Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/491371
44 STiR tea & coffee industry international The cuppings Three of the tasters were Q Graders licensed by the Coffee Quality Institute where they must pass a rigorous six-day course involving three-day ex- aminations to earn their certification. There are 20 sections on coffee related subjects from iden- tification to roasting and training in sensory skills and sensory triangulation. Q Graders are highly trained and calibrated in using SCAA cupping pro- tocols. There are approximately 4,000 worldwide. Tasters reported differences between the control mix and single hue samples but the cup- ping results overall were inconclusive. One group scored the lightly colored beans lowest among the samples, the other awarded the lightly colored beans the highest score. To learn more about cupping variables See Pg. 46, Descriptive Analysis Tools for Coffee, a discussion of how cuppers and researchers approach flavor calibration differ- ently and why. "In my opinion, the sample with the mixed hue tasted good," said Midori Hartford, North America import manager at Sustainable Harvest. [It had] more depth and complexity in the cup. "The original intent was to narrow the range of color so that the roaster could hone in on a specific profile therefore producing more reliable result. I know that if that sweet spot for a coffee gets really narrow through scrupulous sorting, then that tar- get can be increasingly difficult to hit," said Benck. "I am sure we are all up for that type of chal- lenge though. It's what keeps us coming back to the office everyday right?" he said. Cupping scores for samples roasted in the Loring roaster were higher for the dark green sort (85.1) suggesting that the light green beans brought down the average. Hoos recommended blending the dark and medium colored beans and discarding the light hued beans. He suggested a light roast for the mix of medium and dark hue beans. The lighter beans are more suitable for dark roasting, he said. Sustainable Harvest's tasting notes: The Sustainable Harvest tasters found the blended hue "very slightly rubbery/pungent spice with allspice. The light hue was described as slightly tannic and very mildly herbal/hoppy. The medium hue roast was "very caramelized in fragrance and taste, almond brittle." The dark is my favorite by far wrote Michael McIntyre, an independent Q Grader, "it was also the highest scoring mechanically… significantly sweeter." Batdorf's cupping scores showed the greatest improvement in the light green hue which bested the pre-sort average by 3.25 points. The medium hue scored a point higher than the pre-sort blend. In cuppings, the light and medium green hues outscored the blended control. The point spread from the Batdorf & Bronson cuppers was too small to be significant, said Benck. Caturra The sample chosen for the experiment is Caturra, a mutation of the subspecies Bour- bon which descended from the baseline "Coffea arabica typica" found in Ethiopia. Caturra is a higher yielding "dwarf" mutation growing lower to the ground and there- fore easier to pick than the surrounding Bourbon plantation where it was discovered in Brazil in 1935. Caturra today is grown mainly in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The cherry laden branches of the Caturra tree ripen in layers. The highest branch- es, pruned to 4-5 feet, bask in full or partial sun converting nutrients to fruit sugars and yielding 10-20 bright red/yellow berries per cluster. Perhaps 20% of the 1-5 kilos of the cherries each tree produces each season are from the top of the tree. Branches below are more densely grouped, less subject to wind damage. These develop more slowly and account for a higher percentage of the total yield. Patches of sunlight may favor one side of the coffee tree, deeply shaded lower branches experience slightly cooler day and night time temperatures. Trees branch less as they age but bear more fruit. Moisture in the soil, micronutrients and countless microclimates due to wind conditions and rainfall all play a role in how completely the beans ripen. Cherries fall when ripe, quickly becoming overripe over a few days. Ideally harvest- ers will pick only the ripest cherries and return to the same tree several times during the harvest. Selectively picking is ideal but pickers can harvest no more than 45-90 kilos per day. More commonly machines strip the branches or shake the trees, dislodging a mix of unripe, overripe and perfectly ripe cherries. Machines can harvest hundreds of times more coffee a day than the most capable picker. The challenge then is sorting the machine picked beans from the chaff. Since antiquity various methods have been employed to sort the best cherries. Water is an important ally. Ripe cherries are dense and sink. Sticks and stems, unripe beans and those with insect damage float. In the pulper, ripe cherries are pushed against a screen. The soft pulp gives way under pressure allowing the beans to pass through the screen. Hard green cherries do not pass through the screen. Bean size is another useful means of grading. Dried beans are graded by size when they fall through the screens in vibrating sifters. Machine or hand sorting is next with garblers patiently plucking discards from piles of coffee beans or standing beside a moving conveyor and sweeping the rejects aside. No matter the method, roasters always end up with a mix of beans that vary in den- sity and shape with slight variations in moisture content, color, the amount of volatile oils, acids (lipids) and proteins. Carbohydrates make up about 50% of the dry weight of green coffee beans. Many beans within the lot are virtually identical but the prospect of sorting to uniformity is daunting: There are 8,800 individual roasted coffee beans in a kilo (3,500-4,000 per pound) depending on roast and approximately 150 million green coffee beans in a 37,500 pound ICE lot.