You pick up a bag of coffee. On the label, printed in clean type, it says "87 points." Maybe you nod and add it to your cart. Maybe you pause and wonder what that number actually means, who assigned it, and whether it reflects anything real about what you are about to drink. That pause is worth following.
The specialty coffee scoring system cupping and 100 point scale is not a marketing construct. It is a formal, standardized evaluation process developed by professional organizations and carried out by trained, licensed tasters. The number on that bag was earned through a controlled sensory evaluation called cupping, applied against a structured 100-point scale with defined thresholds and scoring categories. It reflects a specific lot of coffee evaluated under specific conditions by people whose job is to taste coffee the same way every time.
Understanding how that system works changes how you read a coffee label, how you taste your morning cup, and how you think about why some coffees cost more than others. It also connects the coffee in your hand to a real place, a real farm, and a real set of decisions made long before the bag was sealed.
Here at Buddha's Cup, we grow Kona coffee on our farm in Holualoa, Hawaii, on the slopes of the Big Island's Hualalai volcano. The same system used to evaluate the world's finest coffees applies to what we grow here. When you understand the scoring system, you understand a little more about what it means when a coffee like ours earns a place in the specialty tier. That understanding is worth having, and this article is here to give it to you.
We will walk through what the system is, who built it, how the 100-point scale is structured, what cupping actually involves, how the landscape of scoring is evolving, and how Kona coffee fits into this world. We will also give you practical tools for reading scores as a consumer and for trying a simplified version of cupping at home. By the end, the number on that bag will mean something specific to you.
If you want to start with the foundation of what makes coffee specialty in the first place, our piece on what makes specialty coffee special is a good companion to what follows here.
What Is the Specialty Coffee Scoring System and Why Does It Exist?
The Problem the Scoring System Was Built to Solve
For most of coffee's commercial history, the global trade ran on commodity logic. Coffee was bought and sold by weight, by country of origin, and by broad grade categories that told you very little about what was actually in the bag. A buyer in Hamburg purchasing a container of Central American coffee and a roaster in Tokyo sourcing East African lots had no shared language for quality beyond those blunt categories. Defect counts existed, but they did not capture sensory experience. Price signals existed, but they were driven more by supply dynamics than by cup quality.
The result was a market where differentiated, origin-specific, carefully grown coffee was invisible as a category. Farmers who invested in better processing, more careful harvesting, and more attentive agronomic practices had no reliable way to communicate that investment to buyers. Everything blended into the same price pool. There was no mechanism to reward quality at the farm level because there was no agreed-upon way to measure and express it.
This was the problem the specialty coffee scoring system was built to solve. The industry needed an objective, repeatable, shared way to evaluate and communicate quality, one that went beyond physical defect sorting and captured what a coffee actually tasted like. It needed a framework that any trained professional could apply in any market and produce a result that another trained professional in a different city could compare, interpret, and trust.
The scoring system answered that need. It gave buyers and sellers a shared language. It gave farmers a path to recognition and premium pricing. And it gave coffee drinkers, eventually, a way to understand what they were paying for when they reached for a bag labeled "specialty grade."
Who Created the Standard and Who Maintains It
The Specialty Coffee Association, known as the SCA, is the primary institution behind the cupping protocols and scoring standards that define how specialty coffee is evaluated. The SCA developed the standardized cupping form, established the controlled conditions under which evaluations must occur, and created the 100-point scale that structures the scoring process. These are not guidelines. They are protocols with specific measurements, timings, temperatures, and procedural requirements that must be followed for a score to be considered valid under the system.
The Coffee Quality Institute, known as the CQI, operates alongside the SCA as the certifying and training body for the professionals who actually apply these standards. The CQI created and administers the Q Grader certification program, which trains and licenses the tasters whose evaluations produce the scores you see on specialty coffee bags and in green coffee databases. Without the CQI's training and calibration infrastructure, the scores would be inconsistent and incomparable across markets. The CQI is what makes the system portable and reliable at a global scale.
The professionals who do this work are called Q Graders. They are trained specifically to apply the SCA cupping protocol consistently, to calibrate their sensory perceptions against established standards, and to produce scores that can be compared across lots, origins, and harvest years. The Q Grader credential requires passing 22 calibrated tests. It is not a simple certification, and the rigor behind it is precisely what gives the scores credibility.
What "Specialty Coffee" Officially Means Under This System
The word "specialty" is used loosely in everyday conversation. You hear it applied to roast styles, to café aesthetics, to price brackets, and to marketing campaigns. Under the SCA system, the word has a specific, two-part technical meaning, and both parts must be satisfied simultaneously.
The first part is a physical green coffee standard. A sample of green, unroasted coffee beans must meet strict defect criteria. In a 350-gram sample, there must be zero primary defects, which include things like full black beans, full sour beans, dried pods, fungi-damaged beans, and foreign matter. Secondary defects, which include partial defects and less severe physical issues, must number no more than five. Additionally, a 100-gram roasted sample must contain no quakers, which are underdeveloped beans that fail to roast properly due to physiological immaturity.
The second part is a sensory score. The coffee must score at or above 80 points on the 100-point SCA scale when evaluated by a trained Q Grader using the standardized cupping protocol. Some commercial buyers and certifying contexts use 84 as a stricter operational threshold, but 80 is the official entry point into the specialty tier under the SCA definition.
Both conditions must be met. A coffee that scores beautifully in the cup but arrives with significant physical defects is not specialty grade. A physically pristine lot that scores below 80 is not specialty grade. Most coffee produced globally fails to meet either condition, which is why genuine specialty coffee represents a small fraction of total production and commands premium pricing. The designation means something precise. Understanding that precision is part of becoming a more informed coffee drinker.
Traceability is also embedded in the specialty identity. Specialty coffee is not anonymous. It is linked to a specific farm, estate, cooperative, or producing lot with documented origin information. That traceability is part of what allows the system to function, because it creates accountability across the supply chain.
How the 100-Point Scale Is Structured
The Ten Scoring Categories and How They Are Weighted
The 100-point scale is not a single overall impression converted to a number. It is the sum of ten distinct scoring categories, each of which captures a specific dimension of the coffee's sensory performance. Understanding those categories helps you understand what a score actually represents.
Seven of the ten categories are scored on a continuous scale from six to ten, with descriptors anchoring the range. These seven attributes are Fragrance and Aroma evaluated together, Flavor, Aftertaste, Acidity, Body, Balance, and Overall. Each of these receives its own score from the evaluator based on what the coffee delivers in that specific dimension.
The remaining three categories are assessed cup by cup across the multiple cups of the same coffee that are prepared for each cupping session. These are Uniformity, Clean Cup, and Sweetness. Each cup in the session receives a score of either two points or zero for each of these three attributes. If all five cups score perfectly across all three, the coffee earns ten points from each category. Any cup that fails to deliver uniformity, cleanliness, or sweetness in a given attribute costs the coffee two points from that category's total.
The practical implication of this structure is significant. A coffee cannot compensate for weakness in one area by brilliance in another, at least not entirely. A spectacular aroma paired with inconsistent cups will cost points in the uniformity and clean cup categories that no amount of fragrance can fully recover. The system rewards consistent performance across all dimensions, not exceptional performance in one or two. This reflects what the specialty coffee trade actually values: a coffee that delivers a coherent, complete, and repeatable experience.
Defect scoring can also reduce the total. If the evaluator identifies taints or faults in the cup, points are deducted based on the intensity and prevalence of those defects. These subtractions can meaningfully lower a final score.
The Classification Bands and What Each Tier Means
The 100-point scale is divided into classification bands that give the score meaningful context. These are not arbitrary marketing labels. They reflect meaningful differences in cup quality and are used consistently in the specialty coffee trade.
Coffee that scores below 80 points is not specialty grade by SCA standards. It may still be a commercially viable, clean, and enjoyable coffee, but it does not meet the sensory threshold that qualifies it as specialty. This is where the majority of globally produced coffee sits.
Coffee scoring between 80 and 84.99 points is classified as "Very Good." This is the entry level of specialty and represents a genuinely clean, pleasant cup with no significant defects and some positive sensory complexity. Most coffee that makes it to the specialty tier sits somewhere in this range at the lower end.
Coffee scoring between 85 and 89.99 points is classified as "Excellent." A coffee scoring 85 is already of very high quality. This range represents significant complexity, clean presentation, and distinctive origin character. The sweet spot for most everyday specialty drinkers lives here, particularly in the 85 to 87 range where the commercial market is most active. Complexity is accessible, quality is reliable, and the value proposition is strong.
Coffee scoring 90 points or above is classified as "Outstanding." These are among the best coffees produced in a given harvest year. Achieving a score in this range is exceptional and reflects not just excellent growing conditions and processing but extraordinary care at every stage from seed to cup. These coffees are rare, often produced in very small quantities, and priced accordingly.
