How to Become a Barista: Detailed Scoring Criteria for COE and SCAA Cupping Projects

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What Exactly Is COE?

Just as the wine world has its AOC classification, coffee has the COE. We often hear talk of COE-level coffees and COE competition estates. Today the national specialty coffee competitions in producing countries follow either the CoE or the SCAA model, and as many as 9 major coffee-producing countries use CoE cupping as their national competition format.

COE

COE is a competition model for specialty coffee, and its full name is Cup of Excellence. It is a specialty coffee competition system run jointly by 9 major coffee-producing countries worldwide. The judging panel is made up of international cuppers, and farmers' coffees must pass through at least 5 cupping evaluations during the three-week competition. The top 10 coffees then move on to an additional round. Beyond having their quality recognized as excellent, the greatest benefit for the farmers who place in COE is the considerable auction proceeds they receive. Strong auction returns give farmers more room to invest in quality, which in turn gives consumers more chances to drink good coffee, and the cycle keeps feeding itself.

COE Scoring Criteria

Aroma

Aroma is the first item assessed at the start of a cupping, and it is evaluated in three stages. The first is the dry fragrance of the ground coffee in the cup before water is added. The second is the wet aroma that rises from the surface after water is poured. The third is the break aroma, smelled as you break the crust. Aroma is one of coffee's most seductive qualities, and it can come from many sources: floral, berry, caramel, nutty, chocolate, spice, and more.

On COE cupping forms, aroma is recorded for reference only and is not counted toward the total score, but it is folded into the scoring of Flavor.

Clean Cup

Cleanliness is an essential condition for specialty coffee. A clean cup is completely free of taints and faults. Rotten, earthy, medicinal or iodine-like, fermented-sour, rubbery, oniony, or astringent flavors, along with other unpleasant tastes and textures, all point to insufficient cleanliness.

Sweetness

Sweetness tells you not only that the cherries were picked at optimal ripeness with no unripe beans mixed in, but also that the coffee is of high quality. Only cherries picked at just the right moment produce green beans with real sweetness. Sweetness comes in many forms, from sugarcane to caramel, and these are worth noting during evaluation. If the sweetness is accompanied by astringency, or fades from the mouth almost immediately, the score generally will not exceed 6 points.

Acidity

Good acidity does not taste like vinegar. Even when it is bright and lively, you should be able to name the acids you detect: citrus, berry, sweet lemon, the melon-like sweetness of certain acids, or the crisp fruit acid of a just-ripe apple. All of these are high-quality. Bad acidity tastes like unripe fruit or vinegar, and some undesirable acids read as overripe or spoiled fruit, where you pick up fermented or rotting-fruit notes.

Mouthfeel

The mouthfeel item is not about taste at all; it covers the substances and tactile sensations the coffee leaves in the mouth. Oiliness, viscosity, and quality of texture all belong here. Milk has far more tactile presence than water; thick soup has far more body and texture than a clear broth.

Flavor

The flavor of the slurp takes in tastes, smells, aromas perceived in the nasal cavity, and mouthfeel alike. In COE cupping, 8 samples are often evaluated at once, so the aroma item cannot be scored on the spot; at the beginning, aroma is only marked as pleasant or unpleasant. When the cuppers reach the flavor stage, though, they can fold everything they perceive into the evaluation, including all the flavors they detect or taste. Flavor is arguably the single most important scoring item, and it is also the basis for describing what a given sample is like.

Aftertaste

After slurping, this covers the tastes, aromas, and tactile sensations that still linger in the mouth. Good flavors stay longer. Sweetness is the clearest example: if it remains distinctly in the mouth after you slurp and spit, and then gradually fades, the score will be high. If there is no aftertaste, or it is very short, the score will be low.

Balance

Balance asks whether the various evaluation items sit well together. Even if the acidity is bright, does it still transition into sweetness? Even if the texture is viscous, is it free of astringency? Do the coffee's many flavors feel harmonious?

Overall

Is the coffee, taken as a whole, excellent and appealing to you? Or merely average, or simply not to your taste? This item is the cupper's overall assessment, and it inevitably reflects personal preference as well.

What Do You Need for Cupping?

The kit for cupping is very simple: a grinder, a scale, a thermometer, cups, and spoons. The coffee-to-water ratio is regulated too:

Water ratio: 8.25 grams of coffee beans to 150ml of water, at a water temperature of 92.2 - 94.4°C;

Cupping cups: tempered glass or ceramic;

Cupping capacity: between 207ml and 266ml;

Cup height: 3 to 3.5 inches;

Cup rim diameter: 76–89mm. All cups should be identical in volume, size, and material, and should come with lids.

Cupping spoons: anti-static metal, usually stainless steel, each holding 4-5ml.

What Are the COE Standards?

A total score of 69 or below indicates slightly inferior commercial or industrial beans.

A total score of 70 to 74 indicates general commercial beans.

A total score of 75 to 79 indicates superior commercial beans, usually called high-end commercial beans.

A total score of 80 to 84 indicates specialty coffee.

A total score of 85 or above indicates COE competition level, meaning a Cup of Excellence winning coffee, which is currently recognized as the highest level in the international coffee world.

Under COE scoring, dry fragrance and wet aroma no longer count toward the total. Cleanliness is judged more strictly, and the aged flavors that storage can bring will drag the cleanliness score down. Sweetness also separates the field more sharply, because COE holds that high sweetness reflects excellent altitude, cultivation, harvesting, and processing, and should therefore be rewarded. Body is renamed mouthfeel, and the assessment takes in smoothness and astringency along with body itself. Flavor evaluation can draw on the new flavor wheel for greater precision.

Confirming the aroma and flavor of beans, using cupping to judge a coffee's flavor and texture, and identifying its quality level is an extremely scientific method.

