Quality
How the score is arrived at.
The published score is a table average, not a highlight. The physicals are measured against a stated maximum. And when a lot failed one of those tests this season, the failure is written here in full.
The method
One table, six stations.
Every lot is cupped at the six-station table in the Bole cupping lab. Nothing about the score is discretionary.
Samples drawn at the mill
The lab draws from the graded lot at Akaki Kality, after milling, not from a friendly jar kept back at the station.
Six stations pour
The same sample is poured at all six stations of the table, so no single palate decides a lot's fortune.
Ten attributes, six to ten
Each station scores the ten SCA attributes. Uniformity, clean cup and sweetness sit at ten only when no fault appeared.
Average, in tenths
The published score is the average across the six stations, recorded in tenths. It sums from the attribute sheet you can read on every lot.
Signed before an offer
The head cupper signs the sheet before the lot may appear on any offer. The signature is the release.
The physical tests
Moisture against a stated maximum.
Every lot carries a moisture reading taken after milling. The contract maximum applies to all of them equally; only a reading above it is marked.
Readings at or below the maximum pass. A reading above it stops the lot: it is held at the dry mill, re-dried, and re-cupped before anything moves. The one lot that tested high this season never left the mill — its record is below.
| Lot | Region | Process | Moisture | Status |
|---|
In writing
The excursion, disclosed in full.
This season one lot tested above the maximum after milling. What follows is the written record of it, exactly as it was handled. The buyer is not named here; the contract stays the contract.
The lot picker
Read any lot's sheet.
Choose a lot and its full attribute sheet appears, exactly as the table scored it — the same record that ships with every sample.
Choose a lot
Every sheet is public.
The attribute scores, the sum and the physicals come straight from the lot record. What is not here, on purpose: buyers, contract references and prices.
The other door
Not coffee?
Coffee is the one thing we hold ourselves. Everything else — sesame, niger seed, pulses, hides, stone, timber, packaged goods — we source to your specification. Tell us the grade, the quantity and the destination, and we confirm in writing what we can get and when.
See how sourcing worksThe evidence travels
Cup our record
for yourself.
Request samples and each one arrives with its score sheet and physicals. If the cup disagrees with the sheet, we want to hear it.
Request samples