SCAA what are the criteria for fine coffee determined by the Fine Coffee Association of America?

1. SCAA's Fine Coffee Evaluation

SCAA establishes a rating for fine coffee, including physical evaluation of raw beans and sensory evaluation of roasted beans.

80-84 points

The coffee aroma is flawless. Coffee with regional characteristics.

85-89 points

Unique coffee with regional characteristics.

90 points or more

Coffee has a unique and eye-catching origin characteristics and aroma. The price of this coffee is extremely high and production is scarce.

2. Grading of Fine Coffee

Only coffee beans that pass strict vetting qualify as fine coffee. According to SCAA's Green Grading (evaluation of green beans), defective beans are mainly divided into two categories: Class 1 and Class 2.

The first type of coffee contains black beans, fermented beans and other defective beans with obvious odor. If one coffee bean is mixed into 350g coffee beans, it cannot pass the certification of fine coffee.

The second category of defective beans includes some black beans, fermented beans, and most defective beans. In the grading method, the evaluation standard score of these defective beans is also carefully determined.

The first requirement for fine coffee is that the raw beans contain a very low number of defective beans and pass the cup test.

Specialty Grade 1: Green beans have five or less defects and do not contain any of the first defects

Specialty Grade 2: Raw beans have 8 or fewer defects

3. SCAA cup test

The cup test can objectively evaluate coffee quality and is an important step to understand different coffee aromas.

SCAA uses the rich experience of cup testers and a large number of examples to set the criteria for cup testing. Those who have more coffee tasting experience can quickly learn the cup test by understanding the standard steps and rating levels.

SCAA evaluates two types of coffee beans in the Green Grading method by cup test and presents the cup test results as scores. If you get 80 points or more, you will be certified as a fine coffee.

4. SCAA cup test procedures and evaluation

Put medium ground coffee powder (about 8 grams) in the cup, shake it and smell the fragrance.

Add 150 ml of hot water and cook for 3 minutes.

Cut the coffee powder layer, which has expanded into a dome shape, with a spoon.

At this point, put your nose close to the cup and smell the freshly brewed coffee aroma (Aroma).

Next, remove the foam from the upper layer of coffee liquid with a spoon, let it stand for a while, then scoop a spoonful of coffee liquid with a spoon, and inhale the coffee into the mouth with a sound, so that the coffee liquid is dispersed in the mouth as a mist. After confirming the aroma, spit out the coffee.

The coffee taste was evaluated in this order when it was slightly hot, slightly cold, and cooled. The evaluation items are as follows:

According to SCAA's cup test standard table, coffee aroma and acidity can be recorded by 11 flavor characteristics. The cup test scores these characteristics on a scale of 0.25 units.

In the above flavor characteristics, each item is 10 points. After each item is scored, add the scores of items 1-9 to the score of item 11 (total score of 100), and then subtract the score of item 10 to obtain the total cup test score of the sample.