The numbers you see on the packaging (84, 87, 92 points) are not marketing. They are the result of a blind tasting conducted by certified experts.

If you've ever entered a specialty coffee roastery or browsed the catalog of a micro-roaster, you've probably seen a number printed on the packaging or described on the website. Sometimes discreet, sometimes highlighted: 87 points, 92 points.

But what does this number mean, exactly? Where does it come from? And should we trust it?

The Scale That Changed the Coffee World

To understand coffee scoring, we have to go back to 2004, when the Specialty Coffee Association (today simply SCA, after merging with the European chapter) published an assessment protocol that would become the global industry standard. The idea was to create a 100-point scale that would allow for the evaluation of ten sensory attributes of coffee, with the goal of creating a universal and comparable language among professionals worldwide.

The inspiration came, in part, from the world of wine, where Robert Parker's scores had already shown that a numerical scale could have a huge impact on the perception of quality and price. In coffee, the ambition was similar: to create objectivity in an inherently subjective product.

The result was a clear division into tiers:

Scoring	Classification
90–100	Exceptional Outstanding
85–89,99	Excellent
80–84,99	Very Good - Minimum for Specialty
70–79,99	Commercial / Good
Below 70	Defective

To be classified as specialty coffee (specialty coffee), a coffee must score at least 80 points and may not contain more than five primary defects in a 300-gram sample. Both conditions must be met—and most of the coffee produced worldwide fails to meet either of them.

In practical terms: Most specialty coffees group between 80 and 86 points., and a score of 90 or above is rare enough to have genuine meaning.

Who Conducts the Evaluation — and How

The individuals responsible for these scores are the Q Graders — Certified evaluators by Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), which has transferred licensing to the SCA itself since 2025. Certification requires intensive training, a demanding exam, and periodic recalibration.

The coffee scoring process is done blindly—no marks, no information about origin, variety, or processing method. It's just the coffee and the palate. This is one of the most important features of the system: to eliminate the noise of marketing and reputation of an origin.

In the test — called cupping — The Q Grader follows a strict protocol. Five cups of the same sample are evaluated, and each is scored on ten distinct attributes:

1. Fragrance / Aroma — the smell of ground coffee before it's infused, and then with hot water
2. Flavor — the central profile of the coffee, its signature
3. AftertasteAftertaste) — the duration and quality of the flavor after swallowing
4. Acidity — not the unpleasant acidity, but what professionals call brightnessVivacity and complexity
5. Body — the texture and weight of the coffee in your mouth
6. Balance — if no single attribute dominates the others to an excessive degree
7. Sweetness — the natural sugar present in the grain, not artificial
8. Uniformity — consistency between the five cups from the same sample
9. Clean cupClean Cup) — absence of defects or strange flavors
10. General Impression the assessor's personal assessment

Each attribute is scored on a scale of 6 to 10, in increments of 0.25 points. The sum of all attributes gives the final score out of 100.

An important detail that many people don't realize: according to Spencer Turer, Vice-President of the consultancy Coffee Enterprises, “it is always important to note that these scores are for defining taste quality only. The SCA and CQI define specialty in the context of green coffee as a combination of cup characteristics (sensory quality) and physical attributes (physical quality).” in Perfect Daily Grind

In other words, scoring does not replace the physical inspection of green coffee beans. A coffee may have an interesting aromatic profile and still fail due to too many physical defects.

Why Does the Scale Start at 80 (and Not Zero)

A common misconception is to assume that 80/100 isn't that good – in the context of this scale, 80 is the threshold for entering territory of excellence. A coffee can drop from 86 to 79 due to uneven roasting or a green-picked cherry, and that difference completely changes its commercial rating.

The effective scale is between 6 and 10 on each attribute (not 0 to 10), which explains why the final score rarely falls below 60, even for the most mediocre cafés evaluated by the system. It is a fine distinction scale between quality levels, not a measurement from zero to infinity.

Q Graders are trained to detect differences as small as 0.25 points on the scale, making the process extremely precise.

What does coffee scoring mean in practice for the consumer?

When you see a number on a coffee package, you can use it as a guide—but with some nuances.

80–84 points: Specialty coffee. You'll find complexity, absence of defects, and something that sets it apart from supermarket coffee. It can be an excellent everyday coffee.

85–89 points: The territory where most of the coffees that good roasters highlight in their catalogs come from. Evident complexity, well-defined origins. In recent years, many roasters have internally required a minimum of 84 points, using this benchmark as a marketing differentiator and a sign of higher quality standards.

90+ points: Rare territory. Coffees with this score are generally small lots, from exceptional harvests, frequently found in auctions like the Cup of Excellence. These aren't coffees to drink distractedly—they are experiences.

It's worth noting: a coffee with 85 points is already of very high quality, while varieties with 90+ points are among the best coffees in the world.

Not Everything Fits Into a Number — SCA's New System

The 100-point system was, for twenty years, the lingua franca of specialty coffee. But it wasn't perfect.

One of the most recurring criticisms is that the classic protocol was designed with washed Arabica coffees as a referencewashed) — clean, bright, with well-defined acidity. Coffees with natural processes or more experimental fermentations, with fruity and complex profiles, could be penalized for characteristics that, in reality, are positive attributes for many consumers.

In November 2024, the SCA officially reformed the classic form and launched the Coffee Value Assessment (CVA) v1.0 — a complete reconstruction based on three years of sensory science research, peer review, and pilot testing.

The new system divides the evaluation into four components: a physical evaluation of the green bean, an evaluation of extrinsic factors like certifications and origin, an affective evaluation (the cupper's personal opinion on quality), and a descriptive evaluation of taste and aroma attributes, without positive or negative implications.

This last distinction is especially interesting: descriptive evaluation introduces a structured framework for capturing detailed sensory attributes, including intensities and descriptors, without labeling them as “good” or “bad.” This allows a coffee with high fruity intensity to be described rigorously, without that characteristic automatically penalizing or rewarding its score.

In practice, the market is still absorbing this change. The 100-point scale continues to be the most used reference on packaging and in industry conversations, but the professional evaluation system is becoming richer and more nuanced.

The Number on the Packaging: What You're Really Seeing

There's a detail that few labels explain, and that significantly changes how we should interpret the rating.

The evaluation done by the Q Grader typically happens long before the coffee reaches your hands. It is done with a sample tower ("You're so bad at telling jokes, you probably think a punchline is what you get when someone throws a sock at you.") — a light, standardized roast, developed specifically to reveal the potential of the green bean and define the value of the coffee at the farm gate. It is based on this score that the lot is bought, traded, and priced.

After that, each roaster will develop the coffee in their own way and style, with a roast curve designed for the profile they want to highlight, for the extraction method it's intended for, and for the taste of their market. This final roast inevitably alters the coffee's characteristics, and it's extremely rare for there to be a new evaluation by a Q Grader after the final roast that goes to the consumer.

What does this mean in practice: when you read “87 points” on a package, you are seeing the potential of the green bean as assessed at the origin, not necessarily the score that coffee would have after being roasted by the roaster who purchased it. This does not invalidate the number; it's a real indicator of the raw material's quality. But the roast is a second authorship, and it can elevate or waste that potential.

Scores are a compass, not a GPS. Two 86-point coffees can be completely different in profile—one floral and citrusy, the other chocolatey and full-bodied. The number tells you the raw material was high quality; what the roaster did with it is another story, told in the cup.

Sources Perfect Daily Grind · Royal Coffee · SCA Coffee Value Assessment · SCA CVA Adoption Press Release · Bean Poet — Q Graders