The senior graders at the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority in Addis Ababa

Many different criteria are used to grade coffee in the various producing areas of the world; as a result, it is difficult to compare different country's grading systems.  For example, Grade 1 Sumatra allows 8% defects whereas Grade 1 Yirgacheffe only permits 1%.  Similarly, in Central and South America SHB and SHG (strictly hard bean and strictly high grown), which indicate coffees grown at more than 1,000 metres, are regarded as the top quality, while, in Brazil, Strictly Soft is the top grade.  Some countries use a simple numeric scale to grade their coffees but others do not.  In Ethiopia, Grades 1 - 3 are used for wet processed coffee and grades 4 - 5 are used for dry processed.  However, the cup quality of a Grade 4 DP can be just as high as a Grade 1 or 2.  The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) have produced a Green Coffee Classification System and a Cupping System which some dealers use to grade and evaluate their coffee.  Other dealers use a modified version of these systems.

At Abyssinica we use the system provided by the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Quality Control & Liquoring Centre.  However, after they have graded and certified our coffee, we liquor it ourselves.  If we are not happy with the cup quality, we do not ship it to the UK.  All coffee purchased in Ethiopia must be graded and certified by the Coffee Quality Control & Liquoring Centre before it can be exported.  For this reason, we would like to explain, in more detail, the process by which our coffee is evaluated.

The Senior Taster

There are two places in Ethiopia where coffee is officially graded: Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa.  Harar coffee is graded in Dire Dawa and most of the rest is graded in Addis Ababa.  These grading laboratories are located at the country's large coffee auction centres where auctions are held five days a week, Monday to Friday, from 2 pm until 5 pm, throughout the year.  During the peak season (February to April), auctions are held twice a day. On these days, trucks laden with sacks of coffee start arriving early in the morning.  First of all, the coffee is weighed and samples are taken.  Then the samples are given a code number by administrators in the code room. This is done so that the staff who evaluate the coffee are not aware who the producer is, and, consequently, cannot show any bias in their evaluation. 

Adanech learning the liquoring process

If the sample coffee is wet processed (washed), it is put into a special machine which removes the protective parchment which the beans are encased in. Sun-dried coffee has already had its parchment removed. After that, the beans are checked for moisture content because too much can result in mould.  If the sample has more than 11.5% moisture, the coffee is not allowed to go to auction and the producer is advised to dry the coffee further before resubmitting it.  If the coffee passes the moisture test, it is then graded by hand to determine the number of defective beans per 300g.  An assessment of the shape, size, conformity to origin characteristics, colour and odour is then made. This is important because a high amount of defective and broken beans will affect the uniformity of the roasting process.

The visual inspection of the beans accounts for 40% of the overall evaluation. The next stage in the process is liquoring which makes up the other 60%.  The beans are roasted, ground and, for each sample, five or six cups are infused and laid out on a table with a sample of the green beans for the tasters to see.  At least three different tasters take turns to taste a spoonful from each of the five cups. The coffee is slurped quickly over the tongue in a way that mixes it with air and then it is spat out. They are looking for pointed acidity, full body and very good flavour; however, they are also on the lookout for bad tastes such as bitterness, chemical or musty tastes. Their findings are recorded on a form which they use to establish a consensus of opinion regarding an evaluation.

Mengistu Tedesse and his team cup tasting a variety of Ethiopian coffees

The defect counts for the different grades are: -

Grades     Number of defects per 300 g sample
Grade1                            00-03
Grade2                            04-12
Grade3                            13-25
Grade4                            26-45
Grade5                            46-90

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Last modified: 02-Mai-2008