C UP P I N G
PROTOCOLS
S U STA I N A B L E CO F F E E I N ST I T U T E 2020
01 Equipment
Needed 02 Goal
These protocols
CUPPING SPOON C U P P I N G B OWLS
provide a consistent
methodology for
evaluating coffee and
should be used for
descriptive cupping.
GRINDER K E TT L E
S CA L E TIMER
STANDARD ROAST
S TA N D A R WITH
D R O A75
S T+5-10 H COFFEE
W I T GROUND AGTROAGTRON
N
Step 1
03
AGTRON
Setting Up
a Cupping
The coffee should be roasted to a standard roast.*
A standard roast should have a whole bean agtron
of **.
75 +5-10 (65 - 80)
Cups that are grassy in both fragrance, taste, and self-break
will be deemed underdeveloped and unfit.
1:17R+-1
1: ATIO(1:16 - 1:18) RATIO
Step 2 WATER TEMPERATURE
18 The water for cupping should have a ppm of 50 to 225, with
the recommended range of 70-150ppm, pH of the water should
be 6.75-7.25***
1
Step 3 WATER RATIO
After
After coffees
coffees are
are selected,
selected, weight the coffees
weigh the coffees to
to a
a 1:18
1:17 +-1 (1:16
ratio - 1:18)
that will
ratio that will allow the bowl to be completely filled with water.
allow the bowl to be completely filled with water.
A full cupping requires 5 cups per sample.You should only do as
many samples as you are able to accurately cup and score.****
03
D RY, O D O R L E S S B OWL
Setting Up
a Cupping
Step 3 PREPARING THE BOWL
G R I N D CO F F E E & P L AC E L I D O N TO P Cupping bowls should be dry, odorless, and room temperature.
Step 4 GRINDING THE COFFEE
There should be a purge of at least 5g in between each sample.
Coffees should be individually ground into their cupping
bowl no more than 15 minutes before a cupping.
The grind size should be between a pour over and a french press set
The grind size should be the size of salt (let’s find the micron size).
your grind to give you an extraction percent of 1.3-1.5
Once ground, the cups should be placed and covered with
an odourless lid.
5 C U P S P E R SA M P L E
Step 5 SETTING UP BOWLS
2 4
The 5 cups of the same sample should be placed onto the same
1 2 3 4 5
tray. The tray should be placed on the table.
1 3 5
CO N F I G U RAT I O N 1 CO N F I G U RAT I O N 2
03 Setting Up
a Cupping
* FO OT N OT E S :
04 Qualities
to Score
ROAST E R
*Samples to test the agtron were roasted in 200g batches
on a Coffee Tech drum roaster.
AGT RO N F R AG R A N C E
**Agtron should be testested within 8 hours
tested immediately afterofroasting
roasting A RO M A
Whole bean agtron
Whole bean agtron no
no darker
darker than
than 75
60+5-10 (65 - 80) F L AVO R
Ground agtron no lighter than 85
AC I D I T Y
SWE E T N E S S
WAT E R T E M P E R AT U R E
***If ppm is too low, it is hard to extract flavor out of the coffee,
B O DY
thus making it hard to do the job that cupping was intended to do. A F T E RTAST E
If ppm is too high, then it extracts too much out of the coffee, F R E S H C RO P
leaving the coffee with a heavy body and over extracted flavor. O F F F L AVO R
If the pH of water is too acidic, meaning 6.9 and lower, then it U N I FO R M I T Y
increases the acidity of the cup leaving it very sharp on your
mouth.
If the pH of the water is too alkaline, meaning 7.1 and
higher, then it mutes the acidity.
If the range is still 6.75 to 7.25 then you can still evaluate the
quality of the acidity of the green coffee.
WAT E R R AT I O
****AA 1:1ratio
**** shown to
1:16-1:18 ratio have been shown to allow
allow for
for assessment
assessment of
of
the
the coffee
coffee without
without TDS
TDS effecting
affecting quality.
1:18 is the SCI recommended ratio.
05
C L I P B OA R D & P E N C I L
Scoring
Matrix
Note Starting at 6, and increasing at 0.25 points.
Step 1 PREPARE CUPPERS
After the table is set, make sure the cuppers are ready
with clipboard, pencil, and adequate sheets.
F RAG RA N C E S CO R I N G
Step 2 FRAGRANCE
The cuppers should move in order of the samples, scoring
the fragrance from both quality and intensity.
The lids of the cups should only be temporarily removed as
the cupper is smelling that cup.
1 2 3 4 5 The lids should be placed back as soon as possible to keep
the volatile compounds in the cup as long as possible.
05
92 -96 D EG R E E WAT E R I N EAC H C U P
Scoring
Matrix
1 2 3 4 5
SET TIME Step 3 POURING
After everyone is done scoring the fragrance, 92-96
degree water should be poured.
To pour, start with cup 1, then proceed to cup 2, 3, 4, and
finally cup 5.
Water should be poured at a low height to avoid splashing.
Water should be added to saturate all of the coffee grounds
A RO M A S CO R I N G and poured until the cup is full.
Step 4 SCORING
1 2 3 4 5
When the water is poured, a timer should be started
to track time.
Cuppers should pass around the table to score the quality
of the aroma.
06
T H R E E ST I RS RINSE SPOON
Breaking
A RO M A S CO R I N G
Step 1 TIMING
Break the crust at 4:00 minutes.*
Step 2 STIRRING METHOD
1 2 3 4 5
Using a cupping spoon, break the crust with three stirs.
Continue to break the crust of each additional bowl, in
the same order that you added the hot water.
Rinse spoons in a pitcher of clean, hot water between
every cup.
After everyone is done evaluating for aroma, skim the
surface of each bowl.
Step 3 TASTING
S K I M S U R FAC E TAST E & S CO R E
Once the coffees have cooled to a drinkable temperature
(around 10:00 minutes), then cuppers should slurp the coffees,
evaluating the coffee samples for Flavor, Acidity, Sweetness,
Body, Aftertaste, Fresh Crop, Off Flavor, Uniformity.
Cuppers go around at least 3 times, evaluating each cup in the
sample as it cools to assess the quality.
06 Breaking
* FO OT N OT E S :
B R EA K I N G
*Breaking from 3 minutes to 5 minutes is acceptable, with
4 minutes being the SCI recommended.
In experiments, SCI did a triangulation to determine if
breaking method could be taste tested.
In a blind triangulation cupping with both Q graders and
non-Q grader coffee professionals, there was no statistical
evidence that showed people could taste the difference
between breaking methods.
