Colombia coffee grade how to divide Colombia coffee beans grade characteristics taste description

Due to the different planting history, treatment methods and other local conditions, each coffee producing country has developed a coffee quality grading system suitable for its own country, some according to the defect rate, some according to the size of raw beans, and some will pass the cup test. This article is in front of the street to talk about the grading system of Colombian coffee raw beans.

What is the Excelso level?

If we pay close attention to the sacks of raw beans exported from Colombia to the country, we can see that it will be printed with "Excelso-Caf é de Colombia". No matter how large the number of raw beans, all coffee bags that meet the Colombian export grade will be marked with "Excelso", the most common of which are UGQ, EP and Supremo.

In other words, most Colombian coffee sacks of raw beans exported around the world must be marked with the word Excelso, UGQ belongs to Excelso, EP belongs to Excelso, and Supremo also belongs to Excelso. Excelso is the most widely used export standard grade by the Colombian Coffee Farmers Association FNC, and it is also the best grade for Colombian raw bean exports.

Excelso grade coffee needs to meet: 500g raw beans, the size should be more than 14 mesh, and no more than 5% of raw beans are allowed to be between 12 mesh and 14 mesh, in general, 50% of raw coffee beans must be larger than 15 mesh. No pest, uniform color, no peculiar smell, clean flavor. The moisture content shall not exceed 12.5%, and the cumulative defect shall not exceed the limit of 24 points.

Defect classification standard

Colombia's National Coffee Council has strict rules that raw bean defects are divided into two types (pictured below) and are graded on a scoring basis. For example, Supremo 1260 (5%), which is the most commonly exported in Colombia, is a maximum of 12 first-level defective beans and 60 second-level defective beans in 500g raw bean samples.

Classification standard of mesh number and size

Although the size of raw beans is not the main standard for determining the quality and flavor of coffee, many producing areas think that the particles are full, neat and large, indicating that coffee beans have reached a state of full maturity, can develop better aroma types, and are more conducive to uniform roasting, thus forming a consistent flavor.

Colombian coffee beans are graded according to the size of the mesh, usually with a fixed size sieve, and different specifications correspond to different hole sizes. For example, the size of the mesh is 17 mesh, and beans larger than this size cannot pass through the screen, so the larger the number of the screen, the larger the beans left on the screen. At present, the three grades of coffee most frequently exported by FNC are Excelso UGQ 1260 (1.5%), Excelso EP 1260 (10%) and Excelso Supremo12*60 (5%).

Excelso UGQ 1260 (1.5%): the full name of UGQ is Usual Good Quality (usually high quality). The size of raw beans is more than 14 mesh, 1.5% of raw beans can be allowed between 12 mesh and 14 mesh, but it must be more than 12 mesh, and more than 50% of them are more than 15 mesh.

Excelso EP 1260 (10%): the full name of EP is European Preparation (European customization). The size of raw beans is more than 15 mesh, and 10% of raw beans are allowed to be less than 15 mesh, but must be more than 14 mesh.

Excelso Supremo 1260 (5%): the size of raw beans is more than 17 mesh. 5% raw beans are allowed to be less than 17 mesh, but must be more than 14 mesh.

In addition, Colombia has more than 16 orders called Extra, larger than Supremo more than 18 orders called Premium, raw beans almost all uniform size in 15 mesh called Minama and so on. Colombia also has coffee beans that do not reach the Excelso export level, which is locally known as "Product of Colombia" and is commonly used to make commercial-grade instant coffee.

In Colombia, every farmer will report the number and enter the raw bean information, so that the raw bean can be traced back to the source in the future. The raw coffee beans exported from Colombia are usually named as country + producing area + grading + other. For example, the raw bean of Qianjie Huilan grain bean is Colombia Huila Supremo SC17/18 FNC.

Taste characteristics of Columbia Supremo grade Huilan coffee beans

There are five types of Colombian coffee beans on the daily bean list on Qianjie, each with its own characteristics. If you are a coffee novice, Qianjie suggests starting with the water washing g Whelan food beans launched in Qianjie. Qianjie's rations bean series covers a number of classic coffee producing areas and common varieties, so that people can recognize the flavor tonality of each major producing areas, so as to determine their favorite types, and then continue to understand in depth.

Colombia is rich in fresh water, most coffee is washed, and household farms are equipped with a special raw bean processor (Ecomill or Eco-Pulper). The harvested coffee fruit is poured into it to remove not only the peel and pulp, but also a very small amount of water to remove most of the pectin, and the shell beans with a small amount of pectin go into a small pool or container. it may be a tile pool that ferments overnight, loosens the residual pectin, rinses it with clean water the next day, and finally spreads it out in the sun to dry to the target moisture content. The washing step greatly reduces the defect rate of coffee beans, retains the flavor of the beans, and presents a higher cleanliness.

In order to present the rich and mellow taste of classic Colombian nuts and chocolates, the front street is baked in medium depth. The deepening of roasting makes the texture of coffee beans more loose and the coffee powder more absorbent. In order to avoid over-extraction, the front street uses medium grinding degree and medium water temperature, with KONO filter cup for extraction.

Cooking parameters: KONO filter cup, water temperature of 90 degrees Celsius, screening rate of No. 20 standard sieve 75% grinding degree, ratio of powder to water at 1:15, powder quantity: 15g, three-stage extraction

Pour the coffee powder into the KONO filter cup, wet the powder bed with twice as much water as the coffee powder, form a drum and steam for 30 seconds, then pour water in a circle from the inside to the outside to 125g, wait for the powder bed to drop to half of the filter cup, and continue to pour the same fine water into the third section to 225g, until all the coffee liquid has been filtered and remove the filter cup for about 2 minutes.

This Colombian Huilan food bean has obvious chocolate, nut, caramel and other baking aromas, smooth and sweet, mellow thickness, clean taste and pleasant soft acidity as the temperature drops.

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