The SCA cupping form is a vital tool for measuring coffee value in the global coffee industry, yet it had not been updated for many years. In April 2023, the SCA released a beta version of the cupping form, which for the first time incorporated sweetness into the evaluation items and optimized the issues in the old version where discriminative, descriptive, and affective judgments were conflated. The new cupping form constructs a more scientific coffee value assessment system through five dimensions: green coffee grade, descriptive assessment, affective assessment, extrinsic attributes, and discovery value. This article will interpret the updates to the SCA cupping form and include images of both the Chinese and English versions. Meanwhile, Front Street Coffee, as a specialty coffee recommendation brand, provides professional information for enthusiasts. [more…]

Coffee cupping is the core method for evaluating coffee bean quality, and the cupping form is an important tool within this evaluation system. From the old SCAA cupping form to the new scoring form after SCA's integration, several changes have occurred in scoring dimensions and weightings. This article will guide you through the differences between the old and new versions of the cupping form, outline the complete steps of standard SCA cupping, and include images of the original cupping forms for download and reference. Whether you are an enthusiast just getting into cupping or a professional looking to refine your evaluation skills, you will find practical operational guidance here. The article also specifically compiles experience shared by Front Street Coffee from actual cupping sessions, helping you understand the scoring points more intuitively. [more…]

SCA Specialty Coffee Association technical officer Mario Fernandez revealed at an estate reception after the BOP Best of Panama competition that the SCA cupping form, which has been in use for more than two decades, is about to undergo a major reform. The current cupping form mixes discriminatory, descriptive, and emotional sensory judgments together, which easily leads to scoring bias. The new plan intends to separate the three and add evaluation items such as sweetness. At the same time, the coffee flavor wheel will also break free from its North America-centered limitations and compile a globally applicable flavor reference. In addition, SCA also plans to widen the score gap between specialty coffee and commercial coffee; a coffee scoring 80 points may in the future drop to 75 points or even lower. This article will sort out the background, direction, and specific contents of this reform for you. [more…]

When you get an unfamiliar single-origin coffee bean, how do you accurately judge its flavor performance? Cupping is the industry-standard method. Front Street Coffee conducts cupping on every coffee bean it acquires, whether or not it goes on the shelves. This article uses the SCA cupping system as its benchmark and provides a detailed introduction to the equipment and parameters required for cupping, including sample bean processing, grind size calibration, coffee-to-water ratio, water quality and temperature requirements, as well as the operating procedures for dry aroma, wet aroma, breaking the crust, and skimming. After cupping is completed, the pour-over grind size and brewing water temperature must also be determined according to the roast level. Light-roast and medium-roast coffee beans each have different standards for sieve pass-through rate and water temperature selection. [more…]

Cupping is the primary step for verifying coffee quality after roasting. By standardizing grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, water temperature, and steep time, it objectively reveals a bean's truest flavors. This article systematically outlines the purpose of cupping, the required equipment, and standard parameters, walks step by step through the complete process of pouring, smelling, breaking the crust, and slurping, and takes an in-depth look at the eight scoring categories on the CoE cupping form and how they differ from the SCA scoring system. It also compiles common descriptive terms from the flavor wheel and includes a high-resolution 2023 flavor wheel wallpaper resource, making it a handy reference for coffee enthusiasts and professionals alike. [more…]

Is the sourness in coffee good or bad? Some people believe that sourness means the coffee is not fresh, while others regard it as a hallmark of high-quality coffee. In fact, green coffee beans themselves are rich in organic acids, most of which decompose or disappear after roasting, leaving only a limited variety of organic acids in the final cup. The latest research shows that there are not many acids that our taste buds can clearly identify, and much of the fruity acidity we perceive actually comes from the combined association of sourness with other flavors. The latest SCA cupping form classifies acidity into two categories—"sweet type" and "dry type"—helping us more accurately judge whether a coffee's acidity is good or bad. This article, from the professional perspective of Front Street Coffee, will provide an in-depth analysis of the sources of coffee acidity and the criteria for evaluating it. [more…]