The commercial reality is that most specialty coffee you encounter in well-sourced cafés and from reputable roasters sits in the 84 to 87 range. When you see a bag marked 87 points from a credible source, you are looking at a genuinely excellent coffee. The scores on bags from transparent roasters who publish their sourcing information are not assigned by marketing teams. They come from the cupping sessions conducted before the coffee was purchased.
As one widely cited characterization puts it, the 100-point system was for two decades the shared language of the specialty coffee world. It allowed a buyer in one country to communicate with a producer in another using a common numerical shorthand that both parties understood and trusted.
What the Numbers Cannot Tell You and Why That Matters
The score is real and it matters. It also has limits that are worth understanding, especially as a consumer making decisions at the point of purchase.
First, the score reflects a point-in-time evaluation conducted under controlled conditions. Green coffee was likely scored before roasting, or the roasted coffee was evaluated close to the roast date under ideal preparation conditions. By the time you brew that coffee at home, variables have changed. Freshness matters enormously. Coffee stales after roasting, and the peak sensory window is relatively short. A coffee that scored beautifully at five days post-roast may taste muted at six weeks post-roast, even if the bag still shows the same number.
Second, grind calibration and brew method significantly affect what ends up in your cup. The score was produced using standardized parameters. Your home brewing setup uses different parameters. Even the best coffee in the world, brewed carelessly, will not deliver what the score measured. The score is a ceiling indicator. It tells you what the coffee is capable of, not what it will inevitably deliver in every cup you make.
Third, the descriptive notes that accompany a score carry as much practical value as the number itself. A score of 87 tells you a coffee scored in the excellent range. The tasting notes tell you whether that excellent coffee is bright and floral or rich and chocolatey, whether the acidity is citrus-forward or stone fruit, whether the body is light and clean or round and full. Those descriptors help you understand whether this particular excellent coffee is the right excellent coffee for your preferences.
When you are buying Kona coffee, understanding the flavor profiles of Kona coffee and its blends alongside any score gives you a much more complete picture of what to expect in the cup. The score sets the quality threshold. The descriptors tell you the story.
What Cupping Is and How It Produces the Score
The Cupping Setup: Environment, Equipment, and Protocol
Cupping is the professional sensory evaluation method that produces specialty coffee scores. The term gets used loosely sometimes to describe any coffee tasting, but in the specialty context it refers to a very specific, controlled process with defined parameters that must be followed precisely to produce valid, comparable results.
The environment matters. Cupping rooms are designed to minimize sensory distractions. Lighting is neutral. Temperature is controlled. No strong scents from cleaning products, food, or personal fragrances are permitted because olfactory interference affects aroma evaluation. The setup is about creating conditions where the coffee can be evaluated on its own terms without environmental noise.
The equipment is standardized. Cupping bowls are specific ceramic or glass vessels that hold a defined volume, typically around 150 to 200 milliliters, and maintain temperature across the evaluation window. Cupping spoons are deep-bowled and designed to hold enough liquid for a full slurp. Spittoons are present because evaluators taste many coffees in a session and need to manage intake. Standardized SCA cupping forms are used to record scores in real time as the evaluation proceeds.
Water temperature is specified, typically around 93 degrees Celsius for the pour. Grind size is medium coarse and must be consistent. The coffee-to-water ratio follows SCA guidelines, generally around 8.25 grams of coffee per 150 milliliters of water. Precision matters here because variations in any of these parameters change the extraction and change what the evaluator is actually tasting.
Blind cupping is standard practice for professional evaluation. Labels, roaster information, and origin details are removed so that the evaluator cannot be influenced by expectation or reputation. The goal is to evaluate what is actually in the cup, not what the packaging suggests should be there. This is especially important when multiple evaluators are scoring the same lot simultaneously, because it prevents one evaluator's assumptions from anchoring another's perceptions.
The Cupping Process Step by Step
The cupping session follows a defined sequence, and each step in that sequence is designed to capture a specific sensory dimension that contributes to the final score.
The session begins with the dry fragrance evaluation. Ground coffee sits in the cupping bowl before water is added. The evaluator bends close and inhales deliberately, noting the intensity and character of the aromatic compounds released from the dry grounds. This is the fragrance portion of the Fragrance/Aroma score. Dry fragrance can reveal floral, fruity, nutty, or malty character, and it sets an initial impression that the evaluator will compare against the wet aroma that follows.
