What are coffee grades?
Imagine you’re scrolling through a coffee importer’s offer list. And while scanning through the details of a coffee, you find the column Coffee Grades. Depending on the coffee’s origin, you’ll see grade-1 or Brazil NY 2/3 in the grades column. But what are coffee grades, and what do they tell you?
In this blog, we’ll give you a basic understanding of coffee grades.
Coffee grades define the level of quality
A coffee grade is a quality classification. It tells you what quality classification the coffee has. A coffee grade helps sellers and buyers throughout the globe to align their expectations with each other.
Without taking a sip of coffee, you have a rough sense of the quality by looking at the grade within an offer list.
Is there a universal coffee grading system?
Although coffee grades give you a sense of quality, the grading systems throughout the world are fragmented. There is no universal grading and classification system, and every country governs its own system. Meaning, a grade 1 from Indonesia, may not be the same as a grade 1 from Peru. And an EP from Honduras may have a different defect count than an EP from Colombia.
Still, most of these fragmented grading systems rely on criteria like screen size, altitude or region, botanical variety, number of defects, processing, bean density, and the roast appearance and cup quality.
The world of coffee lacks a universal coffee grading system, but luckily, there are three elements you can use to speak the same language with your coffee importer.
Through the defect count and the screen size of the beans, we conduct a visual inspection of the coffee. We look at bean uniformity, cleanliness, and the presence of defects through a process called green grading.
And with cupping, we perform a sensorial-analysis of each coffee. By using quality protocols, like the SCA cupping protocol, we cup and assess a coffee on balance, uniformity, cleanliness, sweetness, body, acidity, fragrance/aroma, and flavor.
Both defect count, screen size, and the sensorial-analysis should match with the contract between you, the buyer, and the seller – often a coffee importer or exporter. Let’s start with the influence of coffee defects on coffee grades.
What are coffee defects, and how do they influence the grade?
Coffee beans are continuously at risk. While still dangling from a tree, insects can damage the seeds. You’ll see small black holes on the surface of the green processed beans. Or you can find broken and chipped beans damaged by processing machines in origin. And, even worse, you may find a full black bean that suffered water deprivation or over fermentation at the farm.
How do you recognize coffee defects?
It takes time to develop a keen eye for spotting coffee defects. To give you a head start, you can find the Specialty Grading Specification table underneath. And you can download our coffee defect poster to start visually recognizing green coffee defects.
Ready to explore coffee grades further?
To summarize: grades function as a compass. They help you to navigate within a coffee importer’s offer list as you explore new coffees for your menu.
In the International Coffee Organization’s 2018 National Quality Standards you can find information on various grading systems of different countries, as well as information on what national bodies are governing these grading standards.