Course 02 of 20 · Coffee Desk Academy

Origins, Quality & Commercial Grading

Stage A, Coffee market foundations. Level 2 of 10.

Cup scoring and defect grading of arabica and robusta lots, and how origin and preparation become a commercial quality description.

117 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 01

Enrol or enquire See the 117 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 117 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Quality Description a Contract Can Carry Ch 1-10
  1. A Buyer Cannot Order Coffee Without Describing It
  2. Anatomy of the Few Words on a Coffee Invoice
  3. Green Grading and Cup Grading Are Two Separate Verdicts
  4. Arabica and Robusta Need Different Grading Vocabularies
  5. Who Actually Grades a Lot, and Where They Sit
  6. Preparation Is a Commercial Term Before It Is a Mill Setting
  7. The Working Vocabulary of a Coffee Quality Room
  8. Why This Course Names the Protocol and Not the Number
  9. Sold on Sample or Sold on Description
  10. Grading Ends at the Description: Quotation, Claim and Premium Sit Elsewhere
M1 Species, Variety and the Growing Conditions in the Cup Ch 11-20
  1. Arabica and Robusta as Two Different Plants
  2. Varieties and Cultivars That Reach a Description
  3. How Much of the Cup the Variety Explains
  4. Altitude, Density and the Hard Bean Classifications
  5. Shade, Soil and Rainfall as Description Context
  6. Harvest Timing and the Crop Year in a Description
  7. Selective Picking Against Strip Picking
  8. Cherry Ripeness, Floaters and the First Sort
  9. Liberica, Excelsa and the Edges of the Species Table
  10. What the Plant Decides and What the Mill Decides
M2 Processing and Milling as Quality Determinants Ch 21-31
  1. The Washed Process and Its Cup Signature
  2. The Natural Process and the Fruit It Leaves Behind
  3. Honey and Pulped Natural: Mucilage Left On Deliberately
  4. Wet Hulling and the Sumatran Description
  5. Fermentation Controlled on Purpose
  6. Drying: Patio, Raised Bed and Mechanical
  7. Resting, Parchment Storage and Conditioning
  8. Hulling, Polishing and What Polishing Hides
  9. The Mill's Sorting Line, Step by Step
  10. Hand Sorting and the Economics of Picking Out Defects
  11. Blending at the Mill and the Honest Description of a Mixed Lot
M3 The Green Grading Bench and the Defect Count Ch 32-42
  1. Setting Up a Green Grading Bench
  2. ISO 4149 and the Visual and Olfactory Examination
  3. ISO 10470 as the Common Reference Chart
  4. Primary Defects and What Each Reveals
  5. Secondary Defects and the Full Defect Equivalent
  6. Insect Damage, Broca and the Hole You Can Barely See
  7. Mould, Ochratoxin and the Defect That Is Also a Safety Question
  8. Foreign Matter, Husk and Stones
  9. The Brazilian Type Scale and the Official Classification
  10. Defect Value Systems in Robusta Origins
  11. A Green Grade Recorded So Someone Else Can Check It
M4 Size, Density, Colour and Moisture Ch 43-52
  1. Screen Size and the Sieve Stack
  2. ISO 4150 and Why Size Analysis Is Reported as a Profile
  3. Peaberry, Elephant Beans and Shape Grades
  4. Bean Density and the Gravity Table
  5. Colour, Age and the Fading Bean
  6. Moisture Measurement and the Methods That Disagree
  7. Water Activity as a Second Moisture Question
  8. Why Moisture Sits at the Centre of So Many Arguments
  9. Uniformity as an Attribute in Its Own Right
  10. Reading a Physical Grading Report as a Whole
M5 Roasting the Sample and Running the Table Ch 53-63
  1. No Cup Score Is Better Than Its Sample Roast
  2. Roast Degree, Agtron and the Colour Discs
  3. Roast Defects That Masquerade as Bean Defects
  4. Dose, Grind, Water and the Cupping Table Set-Up
  5. Water Chemistry and the Laboratory Nobody Audits
  6. The Sequence at the Table: Fragrance to Cooling
  7. What Slurping Is For
  8. Naming What You Taste: the Flavour Wheel and the Lexicon
  9. Blind Presentation, Randomisation and the Triangulation Test
  10. Calibrating a Panel So Two Cuppers Agree
  11. The Q Grader Credential and What It Certifies
M6 Scoring the Cup and the Forms That Do It Ch 64-74
  1. The Attributes on a Cupping Form
  2. Uniformity, Clean Cup and Sweetness Are Counted, Not Judged
  3. Taints and Faults: the Deduction Side of the Form
  4. Rio Flavour and the Brazilian Liquor Classification
  5. Fine Robusta Needs Its Own Form
  6. What a Score Boundary Between Specialty and Commercial Really Claims
  7. The Coffee Value Assessment and a Protocol Under Revision
  8. Descriptive Scoring Against Preference Scoring
  9. Competition Protocols and the Cup of Excellence Form
  10. How Much a Score Can Be Trusted
  11. One Lot, Two Laboratories, Two Scores
M7 Origin Classification Systems, Market by Market Ch 75-85
  1. Why Every Origin Invented Its Own Grades
  2. Brazil: Type, Screen, Bebida and the Santos Line
  3. Colombia: Excelso, Supremo and the Federation's Control
  4. Central America: Altitude Labels and European Preparation
  5. Ethiopia: Grades, Regional Names and the Exchange
  6. Kenya: Classes by Bean Size and the Liquoring Report
  7. Vietnam: the Standard and What Actually Ships
  8. Indonesia: National Grades Across Many Islands
  9. India and Uganda: Two More Grade Dictionaries
  10. Destination Trade Rules as a Quality Dictionary
  11. Translating One Origin's Grade Into Another's Without Lying
M8 Samples: the Objects That Carry a Description Ch 86-95
  1. The Sample as the Physical Evidence Behind a Promise
  2. Drawing a Sample From a Lot of Many Bags
  3. Sampling Bulk Containers and Loose Loaded Coffee
  4. Offer, Type and Pre-Shipment Samples
  5. Shipment and Arrival Samples
  6. Approving a Sample and What Approval Commits You To
  7. Sealing, Splitting and Retaining Samples
  8. How a Sample Ages Before Anyone Tastes It
  9. The Sample Library and a Lot's Written History
  10. When the Sample and the Words Disagree
M9 Assembling the Commercial Description Ch 96-106
  1. What a Complete Coffee Description Fixes
  2. Writing the Species, Origin and Crop Year Line
  3. Stating the Preparation and the Process
  4. Expressing a Size and Defect Basis
  5. Expressing a Cup Basis
  6. House Grades and Buyer-Specific Standards
  7. Describing a Blend Component
  8. Decaffeinated and Processed-After-Export Descriptions
  9. Tolerance Inside a Description
  10. Where the Description Becomes a Differential
  11. Grading a Lot for Exchange Delivery
M10 Worked Lots and the Limits of Grading Ch 107-117
  1. A Brazilian Natural Lot, Part One: the Bench
  2. A Brazilian Natural Lot, Part Two: the Table and the Line
  3. An Ethiopian Washed Microlot, Worked
  4. A Vietnamese Robusta Parcel, Worked
  5. A Lot That Grades Clean and Cups Flat
  6. A Lot That Grades Badly and Cups Well
  7. The Quality Report a Counterparty Actually Receives
  8. Quality That Changes Between Origin and Arrival
  9. What Grading Cannot Promise About the Roasting Room
  10. One Supplier Judged Across Three Crop Years
  11. Where the Description Meets the Differential, the Claim and the Premium

The brochure gives each of these 117 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 2 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Coffee Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway