale

Limited to the following range:

Judges must score using this scale: Good, Very Good, Excellent, and Outstanding. Judges cannot give scores lower than 6.00. Below "Good" is counted as 6.00 points.

Each scoring item uses a horizontal scoring scale (from left to right) to evaluate the relative quality perceived for that item. The assessment of the beverage's quality is based on the judge's experience and understanding of quality.

Some items also have vertical scoring scales. The vertical scoring scale (top to bottom) is used to mark the intensity of sensory parts as a record and reference, and is not included in the score.

After evaluation is complete, the scores will be recorded in the "Total" section of each table. The scorer will calculate the cumulative total score for each item.

After saying all that, what's the actual assessment process? And how should one introduce this coffee bean?

First, similar to coffee competitions, baristas need to prepare a presentation script:

Today, taking Barista Xiao Yu's presentation script as an example:

Today, I'm brewing an amazing bean for everyone—【Elida Natural Typica】. As the name suggests, it comes from Elida Estate, located in the Boquete region of Panama. Boquete is a town in Chiriqui Province, situated near the border between Panama and Costa Rica, close to the famous Baru Volcano. The east-to-west environment allows cold air currents to converge above 1670-1850 meters through the central mountain range, creating multiple microclimates in the Boquete region. This makes the temperature and rainfall very suitable for plant growth, so coffee trees planted here grow very well.

Only 30 hectares of the estate are used for growing coffee trees, with the rest remaining as original forest. In such high-altitude environments, low temperatures cause a delay in coffee cherry maturation—about a full month later than normal ripening. The fertile volcanic soil provides ample nutrients for the coffee, and combined with the excellent microclimate brought by Baru Volcano, this allows Elida Estate to consistently achieve excellent results in cupping competitions.

Elida Estate mainly grows three varieties: Catuai, Typica, and Geisha. The estate's processing plant is located halfway up the mountainside, allowing coffee to be transported to the factory for processing immediately after picking to ensure the quality of the coffee beans is not affected. The estate is now inherited by descendants of the Lamastus family. This bean variety is Typica—one of the oldest discovered Arabica coffee varieties today.

The Typica variety has elongated beans, tall trees, oval-shaped fruits, and slightly inclined branches. Typica has four slender branches that spread out at an inclination of 50-70 degrees. The coffee yield per tree is very low, but cupping scores are very high.

Estate owner Mr. Wilford has put considerable effort into harvesting and processing. To achieve the highest standards, only hand-picked fully ripe coffee cherries are allowed. The high maturity of the fruit naturally means higher sugar content in the mucilage, which is the foundation for producing quality flavors. Using refined natural processing, beans are placed on raised beds and in shaded sheds, stirred irregularly, and undergo "purification" after drying, which is more rigorous than industry standards. It requires more than 5 months of low-temperature resting to remove greenness, allowing the coffee's flavors to develop more balanced and fully.

This bean has a medium-light roast, preserving its caramel and light floral notes.

Today I'm using 90°C water, BG 5R (grind setting), with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, using V60 three-stage brewing.

I chose the V60 dripper to extract layers of flavor in a short time. First, use 25g of water for blooming for 30 seconds. For the first pour, bring water to 120g, using a small water flow to slowly circle from inside to outside, with the outer circle slightly faster;

Wait for the liquid level to drop slowly by 1/3-1/2, then begin the second pour, bringing water to 225g, slightly increasing both water flow and circling speed. Stop extraction at 2:05 seconds.

This cup of【Elida Natural】has jasmine flower notes and orange acidity in the front, melon, cane sugar, and jackfruit sweetness in the middle, and grapefruit and green tea notes in the finish. Overall, it has high clarity and is smooth on the palate. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Then, based on this information,

As the coffee cools, judges will score each item at three different temperatures:

(1) "Hot" is defined as approximately 70°C

(2) "Warm" is defined as approximately 40°C

(3) "Cold" is defined as between 25°C and 30°C

When the beverage's temperature cools to 25°C, scoring stops. After considering all sensory characteristics, judges determine the overall impression score based on this.

Judges must clearly mark the "Hot," "Warm," and "Cold" stage scores on the horizontal scoring scale of the score sheet, using the letters H, W, and C respectively, or by circling and using arrows to indicate how quality changes over time.

Judges will record detailed sensory evaluation feelings in the notes section of the score sheet as a scoring reference and to help competitors understand the evaluation situation. Judges must limit their content to describing feelings about the coffee beverage from a sensory evaluation or customer perspective, avoiding criticism of brewing techniques. (For example, describing flavor as "sharp acidity" or "burlap bag taste" is acceptable. "Brewing time too long" or "under-extracted" are not appropriate comments.)

This is the daily assessment process for FrontStreet Coffee baristas—from the planting information of a single bean, to cupping, brewing, and tasting. Every barista works with dedication, striving to present better flavors to everyone~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473