Coffee Cupping
How to cup coffee: the tasting method professionals use to compare coffees. The SCA’s 8.25 g to 150 ml ratio, the grind, breaking the crust, slurping and scoring.
Contents
How do you cup coffee?
Cupping is a simple, standard way to taste and compare coffees. Put 8.25 g of medium-coarse coffee in a cup for every 150 ml of water, smell the dry grounds, then pour water at about 93°C to the brim. After 4 minutes, break the crust with a spoon and smell the aroma, skim off the grounds and, as it cools, slurp it from a spoon.
At a glance
- Ratio
- 1:18
- 8.25 g : 150 g
- Grind
- Medium-coarse
- Water
- 93 °C
- Brew time
- 4:00
- approximately
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Origin
- Global & Modern
Method
Weigh and grind
Weigh 8.25 g of coffee for every 150 ml of water in each cup, and grind it medium-coarse, a cup at a time, shortly before you start.
Smell the dry grounds
Before adding water, smell the dry grounds in each cup and note the fragrance.
Pour
Pour water at about 93°C straight onto the grounds, up to the brim, making sure they're all wet. Start a timer.
Leave it to steep4:00
Leave the cups alone for 4 minutes while a crust of grounds forms on top.
Break the crust
At 4 minutes, push through the crust with a spoon, stirring three times, and smell the aroma as it's released.
Skim
Skim the foam and floating grounds off the top with two spoons, rinsing them in hot water between cups.
Slurp and taste
As the coffee cools, take a spoonful and slurp it hard, so it sprays across your tongue. Taste each cup several times as it cools and note what you find.
Cupping is how the coffee trade tastes coffee. Each coffee is steeped in its own cup, in exactly the same way: the same weight, the same grind, the same water and the same time. Because the brewing is identical, any difference you taste comes from the coffee itself. Buyers use it to choose coffees, roasters to check their roasts, and Q graders to score them. It’s also one of the best ways to learn to taste at home. Here’s the method, following the SCA’s cupping protocol.
The short version
- 8.25 g of coffee per 150 ml of water, about 1:18.
- Medium-coarse grind, a cup at a time.
- Water at about 93°C, poured to the brim.
- Break the crust at 4 minutes, smell, skim, then slurp as it cools.
- The same method for every cup, so you’re tasting the coffee, not the brew.
What do you need?
- Cups or glasses of the same size: the SCA’s standard specifies 200–350 ml
- A scale and a grinder
- A kettle and a thermometer, if you have one
- Two spoons for skimming, and a deep spoon for tasting
- A glass of hot water to rinse the spoons between cups
- Paper and pen, to write down what you taste
How much coffee and water should I use?
The SCA cupping protocol uses:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Coffee | 8.25 g per 150 ml of water |
| Ratio | About 1:18 |
| Grind | Medium-coarse |
| Water | About 93°C (Royal Coffee gives 200°F ±2°F) |
| Steep | 4 minutes, then break the crust |
For bigger cups, keep the ratio: about 11 g for 200 ml or 13.75 g for 250 ml. Professionals usually cup five cups of each coffee, to check it’s consistent.
What grind size is used for cupping?
The SCA describes the grind as slightly coarser than for paper-filter drip, with 70–75% of the grounds passing a US Standard 20 mesh sieve. In practice that’s medium-coarse. Grind each cup separately, shortly before you start, so the coffees don’t lose their aroma.
How do you cup coffee, step by step?
- Weigh and grind 8.25 g per 150 ml for each cup.
- Smell the dry grounds in each cup: this is the fragrance.
- Pour water at about 93°C onto the grounds, to the brim, wetting them all. Start a timer.
- Leave it for 4 minutes. A crust of grounds forms on top.
- Break the crust: push through it with a spoon, stir three times, and put your nose close to smell the aroma.
- Skim the foam and floating grounds off with two spoons. Rinse the spoons between cups.
- Slurp as it cools: the SCA’s standard has tasting begin once the coffee has cooled to about 70°C. Take a spoonful and slurp it hard, so it sprays across your tongue. Taste each cup several times as it cools, because the flavours change.
