Quantifying Cupping – Part 1: The Art and Science of Commercial Coffee Tasting
- Ryan Delany
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Cupping is a unique and essential skill that is required of a coffee trader. Cupping, (i.e. coffee tasting or sensory analysis) is one of those peculiarities that makes being a coffee trader different from all the other types of physical traders out there. Sure, you might trade gold, cotton or oil, but can you take a sip of coffee and tell me, objectively, whether it is good or not?
In this blog my goal is to provide you with a practical framework that can be used by commercial traders (in destination or origin markets) to taste, analyze, categorize, and understand coffee. Along the way I will make some controversial claims on the use of blind cupping and how traders should cup coffee as opposed to connoisseurs. I will even through in some cupping sheets that you can use in your own business.
To achieve that goal, we will first define and understand cupping, then we will discuss the various schools of thought on cupping. I will provide 4 basic categories for sensory analysis of coffee, we will see how to quantify the taste of coffee and then finally how to record coffee analysis for trading.
What is Cupping?
Cupping is the word used by coffee traders to describe the sensory analysis or tasting of coffee. As the distinctions between different coffees can be very subtle to the lay-person, cupping is a skill that is acquired over many years of tasting coffees and mentally categorizing those flavor experiences.
The skill of tasting coffee is something that has been formalized by various institutions over the last two centuries but we can primarily think about it in two groups: individual commercial enterprises (companies) and non-profits and trade groups like the CQI (Coffee Quality Institute).
We say that cupping is both an art and a science, but this distinction is important and more than a cliché.
The science of cupping is all about consistency and control. The art of cupping is about experience and interpretation.
Cupping “Science” – the Method
I’m going to focus less on the actual scientific research around coffee cupping, but instead talk about the “scientific method” used to ensure that cupping is consistent.
[Want to make smarter coffee market decisions? Start a free trial of our Premium Coffee Research today.]
The scientific method involves a strictly controlled experiment with a control group and a variable. Cupping methodology is similar in that in order to evaluate the “variable” (the taste of the coffee) we need to control every aspect of the experience.
To that end, cupping is typically done in a room specifically designated for that purpose. No soaps are used to wash any of the coffee pots or cups (only water), perfumes and colognes of any kind are strongly discouraged by traders.
Samples of coffee are weighed out in identical amounts and the water is poured with an exact temperature. As soon as the water hits the first sample, a visible timer is started so that the cuppers know how much time has elapsed since the coffees were poured (as the taste profile can change over time).
In the specialty coffee world, the sensory analysis process is much more detailed and elaborate than in the commercial coffee industry. Specialty cuppers are evaluating the top quality coffees for unique and complex characteristics, whereas in commercial cuppers are primarily evaluating for consistency and meeting expectations.
In my opinion, some of the controversy over proper cupping techniques comes down to differences in what is better for the specialty industry vs the commercial industry.
Smell is a big part of the cupping experience and traders will often smell the dry grounds before the coffee is poured for the “fragrance”, then smell the coffee again once the water is poured (now called the “aroma”). Specialty cuppers may analyze and record these olfactory expectations.
The wet grinds will then form a kind of foam on the top of the cup called the “crust.” One cupper will then take a cupping spoon (a special sort of flat table spoon) and swirl the crust and coffee together in a specific way called “breaking the crust” that releases more of the aroma. He or she does this with their face just inches away from the cup so that they can smell the aroma of the coffee as they do so.
After the crust is broken the cupper or lab technician will skim the coffee samples, meaning they pull the foam and grinds off the top of the coffee with a spoon. A deft and experienced trader can skim a coffee with two spoons in an instant. The spoons are cleaned in hot water between cups.
[Stay ahead of the coffee market. Try our Coffee Research free and get timely insights on supply, demand, and prices.]
Once the coffee samples are cleaned and ready to go then the actual tasting begins. There are often 3 or 5 cups per coffee sample laid out and the samples are arranged in order from lowest quality/harshest coffees to highest qualities (this order is important, we will come back to it later).
The cupper takes the cupping spoon and gets a mostly full spoon full of coffee held horizontally and then loudly slurps the coffee from the spoon. The intention with the slurp is to spray the coffee across the mouth, tongue and back of the throat while simultaneously aerating the coffee to take full advantage of the aroma.
The coffee is then spit into a cup reserved for that purpose or a large communal spittoon. I was taught that in coffee this is called a “gaboon”, but this may be an American or even regional American term as I don’t think the term is used internationally.
Once the cupper tastes the coffee they will “score” it by recording their ratings of the coffee into their notes or “cupping sheets”. These might be an industry standard scoring sheet or they may be an internal company-created system.
Cupping “Art” – the Interpretation
The art of cupping is where the skill comes into play, and why experienced traders are so valued in coffee. When analyzing the coffee that is being tasted, the novice has no internal references for what makes a good or a bad coffee, nor do they understand what all of the experiences in their mouth are.
So the art of cupping is two things that take place entirely within the cupper’s head. The first is the building up of a mental library of references of different coffee experiences, and the second is the partitioning of these different experiences into categories.
[Take your coffee knowledge to the next level. Try our Premium Coffee Research free and stay informed every week.]
A Controversial Opinion: Traders Should Limit “Blind Cupping”
This brings me to my most controversial viewpoint: commercial coffees should be cupped “open” or informed (as opposed to “blind”).
I believe that it is essential for a coffee trader or cupper to build up a large body of sensory experiences (look, taste and smell) that need to be categorized. The best way to build up this series of references is to experience coffees in categories divided into origins and grades of coffee.