Water is then poured over the grounds at the specified temperature and volume. A crust of coffee grounds forms at the surface. The wet aroma rising from the crust is evaluated immediately while volatile aromatics are at their most active. This is the aroma portion of the score, and it often reveals different aromatic qualities than the dry fragrance did.
After a defined rest period of approximately four minutes, the evaluator breaks the crust. Breaking involves pushing the floating grounds to the back of the bowl with the back of a spoon while inhaling the released aromatics. The break is both a sensory evaluation moment and a preparation step that clears the grounds from the surface so that the liquid can be accessed cleanly. What the evaluator notices in that burst of aroma during the break contributes to the overall aroma assessment.
After the crust is broken and the grounds are cleared, the liquid is ready to taste. The evaluation window typically runs from about eight to ten minutes after the pour, allowing the coffee to cool slightly from brewing temperature. Tasting too early risks burning the palate. Waiting too long allows the coffee to cool beyond the useful evaluation temperature range.
Slurping is the signature technique of cupping, and it exists for a specific functional reason. When a cupper draws a spoonful of coffee through pursed lips at speed, the liquid is aerosolized across the entire palate, reaching taste receptors throughout the mouth simultaneously and carrying volatile aromatics up through the retronasal passage to the olfactory receptors. It is the most effective way to get a comprehensive sensory impression from a single spoonful of coffee. The loud noise is unavoidable and completely expected in a cupping room.
Scores are recorded in real time on the standardized form as each attribute is evaluated. Evaluators do not wait until the end to assign numbers. They assess each category as they encounter it and record it while the impression is fresh. The session continues across the temperature curve because some attributes, particularly acidity, become more perceptible as the coffee cools. Multiple cups of the same coffee are tasted to evaluate uniformity and clean cup performance.
Who Does the Cupping and How They Are Trained
Not everyone who cups coffee produces a Q Grader score. The title Q Grader refers specifically to professionals who hold a current, active license issued by the Coffee Quality Institute. Earning that license requires passing 22 calibrated tests that evaluate sensory acuity, protocol knowledge, and the ability to apply the SCA cupping standards consistently. The tests include triangulation exercises, where evaluators must identify the odd cup among three, as well as sensory skill exercises and cupping calibrations against established reference standards.
Calibration is the central concept that makes the system work across markets. Without calibration, two evaluators in different cities applying the same protocol would produce scores that could not be meaningfully compared. The training process ensures that a Q Grader in Honolulu and a Q Grader in Copenhagen are working from the same sensory benchmarks when they assign a score of 87 to a coffee. The score is transportable precisely because the evaluator's palate has been calibrated against shared standards.
The CQI requires Q Grader licenses to be renewed every three years through re-calibration. Sensory perception can drift over time. Regular re-calibration keeps evaluators honest and keeps the system reliable. This renewal requirement is part of why the credential carries real weight in the industry.
The full picture of what it takes to hold and maintain this credential is worth understanding if you want to know more about how the people behind the scores are trained. Our post on becoming a Q Grader covers the process in detail.
One important nuance: even within the tight structure of the protocol, human subjectivity is not entirely eliminated. Trained palates can and do produce slightly different scores for the same coffee. This is why professional cupping sessions typically involve multiple evaluators scoring the same lot independently, with the results averaged or discussed to reach a consensus. The protocol controls for many sources of variation, but it cannot fully remove the human element from a human sensory process. What it does is narrow the range of variation to a point where the scores are meaningful and comparable.
The Evolving Landscape of Coffee Scoring
The SCA's 2024 Scoring Revision and What Changed
The scoring system we have described in this article has not stood completely still. In 2024, the SCA introduced a significant revision to its evaluation framework, and understanding that revision is important for anyone who wants to read coffee scores intelligently going forward.
The most significant change in the revised SCA framework was structural. The updated system split sensory evaluations into two separate categories: descriptive assessments and affective assessments. Descriptive assessments focus on identifying what is present in the cup in terms of sensory attributes. Affective assessments capture the evaluator's judgment of how good those attributes are, including personal and cultural preferences that the older system treated as secondary.
More dramatically, the revised framework eliminated the traditional 100-point scoring system entirely from the SCA's current training and calibration infrastructure. This was not a minor adjustment. The 100-point scale had been the defining numerical framework of specialty coffee evaluation for approximately two decades, and removing it from the SCA's forward-facing protocol represented a significant philosophical shift in how the organization approached quality assessment.
