Academic Publishing of Coffee

About this archive

This collection explores coffee roasting, chemistry, thermodynamics, agronomy, soil, altitude and specialty varietals such as Java, Caturra, Bourbon, Maragogype, Yellow Catuai and Red Catuai.

Specialty Coffee and Cupping Concepts

Specialty coffee quality is evaluated through both physical grading and sensory analysis. Physical criteria include defects, bean density and screen-size consistency. Cupping examines attributes such as aroma, flavour, acidity, body, sweetness, balance and aftertaste.

Principal cupping attributes

• Sweetness: Helps make acidity pleasant and contributes to balance.
• Balance: Describes the harmony among aroma, body, acidity, sweetness and flavour.
• Aroma: Evaluated from the dry grounds, the wet crust and the opened crust before tasting.
• Acidity: The sensory response produced by soluble compounds in coffee.
• Body: The perceived weight and texture of the beverage.
• Flavour: Identified using shared sensory references, moving from broad families such as sweet, floral or fruity toward specific descriptors.
• Aftertaste: The flavour, intensity, duration and pleasantness remaining after tasting.

Consistent evaluation requires controlled conditions, including roast level, water, lighting, cups, spoons and preparation methods. Roast colour may be recorded with the Agtron scale, where lower values represent darker coffee and higher values represent lighter coffee.

Specialty Coffee Information

The archive describes specialty coffee as coffee distinguished through measurable physical and sensory qualities. It cites an 80-point threshold on a 100-point cupping scale and emphasizes the entire chain from cultivation to the cup.

Physical grading

Grading considers screen size, colour, shape, density and defects in a green-coffee sample. The source distinguishes primary defects, such as full black or full sour beans, from secondary defects, such as parchment, broken beans, insect damage, floaters and shells.

Density and growing conditions

Bean density is presented as an important contributor to coffee quality. It is influenced by varietal, altitude, latitude, photosynthesis, rainfall or irrigation, light and soil nutrition. Altitude classifications vary by producing country because latitude and local growing conditions differ.

• SHB: Strictly Hard Bean
• SHG: Strictly High Grown
• HG: High Grown

The archive distinguishes growing specialty coffee from drinking it: production focuses on suitable varietals and cultivation conditions, while the finished coffee must also satisfy physical grading and cupping requirements.

Natural and Honey Processing

Several articles discuss natural, washed and semi-washed processing. In the natural process, ripe coffee cherries are dried with their skins and pulp intact. The source describes drying periods of approximately five weeks, during which the fruit pulp and then the seed are dehydrated.

Honey or semi-washed coffee is depulped while leaving some sugar-rich mucilage around the parchment. During sun drying, changes in this mucilage can influence sweetness and flavour. Delayed pulping may begin like a natural process and later transition to semi-washed drying.

Green coffee is described as non-roasted seed prepared for roasting, commonly maintained at approximately 10–12% moisture. Classification may consider density, screen size, varietal and growing altitude.

Archived Coffee Profiles

Café Rosè

A delayed-pulping and honey-process coffee described with high sweetness and acidity. The cited sensory notes include syrup, caramel, honey, vanilla, black tea, rose, jasmine and dried blackberry.

Café Viena

A natural-process Arabica coffee associated with almond, chocolate and raisin notes. The article also explains selective hand-picking, in which workers return to trees periodically and harvest cherries at peak ripeness.

Café Blumen

A semi-washed coffee developed around floral, almond, strawberry and caramel characteristics. Yellow Catuai and Java are identified as varietals used for their floral qualities.

Café Torino

An Italian-roast, natural-process Arabica coffee described as combining Red Catuai and Caturra. Its cited flavour profile emphasizes syrup and dark chocolate, with an aftertaste of dark chocolate, caramel and honey.

Topics Covered

• Coffee roasting levels and temperature
• Bean density and moisture
• Green-coffee grading and classification
• Primary and secondary defects
• Cupping standards and repeatable evaluation
• Washed, natural and honey processing
• Altitude, latitude and growing conditions
• Arabica varietals and sensory characteristics