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Permalink Reply by vincent on May 7, 2008 at 7:26am

Good Morning Bel,
I have only been roasting a year but I will give it a shot... I do cuppings of things that I roast for a number of reasons, mainly to make sure the roast is consistent, that there's nothing wrong with the roast or a particular batch of coffee from an estate, and last but not least, because it taste good! I know that importers of green beans do cuppings for the same reason, to ensure the quality and check for any issues or defects. The buyers and farmers have to do this as part of a contract to make sure that what they are selling/buying is the same quality as the samples that were cupped to begin with. There is an article in this month's Roast magazine on this subject page 38 called "Not so Random Sampling" .

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Permalink Reply by Spencer on May 8, 2008 at 12:58pm

Coffee cupping is quality control for the execution of contracts. This is the system used to determine quality, flavor profile and acceptability. Cuppings will also be conducted to determine quality (& consistency) for production.

Each cupper, each roaster, each supplier is seeking a specific profile and may be different than others, thus the need to taste and evaluate the coffee.

New cuppers are trained by old cuppers in a loose and informal apprenticeship. These are people who have a commercial responsibility for coffee. To become experienced in cupping it must be preformed regularly for several years.

Cupping for purchase and quality is using a standard format and assigning numbers to quality and intensity of characters such as flavor, sweetness, acidity, body, aftertaste, etc.etc. This is important to be able to compare using quantitative data - as experienced cuppers are often calibrated to be able to score coffees alike.

Descriptive analysis is the act of using creativity to describe the flavors and aroma through associated flavors. For example, “This coffee tastes like caramel infused with blueberries and topped with allspice and white pepper” Cupping for descriptive analysis is more for marketing and sales than quality control or purchasing.

The true test for a cupper is that quantities analysis and being able to replicate the score and profile evaluation in subsequent tests, descriptive analysis is a skill set best developed after one mastery the overall skill of determining acid, body, sweetness, aftertaste, etc, etc….

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Permalink Reply by Bel Townsend on May 9, 2008 at 3:23am

Wow, thanks to both, very helpful comments and much appreciated.
Another question though - do the major roasting companies, (as in the massive global ones: Sara Lee, Tchibo etc) employ their own cuppers? Or is all the sampling done independently of the main marketers?

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Permalink Reply by Spencer on May 9, 2008 at 5:42am

Hello Bel -

Each and every coffee company at each control point of the supply chain, both upstream and downstream employ coffee cuppers. It would be the exception for a coffee company of any size to not have a trainined and experienced coffee cupper.

In my experiences I find large companies to have a very extensive training and calibration program to insure thier cuppers(s) (often more then one) are experts in the coffees being tested. Large companies (regional level and larger) often have more than one cupper to and/or have different persons cupping for purchase than for quality control.

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