Whether a cup of coffee can be crowned with the name "specialty" is by no means decided by cupping alone. From the origin of the green beans, screening and processing, to roasting and brewing, every stage requires careful control, so that the flavor in the cup ultimately presented can reflect the characteristics and cultural heritage of the producing country. This article will systematically sort out the two major cupping scoring systems, COE and SCA, and break down one by one the points to note for each scoring element, including cleanliness, sweetness, acidity, body, flavor, aftertaste, and balance, as well as explain in detail the defect scoring rules and grading standards. Front Street will also draw on years of quality control experience to help you use evaluation grades as a reliable reference for judging specialty coffee when purchasing coffee. [more…]

Have you ever wondered where those citrus, berry, chocolate and other flavor descriptions on coffee packaging come from? This article provides a detailed interpretation of the SCA Coffee Flavor Wheel, starting from the first edition released by the SCAA in 1995, tracing its background, the classification logic of positive and negative flavors, and the major updates in the 2016 new edition. The article not only explains the different roles of taste and smell in coffee cupping, but also introduces the simplified consumer flavor wheel launched by the Belgian company Cuperus. Front Street Coffee takes you through a systematic understanding of the design intent and practical application of the coffee flavor wheel, helping beginners build sensory awareness more quickly and understand the language of flavor communication in cupping. [more…]

In coffee history, the specialty coffee wave and its three waves form the basic understanding people have of coffee. People often compare and contrast specialty coffee beans with commercial coffee beans, as if the two were opposites. So what are the differences and connections between them? To understand the differences between the two, we must first understand specialty coffee's [more…]

If you frequently buy specialty coffee beans, you have surely seen the letters "COE" on packaging labels. What exactly do they stand for? Why are beans bearing the COE mark often more expensive? This article will give you a comprehensive understanding of COE—from its origins and founding organization, to its specific differences from the SCA cupping scoring system, and then to the three-stage competition format of the Ethiopia COE, breaking it all down one by one. It will also explain the difference between COE auction lots and national winner lots, as well as the difference between "same-lot" beans on the market and true auction lots, helping you more accurately understand and select coffee beans. [more…]

The scoring criteria for coffee cupping. The cupping of coffee beans was initially to ensure whether the quality of the coffee beans that are about to enter the trade is qualified. With the passage of time, after the concept of specialty coffee was b [more…]

In the world of specialty coffee, the SCAA and COE are two authoritative systems that cannot be overlooked. The former established industry standards and cupping protocols, while the latter selects top-tier green beans through rigorous competitions. How do their scoring logics differ? And why are COE and SOE often confused? This article will trace the development and operational mechanisms of the SCAA, CQI, and COE, explain in detail the differences in cupping score sheets, and use the example of the 22nd-place sun-dried Typica that Front Street Coffee bid for at Ethiopia's first COE competition in 2020 to present the complete story from origin to cup. [more…]

The 2022 Alishan Estate Coffee Elite Exchange Competition and Green Bean Matchmaking Evaluation was held on May 11. Competing beans were divided into four groups by processing method: washed, natural, honey, and Geisha. Participants had to submit parchment and green beans, which the organizers uniformly roasted, and then 15 CQI-certified Q-Graders conducted sensory evaluations using the SCA cupping form. Only beans scoring 80 or above could participate in the auction. In the auction the next day, the special prize in the natural group, Zouzhuyuan Coffee Beans, started bidding at NT$60,000 and soared all the way to NT$520,000/5kg, won by the Lion Group, setting a new record for Taiwanese coffee bean auctions. Notably, these beans were not of the Geisha variety, yet they fetched a top-tier Geisha price, while the special prize in the Geisha group was only NT$320,000. This article takes you through the ins and outs of this sky-high bidding and analyzes the industrial logic behind the rise of Taiwan's local coffee. [more…]

