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Coffee Bean Classification: Introduction to Brazilian Green Coffee Defect Grading System

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information. Follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). FrontStreet Coffee's Introduction to Brazilian Coffee Grading System: Brazilian Green Coffee Grading. First, coffee beans with parchment are processed through a hulling machine to remove the parchment. Then workers use vibration screening methods to grade coffee based on green bean density. It's important to know that density is a crucial measure of coffee quality

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

Brazilian Coffee Grading System Introduction

Brazilian Green Bean Grading

First, coffee beans with parchment are dehulled by a dehulling machine to remove the parchment. Workers then use vibration screening methods to grade the coffee according to the density of the green beans. It should be noted that density is one of the important standards for measuring coffee quality. After grading, the coffee beans are cleaned again, and the cleaned coffee beans are sent to the laboratory for final color grading. A colorimeter uses lasers to detect defects or stains on the surface of coffee beans. Overall, in Brazil, the mechanization level of green bean sorting work is extremely high. Machine processing not only avoids unnecessary mistakes but also helps solve the labor shortage problem caused by high wage levels.

Brazilian coffee green bean grading is mainly based on defect rate, size, and cupping quality. We will explain each separately.

Defect Rate Grading

Brazilian defect rate grading has two standards: one is the traditional historical COB grading and NY grading. In the Brazilian defect grading method, grading is based on the defect score contained in 300g of green coffee beans. The following table shows defect types and scoring methods. For example, insect-damaged bean defect counting is 1/5, meaning 5 beans count as one point (complete defect). Large wood defect counting is 5, meaning one large piece of wood or stone counts as 5 points (complete defect).

Grading by Size

Brazil directly grades according to screen size, with screen size standardized directly in the green bean grade. For example, SC 17/18 represents that the coffee bean size is 17/18 screen.

Grading by Cupping Quality

Brazil divides coffee into fine cup, fine, good cup, fair cup, poor cup, and bad cup according to coffee quality. FC (Fine Cup) and GC (Good Cup) are more common.

Through the above grade classification, we can better understand the meaning and rules of Brazilian coffee green bean names: Brazil Santos NY.2 FC represents Brazilian Santos, graded as 2 by the New York grading method, with flavor quality of Fine Cup.

Knowledge Point: Brazil is the country with the highest production and export volume in the world. Its export volume accounts for about one-third of the world's export volume. It is also a major coffee-consuming country. Its coffee consumption is second only to the United States, ranking second in the world.

In summary: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall, happy to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation only to let more friends fall in love with coffee. Moreover, there are 3 low-discount coffee activities every month, because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends drink the best coffee at the lowest price. This has also been the purpose of FrontStreet Coffee for the past 6 years!