Introduction to the Correct SCA Coffee Cupping Process Flowchart - What is the Purpose of Cupping?

The Professional Art of Coffee Cupping: Understanding Coffee Evaluation

Have you ever noticed that when baristas recommend coffee beans, they often mention what competitions these beans have won and their rankings? This sounds impressive, but what's the basis for these competition rankings? Today, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce you to the most professional coffee evaluation method - cupping.

Let's start with a challenging question!

Which brewing method has the least human intervention? Which method can objectively evaluate a coffee bean?

A. Pour-over drip method B. Immersion method

Let's recall that pour-over brewing's main extraction method uses water flow to impact and agitate coffee grounds for extraction, and the circular pouring motion during brewing represents our human factor. The immersion method, however, only involves one-time pouring, allowing coffee grounds to remain stationary during extraction.

To evaluate the quality of a coffee bean, the best approach is to let it reveal its true character. Choosing a method with minimal human intervention that best represents the original flavor of the coffee bean provides an objective evaluation approach. Using group evaluation (no fewer than 3 people), multiple samples from the same group, and hidden sample information can effectively enhance the objectivity of evaluation results. Cupping precisely uses this method with minimal human interference to evaluate coffee beans.

Therefore, the correct answer is: B

What is the Purpose of Cupping?

Cupping is most commonly used in green coffee bean trading and post-roasting evaluation. In coffee trade, both parties negotiate based on certain conditions, one of which is the cupping score of the coffee beans. The seller conducts cupping before shipping from port, while the buyer conducts another round after the ship arrives and unloads. Only after both parties confirm there are no quality issues with the coffee beans is the transaction completed.

After coffee beans are roasted, roasters and baristas conduct cupping to evaluate the flavor and quality of the beans, determine the optimal roasting and brewing methods, and assess the condition of the green coffee beans. Therefore, the purpose of cupping is to evaluate the quality of coffee beans in trade and roasting, and to find the best way to present their optimal flavors.

The Correct Cupping Process

1. Pre-Cupping Preparation

In addition to regular tools like grinders, scales, thermometers, cups, and spoons, cupping also has specific requirements for coffee bean grinding, water temperature, and ratio.

• Coffee to water ratio: 1:18.18
• Grind size: 70%-75% of coffee particles can pass through a 0.85mm sieve
• Water temperature: 92°C-94°C
• Time: 4 minutes
• Water quality: TDS between 75ppm-250ppm is acceptable. Most commercial mineral waters fall within this range.

Attention! Please do not use distilled water or tap water.

2. Cupping Guidelines

• During cupping, maintain silence. Avoid communicating with others or using body language.
• Participants should avoid using substances like perfume that might affect others' sensory perception.

3. Beginning the Cupping Process

Weigh the ground coffee and place it in cupping bowls, covering with lids. After confirming with team members, open all lids simultaneously to evaluate aroma. After confirming the dry fragrance through two rounds, proceed to the water pouring step.

Pour 94°C hot water according to the 1:18.18 ratio all at once, while timing begins. After pouring, evaluate the wet aroma of the coffee. During this time, prepare two bowls of hot water and two cupping spoons for each sample. When the time reaches 4 minutes, you can proceed to the crust breaking and removal steps.

After 4 minutes, gently push the cupping spoon through the coffee surface three times to break the crust, revealing the golden oils on the surface.

Use the cupping spoon to remove all remaining coffee grounds and debris from the surface. This process is called "crust removal." Before each removal, clean the cupping spoon with hot water and wipe with paper towels to remove residual water, avoiding flavor confusion.

After removing the crust, conduct another round of wet aroma evaluation. The wet aroma after crust removal will closely resemble the flavor when tasted. When the coffee temperature drops to 70°C, you can begin the tasting evaluation.

During cupping, we will use slurping for tasting evaluation. Although the loud sound of slurping might seem impolite, this action aerosolizes the coffee liquid, increasing the speed of perception while enhancing retro-nasal olfaction and taste perception of coffee flavors.

Flavors present differently at various temperatures. The optimal cupping time is when the coffee is still warm, allowing evaluation of flavor, acidity, sweetness, aftertaste, mouthfeel, and other aspects.

Finally, engage in group discussion and calculate scores. Combining the scores from all participating members yields the final cupping score for the coffee bean.

FAQ: Why Prepare 5 Samples for Cupping One Coffee Bean? Aren't 3 Enough?

Cupping first originated in Brazil. As the world's largest coffee exporting country, cupping results are one of the main factors affecting coffee bean pricing. When coffee beans are classified as specialty coffee, their prices rise accordingly. The Brazil Cupping Association uses a rotating circular table where each coffee bean is prepared with 5 samples. After testing one coffee bean, simply rotate the table to test the next one. Gradually, 5 cups became the industry standard sample quantity for cupping. For example, SCA's cupping evaluation method specifies that cupping one coffee bean sample requires 5 cups, evaluating the sweetness, cleanliness, and consistency across all 5 cups.

For home enthusiasts, FrontStreet Coffee suggests preparing 3 samples. This approach yields results that meet cupping objective standards while saving some coffee beans!

Important Notice :

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