In response to the overwhelming popularity of alternatively processed coffees in the specialty coffee industry, Café Imports has developed groundbreaking cupping standards for use in evaluating these special coffees. These cupping standards ”available for Washed, Natural, Wet-Hulled, Brazil, and Decaf ”are the first of their kind in the world.
Not only that, Café Imports is sharing them for free to anyone who wants to give them a spin: just download them HERE.
I think 2011 and 2012 were the first years that café owners and baristas began sitting up and noticing coffees that were processed using these experimental methods; certainly the 2012 United States Barista Championship goes down in history for the high number of competitors who not only used alternatively processed coffees, but shaped their entire performances around the vibrant, unique flavor profiles of these coffees.
Cuppers were in love with these coffees, too ”and yet, they were perplexed. The original Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) standard cupping protocol just didn’t work for evaluating coffees from these processing methods.
Café Imports green buyer and co-owner Jason Long was frustrated by that. œIt’s like trying to score blue cheese on a cheddar form, he now-famously said to the staff at Café Imports, the Minneapolis-based specialty coffee importer serving roasters around the world of all sizes. Immediately, Jason and Café Imports’ director of sensory analysis, Ian Fretheim, got to work on a mission: to create some new standards to be used at the cupping table when coffees from these processes are up for evaluation.
œOver the course of the last year, I’ve followed and then taken the lead in developing distinct standards for the cup scoring of variously processed coffees, writes Ian in his fantastic article for Barista Magazine‘s April/May 2013 issue. œToday we use five separate scoring standards in our green cupping: Washed, Natural, Wet Hulled, Brazil, and Decaf. What follows is a description of how these standards came about, the thinking behind them, and how we now use them in our daily analysis of green coffee.
(Be sure to check out the April/May 2013 issue of Barista Magazine to read Ian’s fascinating account, and explore notes on the actual sheets. The magazine will be available to view online for free at our website, baristamagazine.com, starting April 1; it will be mailed to subscribers the first week of April, and we’ll also be giving thousands of copies away for free at the SCAA show in Boston.)
Where we wondered in 2012 whether alternatively processed coffees were simply a trend, they’ve proved their staying power through their enormous popularity with the best baristas and roasters both in the U.S. and abroad.
It only seems natural that the next step would be to have cupping standards specifically designed for these alternatively processed coffees ”Café Imports has seriously delivered.
œThese forms are dynamic, organic things, Jason told me over the phone last week. He wanted to be sure I understood that, as these processing methods are constantly evolving themselves, the Café Imports standards are also malleable. œWe’re not saying this is the rule for how to evaluate these coffees, period. These processes don’t allow for something set in stone like that.
Very interesting concept. I believe this is one of many processes in coffee roasting that need to be more refined. The process method affects the roast dramatically.