What do SCAA and COE coffee mean? What are the standard differences between COE and SOE coffee?

What do SCAA and COE represent in coffee knowledge, and what are the differences between them? If you want to drink the best coffee, you should first understand the most prestigious, authoritative, and credible specialty coffee competitions in the world.

Many people who enter the coffee industry first encounter an organization that can be called authoritative: SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America). In 2017, it merged with SCAE (Specialty Coffee Association of Europe) to become SCA (Specialty Coffee Association), the largest and most authoritative organization in the world. SCA is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to promoting coffee knowledge and education. It has designed many standard specifications for coffee, which are still used by most people in the coffee industry today, including green bean evaluation, cupping methods, water quality standards, and the Gold Cup brewing standard methods.

Coffee Quality Institute (CQI)

When it comes to coffee quality assessment, another organization that must be mentioned is CQI (Coffee Quality Institute). In 1996, the then-SCAA established a committee to address issues of coffee quality and farmer income. This committee later became the Specialty Coffee Institute and eventually separated from SCAA to become what is now CQI. These two organizations still maintain very close cooperation. The current CEO of CQI, Ted Lingle, is one of the founders of SCAA and the creator of the original flavor wheel. He also previously served as CEO of SCAA. CQI is important because it has developed a certification system for coffee graders. The Q Program developed by CQI is a training system designed for evaluating coffee quality. After completing the courses and examinations designed by CQI, one can become a coffee grader, also known as a Q-Grader. The benefit of this training is that graders worldwide can describe coffee quality through a common language, helping us understand each other's perspectives more quickly. Q-Graders evaluate coffee according to SCA's standard cupping procedures.

CQI's evaluation focuses on the quality of green beans, so it first screens the appearance of green beans. Defective beans must be scored down or eliminated based on their type and quantity. If you want to have your green beans certified by CQI, you can send your green bean samples to your local ICP (In-Country Partner). The ICP will recruit three Q-Graders to evaluate the green beans. If the green beans reach specialty grade (80 points or above), CQI will issue certification and list the green bean information on its website. If they do not meet the standard, a technical report will be sent.

What is COE

If the wine industry has AOC classification, then the coffee industry has COE classification. We often hear about "COE grade" and "COE competition estates." Currently, specialty bean competitions in various countries adopt either the CoE or SCAA model, with as many as 10 major coffee-producing countries using the CoE cupping format as their national competition.

If you see "CoE competition beans" written on coffee packaging, it means these beans were selected through the CoE competition. The full name of CoE is Cup of Excellence, which some translate as "Excellence Cup" in Chinese. It is a coffee rating competition with great international reputation.

The CoE competition consists of 6 rounds and is evaluated by two groups of experienced and professional juries. Any defects detected in each round will result in immediate elimination. Coffees participating in the competition must score above 86 points to advance to the next round. They must pass through three stages: Pre-Selection, National Jury Week, and International Jury Week. Coffees scoring above 87 points and ranking in the top 30 can participate in the CoE auction.

The national jury consists of local cuppers from the producing country who evaluate the pre-selected coffees. Coffees that pass the screening will advance to the following week for evaluation by the national jury in two more rounds of screening. The last three rounds are mainly evaluated by international juries, which consist of foreign importers, buyers, and cuppers, primarily from coffee-consuming countries. In the final three rounds of cupping, two national jurors will join the international jury to evaluate together. The selected coffees will receive the Cup of Excellence award and be eligible to participate in the auction.

Therefore, coffee beans labeled with CoE have gone through multiple layers of screening, with only the top 30 advancing to the auction, scoring at least 87 points or above.

In summary, with juries composed of international cuppers, coffee farmers must participate in at least 5 cupping evaluations during the three-week competition period. The top 10 winning coffees will undergo an additional round of competition. Besides having their coffee quality recognized as excellent, the greatest benefit for COE winners is the considerable auction proceeds they receive. Good auction earnings provide coffee farmers with more opportunities to improve quality, and also give consumers more chances to drink good coffee, creating a virtuous cycle.

Difference Between COE and SOE

Friends often confuse COE coffee with SOE coffee. In fact, these two have no connection other than their similar abbreviations. FrontStreet Coffee has already introduced COE above as the abbreviation for the internationally renowned green bean competition "Cup of Excellence." COE coffee beans refer to coffee beans that have placed in the COE competition and are sold through auction. The full name of SOE is "Single Origin Espresso," which means single-origin espresso coffee. SOE coffee beans refer to single-origin coffee beans used to make espresso coffee.

This concept actually follows the trend of specialty coffee, where using single-origin coffee beans to make espresso has become popular in espresso culture to pursue better quality and optimal origin flavor characteristics. So don't confuse SOE with COE coffee.

