What are Supremo and Excelso in the Colombia coffee grading?

Colombia is one of the top three producers of coffee beans in the world, mainly exporting Arabica coffee, which is commonly used in blended coffee because of its chocolate flavor, overall balance and high yield. The country's export of raw coffee beans has its own grading system, mainly based on defect rate and bean size. Columbia Coffee Club, which is common on the market, is marked with "Supremo" and "Excelso" fonts. What do these words mean?

In Colombia, raw coffee beans that reach the export grade are marked with "Excelso" on the sack package. Excelso is the export standard grade adopted by the Colombian National Association of Coffee growers (FNC) and is the best grade for Colombian raw beans.

To reach the Excelso grade coffee needs to meet its standard requirements, which requires 500g of raw coffee beans with a size of more than 14 mesh, 50% of raw coffee beans larger than 15 mesh, and no more than 5% of raw coffee beans between 12 and 14 mesh, and must be pest-free, uniform color, no smell, clean flavor, and moisture content should not exceed 12.5%. The accumulative total of defects cannot exceed the rule of 24 points.

According to the regulations of FNC, the defects of raw beans are divided into primary defects and secondary defects. The defect score is assessed by scoring, and the measurement standard is the defect limit of no more than 24 points in 500g coffee bean samples.

For some coffee-producing countries, the size of raw beans is not the main standard to determine the quality and flavor of coffee, but some countries think that the overall fullness, neatness and size of raw beans can prove that the coffee has reached a fully mature state, which is conducive to uniform roasting and can form a consistent coffee flavor.

In the classification of raw beans in Colombia, fixed-size sieves are used, and different specifications correspond to different hole sizes. For example, the mesh size of the screen is 17 mesh, and coffee beans larger than 17 mesh cannot pass through the screen. At present, FNC subdivides different grades of coffee beans according to the number of items of coffee, and the three most commonly used grades are Excelso UGQ12*60 (1.5%), Excelso EP12*60 (10%) and Excelso Supremo12*60 (5%).

Specifically, Excelso UGQ12*60 (1.5%) is raw beans smaller than 14 mesh, 1.5% raw beans are allowed between 12 mesh and 14 mesh, but must be more than 12 mesh, and more than 50% are greater than 15 mesh.

Excelso EP12*60 (10%) is a raw bean size of more than 15 mesh, which allows 10% raw bean to be less than 15 mesh, but must be more than 12 mesh.

Excelso Supremo12*60 (5%) is a raw bean size of more than 17 mesh. 5% raw bean is allowed to be less than 17 mesh, but it must be more than 14 mesh.

Therefore, "Supremo" is actually the classification level of the number of items, and the percentage in parentheses represents the "tolerance rate". "12060" means that the raw bean is allowed to have a maximum of 12 first-level defective beans and 60 second-level defective beans in 500g samples.

Although more than 90 per cent of Colombia's raw coffee beans are used for export, there are still some raw beans that do not reach the Excelso level. These raw beans, known as "Product of Colombia", can also be used for export when plant inspection requirements are met, but are usually used to make instant coffee.

Therefore, coffee farmers in Colombia will enter the serial number and raw bean information to facilitate the tracing of raw beans in the future. The country, producing area, grade, and number of items are usually used as the name of raw coffee beans. For example, the Colombian Huilan rations coffee bean of Qianjie Coffee is "Colombia Huila Supremo SC17/18 FNC."

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