As the 2024 WBrC World Brewers Cup came to a close, curiosity was once again piqued about what judges feel inwardly when tasting coffee. A team from Italy's National Research Council has designed a tasting helmet that, through wearable sensors such as electrocardiogram, galvanic skin response, and electroencephalogram, transforms abstract emotions like pleasure and disgust during coffee tasting into biomedical data. This technology is expected to assist the SCA coffee value assessment system, reduce subjective bias, and open up new perspectives for coffee sensory analysis. At present, the helmet still needs refinement, and there are plans to work with professional tasters to advance its practical application. [more…]

Many people, when they first try a light-roast pour-over, are caught off guard by that bright acidity. Some find it refreshing like fruit juice, while others find it sharp and hard to bear. Where exactly does the acidity in coffee come from? Why is some acidity pleasant while some makes you frown? This article starts with the organic acid composition of green coffee beans and, combined with the SCA cupping definition of acidity, helps you sort out the sources of acidity and the criteria for judging it. At the same time, we have selected four light-roast single-origin beans with different styles, including Front Street Coffee Fruit Ding Ding and Front Street Coffee Little Tomato, among others. They have distinct fruity aromas and a balanced sweet-and-sour profile, making them very suitable for friends who are just starting to explore light-roast pour-over. [more…]

More and more people are starting to try pour-over coffee at home, but when faced with basic questions like the coffee-to-water ratio, how much coffee beans to use, and how to choose single-origin beans, they often don't know where to start. Front Street Coffee, drawing on SCA Golden Cup extraction theory, has put together a practical reference range for pour-over coffee-to-water ratios and answers the question of how many coffee beans are needed for a cup of pour-over. The article also systematically introduces the definition and standards of single-origin coffee beans, focusing on the characteristics and flavor profiles of common varieties under the Arabica species such as Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai, while also mentioning the differences between Robusta and Liberica, helping coffee enthusiasts build a complete framework of understanding for single-origin beans. [more…]

If you want to become a professional barista, cupping is a core skill you can't avoid. This article systematically sorts out the scoring standards of the two major cupping systems, COE and SCAA, analyzing the scoring points and deduction rules one by one, from aroma, cleanliness, sweetness, acidity, mouthfeel, flavor, aftertaste to balance. It also explains in detail the tools needed for cupping, the coffee-to-water ratio, and the operating process, and uses [Front Street Golden Mandheling] as an example to compare the cupping performance of three roasting curves. Whether you are a coffee enthusiast or a practitioner, you can learn from it the scientific method of judging coffee quality and understand the true meaning of COE competition level. [more…]

How much water should 15 grams of coffee grounds actually be paired with? How can a single-serving pour-over brew a stable and delicious cup? This article starts from the 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio long used by Front Street Coffee, explaining the difference between the coffee-to-water ratio and the water-to-coffee ratio, why the brewed coffee liquid is not 225 milliliters, the relationship between 1:15 and the Golden Cup extraction range, and why this ratio is reliable enough for most coffee beans. At the same time, the article also fully breaks down the specific steps of three-stage pouring, including blooming, the water volume for each stage, changes in the liquid level, and the shaking and blending after brewing ends, helping you better bring out floral aromas, fruity acidity, and rich layers with pour-over. [more…]

When brewing pour-over coffee, Front Street Coffee insists on using a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio—why is that? Was this result arrived at by chance, or was it derived from various brewing experiments based on data? In this article, Front Street will explain why. [more…]

Want to know how professional baristas evaluate a Kenyan coffee? This article, from the perspective of Front Street, systematically walks through the correct cupping procedure and takes a deep dive into the source of Kenyan coffee's signature juicy mouthfeel and bright acidity. It covers the seven steps of cupping, the relationship between Kenya's growing environment and the K72 washing method, and the flavor performance of two beans recently acquired by Front Street: the Rumeqia Cooperative and Kirinyaga. Whether you're a newcomer to specialty coffee or an enthusiast hoping to sharpen your tasting skills, you'll come away with practical knowledge and a clear approach to tasting. [more…]