Differences in Scoring Standards Between SCA and COE

It's important to note that CoE and SCA systems use different scoring methods, and their scoring forms look different, so scores cannot be directly compared. SCA has 10 scoring items, with each item ranging from 6-10 points, for a total of 100 points.

CoE has 8 scoring items, with each item ranging from 6-8 points, plus a base score of 36 points, for a total of 100 points. In CoE, aroma is not scored but only described, with aroma performance incorporated into the flavor scoring. CoE has different levels of sweetness - the intensity, persistence, and type of sweetness can all be noted. In the SCA system, sweetness is simply distinguished as "present" or "absent." Cleanliness is crucial for the CoE system because it's the basic threshold for elimination. If any defective flavor is detected, elimination is almost certain.

The SCA cupping form can provide detailed differentiation for beans below 80 points, but this is less apparent for top-quality beans, where high scores easily hit the ceiling. CoE mainly targets good beans and doesn't focus much on commercial-grade coffee beans below 80 points.

Therefore, whether it's SCA or COE, both are authoritative coffee green bean evaluation organizations dedicated to developing a complete system from cultivation to cup. In the first Ethiopian CoE green bean competition in 2020, FrontStreet Coffee also successfully bid on the 22nd place coffee - a natural-processed Typica from West Arsi region, grown by Adem Banta Sute, scoring 87.64 points.

The 60-year-old Adem Banta Sute has been growing coffee for a lifetime and is also the father of 28 children. They live in Refisa village, Nensebo district, West Arsi, Oromia.

Adem Banta Sute produced 4,500 kg of coffee on his 6-hectare land. Before winning this year, he would sell coffee to local merchants.

This COE #22 coffee grown by Adem Banta Sute is identified as Typica in the official information. Typica dominated the top 28 entries in the first Ethiopia COE in 2020, followed by 74110, 74158, and Kurme.

It's worth noting that in the official award information for this Ethiopian COE Cup of Excellence, the variety "Heirloom" is absent, replaced instead by Typica, 74100, 74158, or Kurme. Why? In fact, "Heirloom" is not an accurate coffee variety name.

As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia possesses an unimaginable number of native varieties. These complex varieties are mixed in cultivation and processing, making variety tracing difficult. Therefore, "Heirloom" is used as a general term to collectively refer to unidentifiable coffee varieties.

Ethiopian varieties can generally be divided into landrace varieties and research varieties released by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC).

Both 74110 and 74158 are research varieties released by JARC. In the 1970s, Coffee Cherry Disease (CBD) wreaked havoc, causing a significant reduction in Ethiopian coffee production. To find naturally disease-resistant varieties, JARC collected 639 sample varieties between 1973 and 1975, eventually selecting 13 disease-resistant varieties, including 74110 and 74158. The "74" in their names represents the year they were collected.

This COE #22 coffee was natural-processed. In Ethiopia, over 70% of coffee cherries are processed using the natural method. Traditional processing involves smallholder farmers drying cherries in their yards, on roofs, or even by the roadside, as this method is much cheaper than washed processing. This rough processing method was also one reason for the inconsistent quality of early Ethiopian natural-processed coffee.

Natural-processed coffee beans produced in cooperation with cooperatives and washing stations have more stable quality, but achieving good natural processing still requires more effort. Before the moisture content drops to 25%, manual turning is required every 30-60 minutes to avoid unpleasant over-fermentation flavors. This results in higher labor costs for natural processing.

Additionally, with weather risk factors and longer natural processing times, producing high-quality natural-processed coffee beans requires more labor and resources. However, judging from the scores of the top 28 natural-processed coffees, good natural processing is indeed a method where risk and reward coexist.

Roasting Curve

Enter beans at 170°C drum temperature, heat at 130, damper open at 3; Return temperature point at 1'32", drum temperature at 100.2°C, heat unchanged; At 3 minutes, damper adjusted to 4, at 4 minutes increase heat to 140. When drum temperature reaches 150.5°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, entering dehydration stage. At 8'36", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly transforms to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'10", develop for 1 minute 30 seconds after first crack, drop beans at 192.5°C.

Cupping Report

Brewing Recommendations

Filter: V60 #01
Water Temperature: 90-91°C
Dose: 15g
Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: Medium-fine grind (80% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve)

Brewing Method: Three-stage extraction. Use 30g of water for 30-second bloom. When water injection reaches 125g with small circular flow, make a分段 (stage break). When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue injection to 225g and stop. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the filter cup. Extraction time is 2'00" (counting from the beginning of bloom).

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