Tasting & quality

Cupping & scores

How to read a coffee assessment.

Cupping uses defined sample preparation and tasting procedures to assess coffee. Source: SCA-102

Coffee Value Assessment (CVA) records four complementary views: physical properties of the green coffee; sensory descriptions; the taster's impression of quality, called affective assessment; and information about the coffee, called extrinsic assessment. Source: SCA CVA

In affective assessment, ratings on a nine-point scale feed a formula that produces an overall score from 0 to 100. Source: SCA affective assessment

Read the sensory description alongside the quality assessment, and see the SCA definition of specialty for the broader meaning of specialty coffee.