Written by George H Howell

The Cup of Excellence® cupping form rates the cup quality of submitted coffees using multiple categories: absence of defects, cleanness of cup, sweetness, quality of acidity and of mouthfeel, flavor, aftertaste and balance.

Cup quality criteria:

Clean cup: this is the basic starting point for coffee quality. Clean cup is complete freedom from taints or faults. It is the transparency necessary for a coffee’s terroir to shine through.

Sweetness: the sensation of sweetness correlates directly with how uniformly ripe a coffee was when harvested. Sweetness is not entirely dependent on how much sugar is in the roasted coffee, but also on other components which combine to create the impression of sweetness.

Acidity: this is what brightens a coffee. It gives life. In wine it is often referred to as nerve (nervosité in French), backbone or spine.

Quantity of acidity is not necessarily related to quality. A judge must score the quality of the acidity in a particular coffee. As with wine, not all coffees should be notably acidic. It is rather the expression of that acidity, whether powerful or very mild, that is important: is the acidity harsh or overly tart? Is the acidity refined or tangy or does it have a pleasant snap? These are the kinds of questions the judge should ask when scoring a particular coffee’s acidity.

Mouthfeel: the tactile sensation imparted by a coffee. Mouthfeel can include the perception of viscosity, density, weight, texture and astringency.

As with acidity, the degree of mouthfeel presence is not the same thing as quality. The judge must score the quality of the mouthfeel.

Flavor: this is a combination of taste (sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent) and aroma - or nose. This is where a fine coffee can truly stand out as an elegant, and even forceful, expression of place – terroir. The judge must determine whether a coffee’s flavor profile is merely generic or a genuine expression of terroir brought out by the care of the harvester and the skill of the processor.

Aftertaste: the lingering flavor after the coffee has been swallowed can either reinforce the pleasure derived from a coffee’s other attributes or it can weaken and even sabotage it. Does the coffee sweetly disappear or is there a harshness that emerges?

Balance: is the coffee harmonious? Is something excessive? Is the coffee missing something?

Overall: does the coffee have an exciting complexity or is it a simple but very pleasing coffee? Does the cupper simply not like it? This category is the cupper’s personal call.

Final points: One way the coffee experience is truly different from wine is the perception of how it changes from hot to cold over a considerable amount of time. Most judge a coffee by their first impression. The first step to leaving the commodity world, however, is to discover delight in the elegant and slowly evolving transformations of the rare best coffees. Judges take care to explore each coffee presented at the Cup of Excellence® competitions in this way.

Cup of Excellence® scoring categories:

DEFECTS
Phenolic, rio, riado -> automatic disqualification
Ferment
Oniony, sweaty

CLEAN CUP
+ purity free from measurable faults clarity
- dirty earthy moldy off-fruity

SWEETNESS (prevalence of…)
+ ripeness sweet
- green undeveloped closed tart

ACIDITY
+ lively refined firm soft having spine crisp structure racy
- sharp hard thin dull acetic sour flabby biting

MOUTHFEEL (texture, viscosity, sediment, weight, astringency)
+ buttery creamy round smooth cradling rich velvety tightly knit
- astringent rough watery thin light gritty

FLAVOR (nose + taste)
+ character intensity distinctiveness pleasure simple-complex depth (possible notations: nutty, chocolate, berry, fruit, caramel, floral, beefy, spicy, honey, smokey…)
- insipid potato peas grassy woody bitter-salty-sour gamey baggy vegetal

AFTERTASTE
+ sweet cleanly disappearing pleasantly lingering
- bitter harsh astringent cloying dirty unpleasant metallic

BALANCE
+ harmony equilibrium stable-consistent (from hot to cold) structure tuning acidity-body
- hollow excessive… aggressive inconsistent change in character

OVERALL
+ complexity dimension uniformity richness (transformation from hot to cold….)
- simplistic boring do not like!