Cupping is a core method in the coffee industry for objectively evaluating coffee flavor and quality, and it is also an important part of barista training. This article systematically sorts out the significance and operational logic of cupping, and compares in detail three methods: the Brazilian-style cupping method, the SCAA standard cupping method, and the pour-over cupping method recommended by Front Street Coffee. The article points out that Brazilian-style cupping centers on finding defects and is a negative evaluation; SCAA cupping focuses on positive judgments of aroma and flavor; while the cupping method used by Front Street Coffee simulates everyday brewing equipment and is closer to actual café output. The three methods each have different emphases in roasting degree, extraction method, and evaluation items, and understanding these differences helps roasters and coffee professionals judge coffee quality more accurately.

The core purpose of cupping is to let several different coffees be judged and compared under completely identical conditions. Today it has become an indispensable part of coffee training courses and a required subject in the barista training system.

Using cupping as the final check on coffee taste

No matter how much a person boasts about their technical skill and theoretical knowledge, in the end it all comes back to the actual taste of the coffee in the cup. If the output is poor, no amount of explanation will help.

This process of final confirmation of coffee flavor is called "cupping." But it is by no means as simple as taking a casual sip. If conclusions are drawn merely from subjective feelings such as "this cup is too sour," there is neither direction nor any basis for finding ways to improve the roasting process.

Where does the strong acidity come from? To trace it to its source, you have to go back to the starting point of the roasting curve, and that is where the value of the roast profile card (Appendix 1) becomes apparent. If no roasting data is recorded, then even if a certain roast turns out ideal, there will be no reference for reproducing the same result later; furthermore, there will be no objective basis for knowing what changes adjusting a certain stage will bring.

Appendix 1 Roast profile card for a Fuji Royal 5 kg roaster (Panama)

When students at Front Street Coffee encounter questions related to green beans, the instructor usually provides the green bean sample, the roast profile card corresponding to the roasted bean sample, and the cupping record card at the same time. In this way, the crux of the problem becomes clear at a glance. This is exactly why cupping must be used together with roast profile cards.

Various kinds of cupping methods

"Cupping" has various different operational methods, and there is no mandatory unified set of rules internationally, so producing countries, consuming countries, companies, and even individuals can choose a suitable procedure according to their own circumstances. Broadly speaking, however, these methods are all derived from the "Brazilian style."

So what exactly is the "Brazilian-style cupping method"? Let us introduce it in detail below.

a. Brazilian-style cupping method

First, grind the roasted coffee beans to a medium grind, weigh out 10 grams and place them in a cup, then pour in 150 milliliters of hot water. The roast level is controlled at around 65 on the "Agtron" scale (Appendix 2), roughly equivalent to "cinnamon roast" (between light roast and medium roast in the American classification). Agtron is a commonly used standard in the United States for measuring roast degree, determined by a dedicated colorimeter.

Then stir the coffee grounds soaking in the hot water with a spoon while smelling the aroma. Next, skim off the surface foam, scoop up a spoonful of the coffee liquid with a tasting spoon, and take it into the mouth. In order to detect defects in the coffee liquid, it is necessary to draw the liquid up toward the palate so that the coffee spreads through the mouth in a mist-like way. This action is hardly elegant, but it is effective for identifying off-flavors.

After this series of sensory examinations, the coffee is graded according to three criteria: "Soft," "Hard," and "Iodine flavor." So-called "soft" refers to a gentle, elegant acidity paired with a full body; "hard" is similar to the astringency of persimmon; and "iodine flavor" is close to a phenolic smell.

Appendix 2 Distinguishing roast degree according to the SCAA "Agtron" method

The above is the sensory examination process of the Brazilian-style cupping method. However, this method has fallen out of fashion in recent years because consuming countries (especially the United States) believe that Brazil's evaluation standards cannot reflect the flavor characteristics and merits related to how delicious coffee is.

Brazil is not unaware of this, and it has its own position as well. This is because Brazil's cupping method was itself designed to screen for defective flavors, and from the very beginning it was not a system for evaluating coffee's individuality and strengths. The method of using Brazilian-style cupping to find defects and then grade is called "Negative Testing"; by contrast, the approach that evaluates coffee's characteristics and individuality from a positive angle is called "Positive Testing."

The two methods each have their own purpose and applicable scenarios, but in the current era when specialty coffee prevails, the kind of negative evaluation that focuses only on defects has gradually lost meaning. Instead, positively judging coffee's individuality and aroma is the mainstream direction today.

As the largest importer of Brazilian coffee, the United States has shifted its evaluation approach from "Negative Testing" to "Positive Testing," forcing Brazil to make major adjustments to its own evaluation standards as well. Brazil, which originally relied mainly on ordinary commercial coffee as the mainstay of international trade, after several failed experiments, finally spread the "Cup of Excellence (COE)" evaluation system globally through its domestic producers. This shows that "Positive Testing" has indeed taken the mainstream position.

Brazilian-style sensory examination is still widely used in most consuming countries around the world. The roast degree set for cupping is "cinnamon roast," because this level can reliably predict the trend of taste changes between light and dark roasting. As coffee roasts darker, volatile compounds increase and the flavor changes accordingly, so a roast degree before the components have largely volatilized, that is, a light roast, is chosen for cupping.

