CHAPTER 13: Coffee Cupping: Evaluation of Green Coffee Quality

Coffee cupping is the practice of evaluating the different aroma, taste and body characteristics of a coffee to determine coffee quality. As an international commodity and globally appreciated food product, how does the industry communicate taste and quality to others in distant lands? Companies and organizations have developed their own methods of cupping over time, which may work for them internally, but can cause miscommunication between parties in the market. There are commonalities in most methods of cupping, from roasting the samples through final numeric scoring of the coffee. This article gives background and instruction on one of the specialty coffee industry's main methodologies for cupping arabica coffee with description of general competencies of cuppers.