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The importance of cupping and what a specialty coffee is (in the coffee market)

Updated: Oct 15, 2022



Arabica and Robusta coffee are two of the most common coffee varieties. These varieties have many uses; they are used as a food source, source of income, medicine and stimulant. Both types of coffee have a bitter taste when raw, but become sweet after roasting.


Arabica is generally sweeter than robusta because it grows in an environment with less acidity, as well as a higher level of carbon dioxide compared to robusta trees. Arabica is usually more expensive than robusta due to its superior taste and growing conditions.


Coffee is a commodity that is traded around the world, it is important to know how to cup coffee to ensure that the coffee being tasted is of the highest quality.


Cupping involves sampling coffee from different angles and then identifying the best tasting bean from the cupping group. An expert cupper can cup up to 10 different coffees in one session. Coffee cuppings help to guarantee quality in the coffee industry and allow consumers to make informed decisions about their purchases.



Coffee cuppers are able to easily discern between the best and worst coffees in their cupping group. This ability allows them to accurately classify coffees so that clients receive fair trade ratings when purchasing coffees.



Generally a cupping is done blind so as not to favor any one bean over another in the classification of coffees. In this way, cupping provides an objective method of receiving quality information when purchasing your coffees.



Learning about flavor profiles and preparation methods could be very beneficial to beginning cuppers who eventually want to become q graders or baristas. If a less experienced cupper wants to learn how to brew better coffee, they should probably start with a simple method such as drip brewing before moving on to more advanced methods such as Chemex brewing or espresso brewing.


Despite the skepticism of some people, a cupping is an excellent way to determine how good a coffee really is. Without tasting notes, a consumer may not know how different coffees taste or may not realize the importance of this knowledge when buying their morning cup of coffee.


When you obtain a Mountain Water Process coffee you can be certain that it is a quality coffee endorsed by several certifying entities and supervised by certified tasters under the strictest quality and safety standards backed by the q grader certification.


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