Brew mode on this page times the 4-minute steep for you.
What are you tasting for?
Cuppers score a set of qualities, including fragrance and aroma, flavour, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance and sweetness, and check every cup tastes the same. At home, keep it simple: write down what each coffee reminds you of, how bright or heavy it feels, and which you’d rather drink.
Cupping vs brewing to drink
| Cupping | French press | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Tasting and comparing | Drinking |
| Filter | None: you skim, then sip from a spoon | Metal mesh |
| Ratio | About 1:18 | Often about 1:15 |
| Method | Identical for every cup | Adjusted to taste |
Is the SCA protocol still current?
The SCA has since published a newer standard, SCA-102, which supersedes its 2004 cupping protocol for formal assessment. It keeps the same basics: 8.25 g of coffee per 150 ml of cup capacity, water at 93°C, give or take 3°C, poured to the rim, and a crust left unbroken for 3 to 5 minutes, then broken with about three stirs. Note that the ratio is per cup capacity, not per measured volume of water. If you’re scoring coffee formally, follow the SCA’s current standard in full.
General guidance only. Take care with hot water and full cups, and rinse spoons between cups, especially if you’re cupping with others.
Cupping vs other methods
- French press: the same steeping, with a filter, for drinking.
- Clever Dripper: steeping, then draining through paper.
- Espro Press: a French press with a finer filter.
- Turkish coffee: another unfiltered brew, where the grounds settle in the cup.
Explore every immersion method in the immersion chapter.
What you’ll need
Words in this guide
- Steeping
- Steeping is leaving ground coffee to sit in water so its flavour dissolves out, as in a French press or cold brew.
- Crust
- The crust is the layer of coffee grounds that floats on the surface during immersion brewing, held up by trapped gas.
- Acidity
- Acidity in coffee is the bright, lively, juicy quality you taste on the tongue, like the tang of fruit.
- Body
- Body is how heavy and textured coffee feels in your mouth, from light and tea-like to thick and syrupy.
- Metal filter
- A metal filter is a fine stainless-steel mesh that holds back coffee grounds, as used in a French press plunger and some reusable pour-over filters.
- Immersion vs percolation
- Immersion brewing steeps all the coffee in all the water at once, as a French press does.
Questions & answers
What is coffee cupping?
A standard way to taste and compare coffees. Each coffee is steeped in its own cup in exactly the same way, so any differences in the cup come from the coffee, not the brewing. Buyers, roasters and Q graders use it to judge and score coffee.
What ratio is used for cupping?
The SCA's cupping protocol uses 8.25 g of coffee for every 150 ml of water, about 1:18. Larger cups scale up: about 11 g for 200 ml, for example.
What grind is used for cupping?
The SCA describes it as slightly coarser than for paper-filter drip, with 70–75% of the grounds passing through a US Standard 20 mesh sieve. In practice, that's medium-coarse.
Why do you slurp when cupping?
Slurping hard sprays the coffee across your whole tongue and pulls its aroma up into your nose, so you can taste and smell more of it at once.
Can I cup coffee at home?
Yes. You need a few cups or glasses of the same size, a scale, a grinder, a kettle and a couple of spoons. It's a great way to compare two or three coffees side by side.
Is the SCA cupping protocol still current?
The SCA has since published a newer standard, SCA-102, which supersedes the 2004 cupping protocol for formal assessment. It keeps the same basics: 8.25 g of coffee per 150 ml of cup capacity, water at 93°C give or take 3°C, and a crust left unbroken for 3 to 5 minutes.
Sources
- SCA-102 Coffee Value Assessment: sample preparation and tasting mechanics. Specialty Coffee Association
- Coffee standards. Specialty Coffee Association
- Cupping protocols and procedures. Royal Coffee
- How to set up and run a coffee cupping: a step-by-step guide. Royal Coffee
- The SCA cupping protocol, step by step. Podium Coffee Club
- SCA cupping protocol: step-by-step guide. Coffeester
General guidance only. Not medical, food-safety or professional advice. Always follow your equipment's own instructions.