Cupping is the international standard for tasting, grading and analysing coffee. It is a profession practiced by ‘Q Graders’ but can be done by anyone to assess the coffees aroma, taste, mouthfeel, sweetness, acidity and flavour amongst others. Coffee can of course become subjective but while cupping we look at it all in the most objective way possible and measure each of the attributes listed above. The SCA standard is 1:18. Every gram of coffee you will add 18g water. If your vessel is of a different size than ~190g use this ratio to scale up or down.

Coffee: 10g medium ground coffee
Water: 180g 93C/200F water
Brew time: 4min

Instructions
Add 10g of ground coffee to a cup or vessel. And assess the dry aroma and fragrance.

Add water until the vessel is full. Pour quickly to help saturate grounds and assess the ‘wet aroma’ after the grounds have formed a crust on the surface. 

At 4 minutes break the ‘crust’ with the back of a spoon. While doing so make sure you are close enough to keep assessing the aroma of the coffee. Be sure not to push down the spoon further than you need.

Remove excess grounds from surface so that once its cooled you’re able to taste the coffee.

Begin tasting the coffee as soon as its cool enough for you to enjoy!