The alternative to this method is “blind cupping.” Blind cupping is very popular, and for some very good reasons, so let’s talk about what it is and why it is used.
Blind cupping is where the coffees to be sampled are put out with a number or letter (like Sample A, B, C or 1, 2, 3, 4 etc) and then are evaluated “blind” as to what type of coffee it is. This is opposed to cupping open where the coffees would be labeled “Kenyan AA”, “Colombian Excelso”, “Indian Plantation A”, etc. The idea is to remove the bias from the cupper. If a cupper thinks that they prefer Colombian Excelso to Indian Plantation A’s they may score the Colombian coffee higher, even if the coffee’s taste the same or if the Plantation A is objectively better quality on some scales.
Blind cupping can be a very useful tool, and it is valuable for a number of different scenarios such as trying to find a suitable replacement for a specific existing flavor profile, if you want to build an impartial flavor profile, if you are evaluating coffees for a competition or any time where you do not want bias to play a role. However, I would argue that blind cupping has two very specific downsides that suggest it should not be used for most commercial cupping.
The first problem with blind cupping is that it robs the cupper of valuable training. When we cup openly, we are building up the mental associations between sensory evaluation and specific grades and origins. Building up a mental library of references requires looking at a card that says Kenyan AA and tasting that particular coffee at the same time. This helps the cupper to be able to mentally understand what a Kenyan AA should look and taste like and therefore an exceptionally high quality Kenyan AA will stand out, the same as a poor quality one.
[Curious about coffee trends? Sign up for a free trial of our Coffee Research and see the data professionals rely on.]
The second problem with blind cupping is that it makes it harder to trade the coffee. Coffee is not usually traded blindly (although sometimes it can be), where a coffee is simply sold as an 89-score coffee. It is sold as a Brazilian SSFC or a Costa Rican SHB Tarrazu. The origin and grade’s supply and demand will set the benchmark for the coffee’s price and the quality of that particular lot will be a small modifier on the price.
For example, a Brazilian SSFC might trade for +5, but if it is particularly good quality, then maybe you can ask for +7, so the important information for the trader is whether this qualifies as a good, bad or average Brazilian SSFC.
Schools of Thought
There are different schools of thought when it comes to the sensory evaluation and scoring of coffees, from individual company policies to official industry standards.
Specialty Coffee Grading
For specialty coffees the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) in partnership with CQI (Coffee Quality Institute) has become the industry standard for grading coffees and they have a well-developed methodology and training programs for cuppers to be able to learn and score in this industry standard. Cuppers trained in this style and methodology are called Q-Graders.
I became a licensed Q-Grader back in 2010, and later observed and participated in some early experiments with the R-Grading in Uganda in 2012-13 for developed for specialty Robusta coffees.
This form is extremely complex and requires giving a 6-10 score across 7 different categories with 3 additional categories scoring with binary values for each of 5 cups.
These forms offer a lot of depth across a wide dimension and I give the SCA a ton of credit for developing this. Many traders and cuppers in the industry have used these forms for decades and have become extremely adept at filing them out, and are fluent in conversing about coffees in relation to these forms.
However, for most commercial coffees, I would argue that these forms are overly complex and also suffer from some seemingly arbitrary decisions.
For example, rating something as 6-10 is a strange metric, why not make it 1-5? The logic is that this is really a 1-10 scale, but that since this is for specialty coffees, the lowest coffee being considered would be a 6 (slightly better than average of 5). However this seems like an unnecessary complication to me. Moreover, in practice, the extremes of this scale are rarely used. It is almost unhear of to see a 6 or a 10 coffee. Instead traders use decimals for a small range in the middle between 6.5 and 8.5, it is rare to see scores above 9.
[Get the coffee market insights you need. Start a free trial and explore our expert analysis and forecasts.]
Similarly arbitrary are the sweetness, clean cup and uniformity sections. Sweetness and uniformity are given a binary +2 points each if the cup is uniform and +2 if it is sweet. Defected cups lose either 2 or 4 points each.
The net effect of this type of scoring system is that most specialty coffees graded in this manner receive a score between 70 and 90 out of 100. This does map nicely to our intuitive understanding of grades from school (70 is a C- and 90 is an A-), but again we are making a 0-100 metric and essentially only using a small portion of it.
Commercial Coffee Grading
Commercial coffees are graded differently by different companies and the SOPs that have been put in place by those companies.
One coffee trading company I’ve seen used a single 1-5 scoring system where the cuppers would evaluate the coffee across all dimensions, but then provide a single number and optional notes. However, in practice these traders rarely used the extremes of either 1 or 5, but instead rated almost all coffees between 2.25 and 4.25.
The benefits of this system was the speed and simplicity, the traders might go through a table and take 15 - 30 seconds on each coffee. Since it is not blind, the trader/cuppers are building up a reference for what a typical coffee of this type tastes like and then rapidly evaluating it and scoring it for easy reference later.
This is sufficient for a trader to look at his notes later, see that a coffee is 3.25 (slightly above average) and agree that they will purchase it at the going rate. A coffee with defects in it might get a 1.75 or a 2.25.
The downside of this system is that there is very little data on what makes this coffee good or bad, so if they want to sell a coffee that they purchased to a customer looking for an “acidic, full-bodied coffee”, they will have little to go on. The trader in this case might offer some origins that they know fit this profile and scored on the higher end, (3 or better).
[Di you enjoy what you read? Sign up for our Premium Coffee Market Research and get access to our exclusive premium blogs. Get it here!]
Comments