The industry response has been one of continued transition. The CQI continues to train and certify Q Graders under the established calibrated 100-point system. The scores produced by Q Graders under that system remain valid, meaningful, and widely used in commercial sourcing decisions. Many roasters, importers, and green coffee buyers continue to use and publish 100-point scores from Q Grader evaluations. The two frameworks now coexist in an industry that is working through a period of methodological evolution.
What this means practically is that the scores you see on bags today reflect a system that remains active and credible even as the institutional landscape around it shifts. Understanding both what the number means and which framework produced it is increasingly useful for the most engaged coffee buyers.
Alternative and Complementary Scoring Methods
The 100-point scale is not the only framework that has been developed to evaluate coffee quality. Alternative methods have been explored and validated alongside conventional scoring, driven by several practical motivations.
Evaluator fatigue is a real concern in professional cupping contexts. When a taster works through many samples in a session, sensory acuity can decline. Some alternative methods are designed to be less demanding than a full 100-point SCA cupping form while still producing reliable quality signals. These approaches sacrifice some granularity in exchange for sustainability across long evaluation sessions.
Accessibility is another driver. The full Q Grader cupping protocol requires significant training, specific equipment, and controlled conditions. Methods that can be applied with less infrastructure open quality assessment to more participants in producing regions, particularly in contexts where full cupping labs are not available.
Research into alternative scoring tools, including mathematical validation of different evaluation frameworks, has shown that well-designed alternative methods can produce results that correlate meaningfully with conventional 100-point scores. This does not replace the established system but it does suggest that the industry's toolkit for quality evaluation may broaden over time.
The core debate underlying all of this is a genuinely interesting one. A single number is commercially useful. It compresses a complex sensory evaluation into a format that buyers and sellers can communicate quickly and that consumers can read at a glance. But a single number strips away almost all of the information about character, origin, and sensory specificity that makes a coffee interesting and that helps a drinker understand whether this particular coffee is the right one for their preferences. Descriptive data alongside the number tells a richer and more useful story.
What the Evolution Means for Coffee Drinkers and Buyers
For most coffee drinkers and buyers, the institutional evolution of scoring frameworks is background information rather than actionable news. The 100-point scores already published in green coffee databases, printed on bags, and cited in roaster sourcing notes remain valid and meaningful. They were produced by calibrated professionals using a rigorous protocol, and they accurately reflect the quality of those specific lots at the time of evaluation.
What the evolution does reinforce is the value of transparency and traceability as the non-negotiable foundations of specialty coffee credibility. A score from a named Q Grader on a specific lot from a specific farm in a specific harvest year is reliable information. A generic "specialty grade" claim on a bag with no accompanying documentation is much less so. As scoring frameworks evolve, the signals that allow buyers to trust what they are reading become even more important than the specific number those signals surround.
For engaged drinkers, the evolution of scoring is an invitation to look at the full picture rather than just the number. What descriptors accompany the score? Who evaluated it? When was the evaluation conducted? What is the farm's production history? The score is a starting point for curiosity, not a finishing line. The best coffee experiences begin with a number and move quickly toward the story behind it.
How Kona Coffee Fits Into the Specialty Coffee Scoring World
Kona Coffee's Geographic and Agronomic Foundations
Kona coffee is grown in one of the most distinctive agricultural environments on Earth. The Kona Coffee Belt runs along the western slopes of the Big Island of Hawaii, primarily between elevations of about 500 and 2,500 feet on the flanks of Mauna Loa and Hualalai volcanoes. Our farm sits in Holualoa, one of the historic coffee-growing communities at the heart of this belt, at an elevation that captures the conditions that have made Kona coffee famous for generations.
The microclimate here is remarkably consistent and remarkably favorable for coffee growing. Mornings are typically sunny and warm, which drives photosynthesis and healthy cherry development. Afternoons bring cloud cover and often light rain, which cools the trees, moderates stress, and delivers moisture during the growing season without waterlogging the well-draining volcanic soil. Evenings are cool, which slows cherry development and allows the fruit to build complexity and sugar concentration over a longer maturation window.
The volcanic soil itself is a critical factor. Kona's soils are derived from basaltic lava flows and are rich in minerals while maintaining excellent drainage. Coffee roots in poorly drained soil develop stress conditions that show up as defects and off-flavors in the cup. In well-drained volcanic soil, roots access nutrients efficiently and the tree channels its energy into healthy cherry production rather than stress responses. These soil conditions contribute directly to the cleanliness and brightness that evaluators reward in cupping.