In fact, there is another reason as well. The largest buyer of Brazilian coffee is the United States. The United States entered the light-roast era starting in the 1980s, which was also the heyday of American-style coffee. As a producing country, it was only natural for Brazil to adopt a light roast in cupping to conform to American drinking habits. If darker roast levels had been popular in the United States at the time, Brazil's cupping roast degree would inevitably have become darker as well.

But Front Street Coffee believes that switching coffee beans suited to light roast or cinnamon roast to French roast or Italian roast and putting them on the menu is a rather risky move. This is because even if a bean performs well after light roasting, it does not mean that the bean is suited to dark roasting.

Therefore, cupping does not have to adhere strictly to the cinnamon roast degree of Brazilian-style cupping, and coffee suited to dark roasting is better cupped with a dark roast.

After green beans are lightly roasted, hidden defective flavors are clearly exposed. Immature beans and the like are difficult to distinguish from normal beans after dark roasting, whereas with light roasting, differences can easily be identified visually.

Appendix 3 Coffee cupping flavor wheel

For green beans being encountered for the first time, Front Street Coffee suggests first doing a cupping with a light roast. If the flavor performs well, then roast it to the target roast degree and conduct a second cupping. Light-roast cupping has obvious advantages, but merely identifying defective flavors does not mean that the overall flavor has been grasped. No matter which coffee is to be cupped, it is best to roast it to the second crack stage, because in the early stage of second crack, coffee releases abundant aroma and flavor.

Although the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) aroma evaluation uses a roast degree of around Agtron 50 (City Roast), coffee's rich flavors will not emerge if it has not entered the second crack stage. I hope everyone can understand this point.

Below is a comparison of the cupping methods of SCAA and Front Street Coffee:

b. SCAA-style cupping method

Place medium-ground coffee powder in a cup (about 8 grams), shake the cup and smell the fragrance. Pour in 150 milliliters of hot water, let it stand for 3 minutes, and after the coffee grounds layer expands into a dome shape, break it open with a spoon. At this point, bring the nose close to the rim of the cup and smell the aroma of the freshly brewed coffee.

Next, use a spoon to skim off the foam on the surface of the coffee liquid, let it stand briefly, then scoop up a spoonful of the coffee liquid, draw it into the mouth, and let the coffee spread through the mouth in a mist-like way. After confirming the aroma, spit out the coffee liquid. Evaluate the taste in sequence when the coffee is hot, lukewarm, and after cooling. The items to be evaluated are as follows:

Dry aroma Fragrance (the scent of the coffee grounds)

Wet aroma Aroma (the scent of the coffee liquid)

Sweetness

Acidity

Flavor

c. Coffee cupping method recommended by Front Street Coffee barista training

Prepare 10 grams of medium-ground coffee powder and about 150 milliliters of hot water at about 85°C, make one serving of coffee using the regular paper filter drip method, pour the extracted coffee liquid into a cup, and perform cupping with a tasting spoon. After tasting, pour the coffee liquid away directly and then begin the next round of cupping. Although the overall difference is not particularly large, it is still clearly evident that Front Street Coffee's unique cupping method differs from the Brazilian style or the SCAA style. The main differences are as follows:

1. Roast degree is beyond second crack

2. Uses extraction equipment

3. Fewer items to confirm

Brazilian-style cupping targets coffee containing defective beans and then judges whether it meets export standards. The cupping method used by Front Street Coffee, however, has already undergone hand sorting before it begins, so the taste of defective beans will not be encountered, and the number of items that need to be examined is correspondingly reduced.

Rather than confirming defective flavors, we pay more attention to balance of taste, which has more practical reference value for running a shop. Moreover, no special tools or equipment are required, and cupping can be done anytime and anywhere. This is also where Front Street Coffee's cupping method is superior to other types of cupping methods. The most important thing about cupping is being able to carry it out continuously and repeatedly, so convenience is very important.

In the cupping method used by Front Street Coffee, the following items are the ones beginners must learn to judge.

Bitterness

Acidity

Sweetness

Astringency

Flavor

Strength

"Flavor" can also be expressed as "scent," and it mainly refers to the taste of coffee when it is held in the mouth. The smell detected by the nose is clearly different from the taste held in the mouth.

Speaking of "strength" may sound a little abstract, but in fact, when the same amount of coffee powder is used to extract the same amount of coffee liquid, the mouthfeel can still differ between thick and light.

Among the evaluation items of SCAA-style cupping is "Body," and its testing method is to let the coffee slide quickly through the mouth and swallow it, then judge its tactile sensation in the mouth. The "strength" discussed here, however, has a deeper meaning, because mouthfeel qualities such as thickness and viscosity all come from the oils, fiber components, and proteins contained in the coffee liquid. The lower the proportion of these components incorporated into the coffee liquid, the lighter the coffee taste becomes.

Comparing the three cupping methods, the most striking difference lies in "whether extraction equipment is used."

Both Brazilian-style and SCAA-style cupping simply pour hot water over coffee grounds and do not use any special tools. This is done to accommodate the habits of most companies and consumers, but although this method can confirm the various tastes and aromas contained in the coffee grounds, the balance of taste cannot be known.

Front Street Coffee has always been continuously studying and striving to choose, as much as possible, the cupping method closest to customers' drinking habits. If the cupping method differs from the way customers usually drink coffee, then we cannot explain to customers that "this coffee, when roasted this way, will have this taste." For small-scale coffee shops serving a limited customer base, it is more suitable to conduct cupping with the equipment and methods used in daily operations.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.