Ethiopian coffee grading, explained.
Ethiopian export grades count defects in a 300 gram sample. The grade describes the sorting. The cup score describes the coffee. A buyer needs both, plus the condition readings, and each is a separate question with a written answer.
The grade: how clean the lot is.
A defect count tells you about picking discipline, the mill and how carefully the coffee was sorted. It does not tell you whether the coffee tastes good.
The cup score: how the coffee tastes.
A Q-grader score is a sensory assessment made by a certified taster against a defined protocol, and it comes with a scoresheet showing how the number was reached. A specialty natural that would have shipped at a lower grade under older rules can still score 86 and above. Read the grade and the score together.
Four questions to ask about any lot.
- Which process?
- Washed and natural are graded differently, so a grade without a process is half an answer.
- What is the score?
- Ask for the scoresheet, not the adjective.
- What is the moisture?
- A condition reading, read at origin and again on landing.
- What is the water activity?
- The second condition reading, read at the same two points.
Screen size and commercial grades.
Our lot pages show the screen distribution for each lot. The season lots are specialty. Commercial grades for larger volumes and blends are sourced the same way, and Jimma is Ethiopia's main commercial-volume region. Say in your brief that you want commercial grade and give the volume.
What we have not verified: the grading systems of Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Indonesia and Vietnam. We do not describe them here. The origin comparisons say the same.
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Cup profile, process, volume and timing. The more specific the brief, the more specific the shortlist. If nothing fits, we say so.
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