SCA

SCA coffee cupping has ten scoring items, two of which do not appear in COE:

Fragrance/Aroma

This covers two parts: dry fragrance and wet aroma. The first impression, and the first item scored after grinding, is the dry fragrance. Coffee flowers, roasted hazelnuts, and roasted almonds are all pleasant aromas. Add water and break the crust, and the wet aroma that rushes up fires the imagination: honey, lemon, and apricot make the mouth water.

Uniformity

This one is simple: do the 5 cups of the sample taste different from each other, and which cup shows a flaw?

SCA cupping forms start scoring from 6 points, across four levels:

6 points is "Good"; 7 points is "Very Good"; 8 points is "Excellent"; 9 points is "Outstanding".

Each level is further divided into four scoring steps at 0.25 points each, giving 16 scoring points in total.

How Do You Deduct Points When Defects Are Found?

When you find a defect, first decide whether it is a minor taint or a major fault.

Minor taints are unpleasant odors that are obvious but not so severe that the coffee is difficult to swallow. They generally show up in the dry fragrance and wet aroma of the grounds before drinking.

Major faults are offensive flavors severe enough to get in the way of the cup. They generally show up in the taste itself and in retro-nasal olfaction once the coffee is in the mouth. Deduct 2 points per cup for a minor taint and 4 points per cup for a major fault.

The formula is: Deduction = Number of defective cups × Defect intensity

Subtract the defect column from the total score and you have the final score. Above 80 points is specialty grade. From 80 to 100 points, coffees are divided into very good, excellent, and outstanding.

Cupping Process

Let's walk through a session using FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling and the COE scoring form.

Preparation

Clean water; cupping bowls; cupping spoons; a COE recording form; coffee beans; a thermometer; a timer.

Grind and prepare the various coffees to be cupped, ideally within 24 hours of roasting.

Cupping Process

1. Grind the beans to be cupped (grind setting: BG: 3B).

2. Smell the dry fragrance: complete this within 15 minutes.

Add water and steep, following the ratio of 8.25 grams of grounds to 150ml of 94°C water in the cup, and let the coffee steep for 4 minutes until a crust forms on the surface.

Step 2: Start the timer when you pour. After 2 minutes, smell the wet aroma. Wet aroma is the intensity of scent released as the coffee brews. Subtle distinctions such as "floral" or "wine-like" come from the wet aroma of the brewed coffee.

Step 3: Break the crust, stir the surface of the cup three times with a spoon, and skim off the foam and grounds. Now you can begin scooping coffee with the spoon to taste.

Step 4: Slurp and taste. Use the cupping spoon to push aside floating grounds, slurp the coffee into your mouth, hold it for a moment, then spit it out. Record your impressions on the cupping form and score according to its requirements. Rinse your mouth, clean the cupping spoon, and move on to the next coffee.

To find the right roasting curve for FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling, we prepared three different roast levels:

Roasting curves: three different drop temperatures, 201°C, 202°C, and 204°C.

Curve ① has milk chocolate and caramel aromas, with berry flavors and osmanthus fragrance detectable on the slurp, plus some earthy and rubbery sensations.

Curve ② smells of fragrant wood, spice, and straw, with herbal and caramel flavors on the slurp.

Curve ③ has spice, osmanthus, and herbal aromas, with preserved plum, almond, dried fruit, and caramel flavors on the slurp. In cleanliness, acidity, sweetness, and mouthfeel alike, it comes out somewhat ahead of curves ① and ②.

Through cupping, we come to understand the flavors a coffee inherently has.

Notes

Every time you move to a new sample, the cupping spoon must be cleaned thoroughly, and rinse your mouth with ice water to avoid carrying flavor from one cup to the next.

Work through each sample several times in this way until the coffees reach room temperature. Before tasting each one, try as far as possible to forget the previous impression, so you meet the next sample with a clean palate.

You can spit out most of the coffee during tasting, but swallow at least a small amount so you can judge the aftertaste.

Related reading: Is pour-over coffee really delicious? Why does coffee smell better than it tastes?

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A cupping table is really a test of florals, and the coffees that score highest on aroma and flavor are usually the ones with the most distinctive bouquets. FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative is a benchmark for washed Yirgacheffe, prized for its white-flower sweetness and bright citrus acidity. Its floral note is close to jasmine, and the finish is green tea; brewed as a pour-over it delivers clear floral and fruit lift, buoyant lemon acidity, and honey sweetness. It holds up in a cold brew too, where the low-temperature steep draws out more of the light small-molecule aromatics for an iced coffee as refreshing as tea.

FrontStreet Sun-Dried Huakui owes its place among the most recognizable specialty coffees to its cream-strawberry note, a product of ripe cherries developing abundant sweet aromatics during the natural dry. The texture is silky, the aroma recalls a light orange blossom, and guava and mango add juicy tropical contrast that deepens the layers. FrontStreet Strawberry Candy, meanwhile, blends Costa Rican honey-processed coffee with Panamanian washed Geisha, combining raisin, orange, and ripe blueberry aromas with a rose-like sweetness and a faint almond finish; it works in a pour-over, a cold brew, a home espresso machine, a moka pot, or a clever dripper.

Two more worth putting on the table: FrontStreet Mozart, from Costa Rica, is processed with a distinctive raisin honey method in which the depulped cherries are briefly fermented and then dried, giving the beans dried fruit, ripe pineapple, and sweet orange flavors alongside a osmanthus aroma when hot water hits the grounds, making it a natural for cold brew and iced pour-over. And FrontStreet Boquete Geisha comes from the Boquete region of Panama, home to celebrated estates including Hacienda La Esmeralda and Elida, with a classic orange-blossom-honey character, fragrant coffee-flower aroma, and citrus, melon, and honey sweetness with a caramel edge.