Traceability, one of the core values of the specialty coffee scoring system, is built into Kona coffee's identity in a way that is unusual even within specialty coffee. Kona coffee must come from a defined geographic area on the Big Island. It is inherently origin-specific and inherently traceable to a specific agricultural district. That alignment between geographic specificity and specialty scoring values is not coincidental. It is part of why Kona coffee has maintained its prestige in the specialty market for so long. You can read more about the unique character of this origin in our detailed piece on what is Kona coffee.
Kona Coffee Grading vs. SCA Cupping Scoring
Kona coffee operates within two parallel quality frameworks simultaneously. Understanding how they relate to each other helps you read Kona coffee labels more intelligently.
The State of Hawaii operates its own green coffee grading system for Kona, which is based on physical bean characteristics. The grades are, from highest to lowest, Extra Fancy, Fancy, No. 1, Select, and Prime. These grades reflect things like bean size, moisture content, and defect counts as measured in a physical inspection of the green lot. Extra Fancy, the top grade, requires beans that meet the strictest size and defect standards in the state system.
The state grading system is a physical inspection tool. It tells you about the uniformity and physical quality of the green coffee in the bag. The coffee grading system used in Hawaii serves a different purpose than the SCA cupping score, though they are complementary. A high state grade tells you that the physical lot is clean and uniform. A high SCA cupping score tells you that the coffee performs well sensorially in the cup. A coffee can hold the Extra Fancy designation and still score poorly in cupping if the growing or processing conditions produced flavor defects. And a coffee could theoretically cup well while falling short of Extra Fancy on physical size criteria.
In practice, the best Kona coffees hold both a high state grade and a strong cupping score. The Extra Fancy designation aligns reasonably well with the physical standards that the SCA system also cares about, particularly around defect counts. When you see a Kona coffee labeled Extra Fancy alongside a published cupping score from a credible evaluator, you are seeing the two systems working in concert to give you a complete quality picture from both a physical and a sensory perspective.
Understanding both frameworks together is what gives you the most complete picture of a Kona coffee's quality. Neither one alone tells the full story.
What a High Cupping Score Looks Like in the Cup at Buddha's Cup
When evaluators cup a well-grown Kona coffee, certain sensory attributes come up consistently. Brightness is one of them. The acidity in Kona coffee, when the coffee is grown well and processed carefully, is typically described as lively rather than sharp, with a fruit-forward quality that makes the cup feel vivid without being aggressive. This is the kind of acidity that earns high scores in the Acidity category on the cupping form because it is positive, well-defined, and appropriate to the coffee's overall character.
Cleanliness is another hallmark. A clean cup is one where no off-flavors, ferment notes, or processing defects obscure the coffee's inherent character. The Clean Cup category on the SCA form reflects this directly. Kona's growing and processing conditions, when managed carefully, produce cups with a clarity that allows the origin character to come through without interference. That cleanliness is part of what coffee professionals mean when they describe Kona as an accessible yet distinguished origin.
Floral and fruit notes appear in well-grown Kona lots and contribute to Fragrance/Aroma scores. The specific character varies by elevation, processing method, and harvest timing, but the floral element is present often enough that experienced tasters associate it with the origin. The aftertaste in quality Kona coffee tends to be clean and moderately long, without bitterness or astringency, which supports high scores in the Aftertaste category.
At Buddha's Cup, our approach to processing and roasting is oriented toward preserving and highlighting these origin characteristics rather than imposing a heavy-handed roast profile that would obscure them. We want the terroir that the soil, the elevation, and the Holualoa microclimate built into each cherry to arrive in your cup as clearly as possible. The scoring system gives us a framework for thinking about that goal. Each category on the cupping form is a question about whether we did our job well.
The best way to understand what this means experientially is to taste it. Our farm tours and tastings put you in direct contact with the coffee at its source, and we will talk more about that in a moment. When you understand the scoring system and then taste the coffee with that framework in mind, the experience of drinking Kona coffee takes on a new layer of meaning. The flavor profiles of Kona coffee and its blends we have written about can help you orient your palate before you cup.
Reading a Coffee Score as a Consumer
What to Look for Beyond the Number
Armed with an understanding of how the scoring system works, you are in a much stronger position to evaluate the information on a coffee bag or a roaster's product page. Here are the questions worth asking.
First, ask who scored it. A score produced by a licensed Q Grader in a calibrated cupping