What is the difference between AA and AB coffee? What are the three major grading systems for raw coffee beans? What are the characteristics of Kenyan coffee?

I believe everyone who is witty has found that the coffee sold by most merchants will have the suffix AA after it. The most common of these are coffee beans produced in Kenya. Neri AA, Kenya, Krimili AA, Kenya, etc.

Not only Kenya, but countries such as Tanzania and Uganda produce coffee with the same AA suffix. So, here comes the problem! What does AA mean? Why do beans from these countries emphasize AA?

What does the coffee bean suffix AA mean? In fact, the "AA" of the coffee bean suffix represents a grade of the coffee bean. Because coffee beans are not industrial products, the quality of the products varies. Therefore, in order to standardize the quality, it is necessary to set up a system to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages, and this system is grading. So when we see the name of a country's coffee beans followed by the letters AA, we can know that the country's coffee beans are graded according to size.

Here we need to know two points clearly: the first is that the grading system of coffee beans is not only the size, but also flaws, altitude and other classification methods. The specific application will be adapted to local conditions according to the national conditions of different countries. We will talk about it in Qianjie next time. Second, not all those who use the size classification system are marked in uppercase English, because logos such as AA and AB are unit systems developed by the UK, and most coffee-producing countries use such units because they were once colonized by the UK. Like Colombia, coffee beans are also graded by size, and its grade logo is the Supermo and Excelso used.

But in the final analysis, the most famous coffee producing area using size classification is Kenya, because the Kenyan government takes the coffee industry very seriously, so the requirements on coffee quality will be very strict! Then let's introduce the size grading system in Kenya from Qianjie. AA: beans are between 17 and 18 mesh in size. AB: beans are between 15 and 16 mesh in size. The number of coffee beans of grade C will be between 12 and 14 mesh, because the size is too small, so this grade of beans will not be included in the boutique grade. PB: rare round raw beans, referred to as round beans. E: full name Elephant, namely: elephant bean. It should be noted that the elephant beans mentioned here do not refer to the elephant beans in the coffee varieties (Maraggippe, Pacamara), but to the special coffee beans with abnormal development like round beans. This kind of bean is twisted by two coffee beans in the process of development, forming what looks like a very large bloated coffee bean. The size is more than 18 mesh, and the number is extremely rare. The TT:TT grade is a light bean blown out by an airflow filter in AA and AB grade beans. Grade T is a light bean blown out by an airflow filter in a C-grade bean. MH/ML: these two grades of beans are not washed in Kenyan style because of their low quality. They are generally produced and sold by themselves and will not be circulated outside Kenya. The above is the official grading system of the Kenyan country, and it can be seen that AA represents the highest level in the Kenyan rating, which means the best. But some time ago, Qianjie shared an article entitled "does the taste of coffee beans have anything to do with size?" which explained in detail the shortcomings of the size grading system, that is, the loophole is too big. The size of coffee beans does not directly affect the taste of coffee! Take an example often mentioned by coffee people: if the same variety of coffee beans are planted at 900m and 1700 m respectively, even if the final harvest is the same size, 900m coffee beans must not taste as good as those grown at 1700 m. Because the planting environment is one of the main factors affecting the flavor of coffee beans in the growth process.

In that era of great beauty, such a grading system was naturally the mainstream at that time, and the old coffee-producing countries basically adopted the method of grading in size. However, when the concept of boutique coffee was released, people realized the key points affecting the formation of bean flavor, so a brand-new grading system was born. Kenya is not willing to lag behind. Local coffee research institutions and coffee raw bean traders use a set of coffee grading methods developed by themselves to second-rate Kenyan coffee of AA and AB grades. The system, known as the Coffee Bean quality grading Program (Kenyan Classification Procedure by Quality Assessment), was developed by the Kenya Coffee Research Institute. This procedure will comprehensively grade the raw bean quality, cooked bean quality and cup test quality of beans.

TOP, Plus (+) and FAQ are the marks of the secondary rating. When the beans get the corresponding grades, these marks will be attached to the original grades of coffee beans, such as Kenya AA top, Kenya AA+ and so on. They mean beans that perform well in AA or AB, while FAQ means there are slightly defective beans in the beans, but these do not affect the flavor. Finally, we need to know that since this system is not officially certified in Kenya, most of the Kenyan beans that can be seen in the market are still dominated by conventional size grades (AA, AB).

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