Coffee review

Will the coffee bean baking curve affect the fairness of the cup test?

Published: 2025-08-21 Author: World Gafei
Last Updated: 2025/08/21, Roasting is indeed a big variable in the cup test, as it is not baked by the contestants who know the characteristics of the sample beans best, and all are entrusted to the organizers for unified roasting, although it is equipped with a sophisticated Eagram Coffee roasting Analyzer (AgtronCoffeeRoastAnalyzer). And the number of Eagle Zhuang

Roasting is indeed a big variable in the cup test, as it is not baked by the contestants who know the characteristics of the sample beans best, and all are entrusted to the organizers for unified roasting, although it is equipped with a sophisticated Eagram Coffee roasting Analyzer (Agtron Coffee Roast Analyzer). And use Agtron number as a unified standard, but bakers or players all know that the same raw bean is baked in three curves, even if the baking degree is the same (Agtron number # 55, that is, close to the second explosion), but due to different firepower and time patterns, the flavor may not be the same, this is the blind spot of Agtron number.

Although the Agtron number difference of each coffee bean should not exceed ±1 in SCAA cup test, it seems rigorous but not enough, because the flavor of roasting to Agtron number # 55 in 12 minutes is very different from that in 10 minutes, but it is not reasonable to strictly stipulate that all beans must be roasted to SCAA # 55 in 12 minutes, and the difference should not be higher than ±1, because the water content is high. Or very hard beans like Costa Rican coffee at high altitude take longer to bake, beans with lower water content or softer beans at low altitude, such as Brazilian coffee, need less baking time and are likely to explode in less than 12 minutes.

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How to handle the baking standard of the cup test is quite complicated, because the treatment methods of participating beans include sun exposure, water washing, semi-washing or fashionable honey treatment, as well as beans with high, medium and low elevations, their water content and softness are different from each other, and the required heat and baking curves are also different, which undoubtedly increases the complexity of making the cup test baking curve.

And affect fairness.

Note: "Eagle value" is developed by Agtron Inc, a well-known food testing instrument company in the United States. In production, the surface of cooked beans or coffee powder is irradiated with near-infrared ray, the deeper the baking degree is, the worse the reflective effect is, and the lower the reading is; the lighter the baking degree is, the better the reflective effect is and the higher the reading is. Therefore, the Eagram value is inversely proportional to the degree of baking.

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