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2023 New Coffee Flavor Wheel HD Wallpaper - SCAA Cupping Form & SCA/COE Coffee Cupping Evaluation Criteria Explained

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (official account: cafe_style). For a quality-focused home-roasting coffee shop, cupping is the first thing to do after roasting coffee. But do you know what cupping is? What can cupping tell you?

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Understanding Coffee Cupping

For a quality-focused in-house roasting coffee shop, cupping is the first thing to do after roasting coffee. But do you know what cupping is? What information about coffee can be learned through cupping?

Cupping, simply put, is a method of brewing roasted coffee using standardized grind settings, coffee-to-water ratios, water temperature, and steeping time, then using specialized cupping spoons to taste and evaluate the coffee's flavor quality. More precisely, true cupping also standardizes both the "roasting" and "evaluation methods." In other words, the core purpose of cupping is to experience the most original flavor of a coffee bean under "identical conditions."

The Purpose of Coffee Cupping

Before being shipped worldwide, green coffee beans are first cupped by coffee farmers' associations or processing plants at their origin. This means tasting to confirm the beans' aroma and flavor, using cupping to determine the coffee's flavor and mouthfeel, and assessing the quality level of a coffee—a highly scientific method.

Before being shipped worldwide, green coffee beans are first cupped by coffee farmers' associations or processing plants at their origin. This means tasting to confirm the beans' aroma and flavor, followed by further classification. Only after completing cupping are they shipped out.

What is Needed for Cupping?

The tools needed for cupping are simple: grinder, scale, thermometer, cups, spoons. The coffee bean-to-water ratio during cupping is also standardized:

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

Cupping cups: Should be made of tempered glass or ceramic material

Cup capacity: Between 207ml to 266ml

Cup height: 3 to 3.5 inches

Cup opening diameter: 76-89mm. All cups should be manufactured with identical volume, dimensions, and materials, and have lids.

Cupping spoons: Should be made of anti-static metal material (mostly stainless steel), with each spoon holding 4-5ml.

Coffee Cupping Steps

Step 1 - Water Addition and Steeping

Brew various ground coffee beans (preferably within 24 hours after roasting). Grind the coffee to a coarse powder, place the ground coffee into cups, shake the coffee powder in the cups, and smell the dry aroma of the coffee. Following a ratio of 8.2-8.3 grams of coffee to 150ml of 94°C hot water in the cups, let the coffee steep for 3-4 minutes until a coffee crust forms.

Step 2 - Smell Wet Aroma After 2 Minutes

Wet aroma refers to the intensity of smell when brewing coffee. Some subtle and delicate differences, such as "floral" or "wine-like" characteristics, come from the wet aroma of brewing coffee.

Step 3 - Breaking the Crust

Stir the surface of the cup three times with a spoon, skim off the foam and crust, then you can start tasting the coffee with a spoon.

Step 4 - Tasting

Scoop out the coffee grounds with a cupping spoon, slurp the coffee into your mouth, feel it in your mouth and spit it out. Record your sensations on the cupping form, score according to the cupping form requirements, rinse your mouth and clean the cupping spoon, then taste the next coffee.

How to Score with CoE Cupping Form?

Explanation of CoE cupping form evaluation items and recording points. This explanation provides you with basic criteria during cupping and can also serve as a reference when evaluating individual items:

Aroma

This is the first item evaluated at the beginning of cupping. There are a total of 3 aroma evaluation stages. The first stage is smelling the dry powder aroma in the cup at the beginning of cupping. The second is smelling the wet aroma on the surface after adding water. The third aroma is the crust-breaking aroma smelled while breaking the crust. Aroma is an attractive element of coffee, with many sources of coffee aroma, including floral, berry, caramel, nutty, chocolate, spices, etc.

In the CoE cupping form, aroma is only for reference and not included in the total score, but in the Flavor evaluation item, aroma is included in the scoring.

First Scoring Item: Clean Cup

Cleanliness is a very important and necessary condition for specialty coffee. So-called cleanliness means no defective flavors or taints (complete freedom from taints or faults). Coffee with rotten, earthy, medicinal/iodine, fermented sour, rubber, onion, astringent and other unpleasant flavors and textures indicates insufficient cleanliness.

