Cupping: How to taste coffee at home like a pro

Tasting coffee, or cupping, plays a vital role in the world of coffee. In the countries of origin (exporting countries), where coffee is grown, it is used to check the quality of the product. In importing countries, for us consumers, cupping is used by buyers to verify that the quality delivered matches the order. Roasters use cupping to define which beverage they want to roast the coffee for. And at home, we can use it to find out if we like the coffee.

This article explains how you can taste coffee at home and contextualizes the meaning and application of cupping. What is cupping?

What is cupping?

Cupping refers to the method used for tasting green coffee. A coffee sample is roasted according to a predefined standard, ground, and tasted by slurping the coffee. The standardized procedure allows for objective evaluation and comparison of coffee.

10 different attributes are examined, all of which can achieve a total score of 10 points each – for a total of 100 points. In addition to aroma and taste, acidity, body, finish, balance, and overall impression are also evaluated. Sweetness, uniformity, and cleanliness complete the attributes to be assessed.
A new evaluation form will be introduced from October 2025. We have extensively discussed and analyzed the Coffee Value Assessment, or CVA, here.

Simple step-by-step cupping guide

Brief and to the point, for at home or in the workplace, here’s the ABCs of cupping. This is how you can easily taste like a pro. Tip: Read the entire guide once before you start.

Your Preparation

Foreign odors impair sensory perception.

If you want to sensorily analyze coffee (or wine and beer), make sure there are no foreign odors in the room. After all, the scent of roses, linden blossoms, and jasmine should come from your coffee, not your perfume.

What you need:

• 1x grinder
  
• 1x cupping spoon or tablespoon
  
• 1x cup or glass 200ml (if smaller or larger, maintain brewing ratio)
  
• 1x cup or glass to clean the spoon (size doesn't matter)
  
• 1x kettle
  
• 200ml soft water (e.g. Volvic, Black Forest)
  
• 12g coffee (or brewing ratio 1:16.66 = 6g coffee to 100g water)
  
• Paper and pen
  
• Stopwatch
  

The ABCs of Cupping - brief and to the point

1. Grind coffee to a polenta-fine consistency (700-1000 microns)
   
2. Smell the dry powder
   
3. Heat water to 93-96°C
   
4. Start the stopwatch and pour water over the coffee until full, wetting all the coffee
   
5. Smell the crust
   
6. Break the crust after 4 minutes
   
7. Skim off floating particles without disturbing the sunken coffee
   
8. Taste the coffee (see below)
   
9. Record impressions - how do I recognize the coffee again?
   
10. Clean: Do not pour coffee grounds down the drain, but through a fine sieve and enjoy the rest. Use coffee grounds as fertilizer for plants.
    

Always clean the spoon with water between each step.

The individual cupping steps explained in detail

Notes

In cupping, taking notes on what you taste is crucial. This can be done using an official SCA score sheet, in a personal notebook, or a cupping app. The important thing is that your notes allow you to recognize the coffee again. On a professional level, this is done objectively. At home, you can certainly let your subjectivity flow; after all, it's about whether you like the coffee or not. But even here, note what you particularly like about the coffee.

SCA Arabica Cupping Form

Number of cups

For a professional tasting, 5 cups of coffee are brewed individually. The coffee is weighed and ground separately for each cup. This allows any potential errors or defects in the coffee to be identified and named. The uniformity of the coffee is assessed. If only one cup were brewed, one would not know whether a perceived off-flavor was actually one, or if the entire coffee smelled that way and perhaps had inferior quality.

Brew Ratio

For 12g of coffee, we use 200ml of water. If you use a smaller or larger cup or glass, make sure to maintain the brewing ratio. For 150ml of water, you would use 9g of coffee (1:16.6). By the way: our brew ratio does not comply with the Specialty Coffee Association's specifications and standards, which recommend a brewing ratio of 8.25g per 150ml, or 1:18. We prefer to taste a little stronger, as we find that the attributes emerge better this way, and our preferred brew ratio for filter coffees is also 1:16.66.

Grinding

Grind your coffee to a polenta-fine consistency (700-1000 microns). You can also perfectly use your hand grinder for this. Clean the grinder with a few coffee beans to eliminate any residues in the grinder before grinding the 12g for the cup.

Dry Powder

Pour the coffee powder into your vessel. Smell the dry powder and note down your impressions. What aromas can you detect?

Water

On our YouTube channel, we have published a detailed video on perfect coffee water. We recommend a water hardness of 2 - 3 degrees German hardness (GH) and an alkalinity of 1 - 2 degrees German hardness (KH). Not sure if your water is suitable? Here you can see how to test your water at home.

