On a cupping sheet, an expert cupper reflects with SCA speciality coffee scores the strengths or weaknesses of the coffee sample he/she has received from a coffee grower or importer. From each sample he/she will taste several cups and must do so together with other competent tasters and at a table where other coffees from the same area or with a similar taste profile are present for comparison and calibration.
Thanks to the speciality coffee scores, the coffee grower will know the value of his product, as will exporters and importers. With the score obtained from the samples received, the roaster’s buyer will evaluate the purchase of one or the other coffee from the table according to his needs in terms of quality and/or price. They will assess whether the price they are asking for is in line with the quality in the cup and will specify how many bags and what delivery date.
The SCA coffee score as a valuation tool
Especiality coffee scores are or should be a universal language among coffee professionals. That is, coffee growers, exporters, importers, roasters and owners of speciality coffee shops. Although as we know, cultural taste backgrounds vary in the appreciation of acidity, sweetness and bitterness.
As we said then, coffee scores are part of professional processes, but I think it is unjustified that they are given to the end consumer on websites or on packets of roasted coffee. Any score given to the consumer may not reflect the quality of the bean he or she takes home or drinks in the speciality coffee shop.
How reliable is the consumer score?
Who gave the score and when, the honesty and training of each taster and the point in time in the life of those beans affects the score and not a little. Thus, the points given to the consumer relate to when:
- The score of the fresh harvest sample? The coffee still needs to develop green at origin with due rest.
- The shipping sample? The coffee still has to travel in a container to its destination and be stored in port for an undetermined period of time.
- That of the sample upon arrival at the roastery? The coffee still has to be roasted in the professional roaster.
- With which roaster was the sample roasted or was it perhaps sent by the importer already roasted? To what actron grade was it roasted? If so, how many days has the sample been roasted?
- The final roast profile, first roast, second roast, third roast? If you don’t roast with a state-of-the-art roaster, you can’t replicate and give consistency to each roast.
- That of the green coffee at the moment the bags entered the roastery? Maybe the roaster took several months to sell the whole batch and the beans lost freshness during that time.
- The roaster’s after three days of roasting? Maybe the package has been on the shelf for several weeks.
Trust in the specialty coffee value chain
Therefore, we believe that it is not the points, but the trust and credibility that customers place in the previous link based on their knowledge, track record, technological equipment and human resources.
It is the obligation of all of us in the coffee value chain to know our suppliers well and today, with coffee prices at historic highs, this credibility is of paramount importance to have the real quality that we want to offer our customers and that they deserve and expect. The good health and future of the specialty movement depends to a large extent on it.