Second Scoring Item: Sweetness

Sweetness not only represents that coffee cherries were harvested at optimal maturity without unripe beans mixed in, but also represents excellent coffee quality. Only by selecting freshly ripe coffee cherries to process into green beans can better sweetness be obtained. There are many types of sweetness, such as sugarcane sweetness, caramel sweetness, etc., which can be specified during evaluation. If sweetness is accompanied by astringency or if the sweetness remains in the mouth for a very short time, the sweetness score will not exceed 6 points.

Third Scoring Item: Acidity

Good acidity is not like vinegar. Even when bright and lively, various acids like citrus, berry, or sweet lemon can be detected. There are also melon-like sweet acids or crisp fruit acids like freshly ripe apples. All these acid qualities are excellent; bad acids are like unripe fruits or vinegar acid. Some undesirable acids like overripe fruits or spoiled ones can be detected as fermented acids or rotten fruit acids.

Fourth Scoring Item: Mouthfeel

The mouthfeel evaluation item is not about taste but rather the substances and textures felt in the mouth. Oily sensation, viscosity, quality sensation all constitute mouthfeel. For example, between milk and water, the former has a much higher texture. Between thick soup and clear soup, the former's thickness and texture are much higher than the latter.

Fifth Evaluation Item: Flavor

Flavor includes various tastes and olfactory sensations, even the aromas felt in the nasal cavity and mouthfeel all belong to this evaluation item. During CoE cupping, because often 8 samples are evaluated at once, the AROMA item cannot be evaluated immediately, so at the beginning, aroma is only marked as pleasant or unpleasant. However, when it comes to the flavor evaluation item, cuppers can include the aromas they perceive, including various tastes detected or drunk. It can be said that flavor is an extremely important evaluation item and also the basis for describing the characteristics of cupped coffee samples.

Sixth Evaluation Item: Aftertaste

After slurping, various tastes, aromas, or textures that still remain in the mouth. Good flavors linger longer. For example, sweetness, after slurping and spitting out the coffee, still clearly remains in the mouth and even spreads, then this item will score high. Conversely, if there is no aftertaste or it's very short, the score will be low.

Seventh Evaluation Item: Balance

Refers to whether the various evaluation items of coffee are balanced. For example, although the acid is bright, does it still turn sweet? Although the texture is viscous, is it not astringent?

If the various flavors of coffee are harmonious, then this item's score will be high.

Eighth Evaluation Item: Overall

Is the coffee overall excellent and attractive to you? Or is it average, or do you not like it at all?

This evaluation item is the cupper's overall assessment and can also reflect their personal preferences.

Meaning of Total Scores After Cupping Evaluation

1) The CoE scoring form has eight evaluation items, each with a maximum score of 8 points and a minimum of 0 points, weighted by 36 points, making the total score 100 points.

2) 6 points represents that this item reaches CoE competition-level standards, belonging to fine quality. If completely unacceptable, give 0 points (unacceptable). If the quality is average, give 4 points (Poor). If very excellent, even perfect, give 8 points (great).

CoE Standards Classification

Total score of 69 or below: Belongs to slightly inferior commercial beans or industrial beans.

Total score between 70-74: Belongs to average commercial beans.

Total score between 75-79: Belongs to superior commercial beans, generally called high-end commercial beans.

Total score between 80-84: Belongs to specialty coffee.

Total score of 85 or above: Belongs to CoE competition level, also the winning coffee of Cup of Excellence, currently recognized as the highest level in the international coffee community.

SCA Coffee Cupping Classification

SCA coffee cupping has ten scoring items, of which the following 2 items are not in CoE:

Fragrance/Aroma

Regarding aroma includes two parts: dry fragrance and wet aroma. The first impression and first item to be scored after grinding beans is the dry fragrance. Coffee flower aroma, roasted hazelnut, roasted almond are all pleasant aromas. Adding water, the wet aroma that emerges when breaking the crust gives more imagination - honey, lemon, apricot fruit making one's mouth water.

Uniformity

This scoring is relatively simple: do the 5 sample cups have different tastes? Which cup has defects?

SCA coffee cupping form starts marking from 6 points, divided into four levels:

6 points: "Good"

7 points: "Very Good"

8 points: "Excellent"

9 points: "Outstanding"

Additionally, each level is divided into four scoring grades, with the scoring unit being 0.25 points. Therefore, there are 16 scoring points across four levels.

Coffee Flavor Vocabulary

Below are some of the most common coffee flavor vocabulary extracted from the flavor wheel. Please mobilize your full senses and memory, feel with your heart, and help you accurately describe the coffee in front of you during cupping.