Heat the water to 93-96°. Pour the water over the coffee grounds and start the stopwatch. Fill to the brim, making sure all particles are wet.

Smell the crust

Smell the crust that forms. Are your initial olfactory impressions confirmed? Do you find any other aromas?

Breaking the crust

After 4 minutes, slowly break the crust with your spoon by pushing the particles from front to back. Do not stir, just push them back. Repeat this 3 times. When broken, the volatile aromas unfold. These quickly dissipate, which is why the aroma must be evaluated immediately.

Skimming

With your spoon, you can now skim off the particles floating on the surface. They affect the tactile sensation and are also bitter.

Slurping

After another 4-5 minutes, take your first slurp. Just like in wine tasting, in cupping, we try to draw in air to perceive the retronasal aromas. This gives us the full bouquet and the complete flavor profile.

With the first sip, we analyze the taste and get a first impression of body and acidity. During the second slurp, we pay attention to the aftertaste, the balance, i.e., the equilibrium between the other attributes. With the third slurp, we pay attention to the consistency of the coffee (did it get better/worse/more intense as it cooled down?) and evaluate the overall impression.

Why do we taste coffee?

Cupping is the method used to sensorily analyze green coffee and assess its potential as roasted coffee. Depending on the growing region, varietal, harvesting process, post-harvest process, and the producer's interest, coffee can taste completely different. Various parties along the value chain therefore have different reasons to put green coffee through its paces.

The Producers

Producers use cupping to check their work. Just as a winemaker regularly checks the quality of their wines during maturation, coffee producers do the same – but only at the end of the entire process. At the end of a long journey from blossom to processing to green coffee, cupping decides whether it's a hit or a flop. All the hard work on the coffee farm is reflected in just a few cups and a single sip, showing producers whether their efforts will pay off. Based on the cupping and the sensory impression gained, the producer can now bring their coffee to market. And for next year, they already know what steps they can optimize or whether the adjustments made this year have already excelled.

Note: many coffee producers do not taste their coffee. Especially small producers often have never tasted their coffee as it is tasted by traders, roasters, or consumers. They lack access to training and equipment. As a result, many coffee producers lack important prerequisites to understand the value of their coffee and offer it accordingly on the market.

The Traders

Traders deal in green coffee. They are the linchpin in the coffee industry, whether on a small or large scale. However, more and more roasters and producers are trying to bypass intermediaries and buy or sell their green coffees as directly as possible. But this is not as easy as it seems at first glance. Those who buy green coffee are in many cases the intermediaries between producers and roasters. The interest in tasting lies in selling the desired taste profile and quality to buyers. For modern traders, it is no longer just about quality, but also about the sustainability aspects concerning people and animals linked to coffee production. Because coffee carries a lot of baggage from both past and present times.

The Roasters

With their profile, roasters lay the crucial groundwork for whether their customers share their philosophy and taste preferences, and whether they, depending on their personal standards, also buy from them precisely for that reason. Based on cupping, the roastery decides which coffees they want to use for their final products and what the characteristics of the individual roasted coffees should be. If an elegant espresso with delicate acidity and notes of honey, caramel, and citrus fruits is desired, the team selects a corresponding green coffee. Finding green coffees that are both palatable and ideologically suitable is probably one of the bigger challenges for a contemporary roastery.

The Consumers

Ideally, we drink coffee that knocks our socks off. But how do you find out which coffee you like best? Whether you prefer subtle aromas or funky flavors? Which post-harvest process convinces you most? Which flavor profile you want to enjoy at what time? Whether you can even smell, taste, and feel a difference between the different varieties and countries? One thing first: yes, you will. So, consumers can also find out through cupping which flavor profile is theirs.

Q-Grader - The Licensed Coffee Taster

A Q-Grader is a person who has successfully passed 21 sensory tests and is thus awarded a 3-year license as a certified coffee taster. What is known to only a few of us is a respected profession in certain coffee-producing countries, such as Honduras – with significantly higher wages than, for example, a teacher. After 3 years, this license must be renewed. The license is obtained for Arabica or Robusta.

Further information about the Q-Grader, including a video by Michel and Philipp, can be found here. Among us Kaffeemacher:innen, David, Michel, Benjamin, Philipp, and Nadja are trained Q-Graders, with Benjamin and Nadja holding both the Q-Grader Arabica and Robusta certifications.

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Further topics on sensory evaluation

Learn more about cupping and tasting: Sensory Course

Test kits for water hardness determination buy in CH

Test kits for water hardness determination buy in DE

The influence of coffee processing methods on taste