Knowledge about coffee can only be acquried in practice. Evelio lazzo, a certified Q-Grader who is able to evaluate the quality of the coffee, volunteered to show the way in which a quality score is given to a coffee his lab to members of the Sarralde family.
- Sampling and selection at point of arrival: Once the bags of coffee are dropped out at Evelio’s collection center, he retrieves a sample from the bag of 250 grams, which he then carefully selects by discarding grains that could damage the quality of the taste. That is, unripe, smaller-than-normal or overdried grains. Usually Evelio buys pergamin coffee grains, which means that threshing must be done. He first weights the coffee and then removs the pergamin with a threshing machine, after which he weights it again again to retrieve the Performance factor. The factor is obtained by multiplying 70 times 250 and then dividing it by the amount that the coffee weighted after the threshing. He multiplies it by 70 because we want to know the factor if we were to fill a bag of 70 kg of green coffee given a sample of 250 grams. Usually the factors yields a number above 92.
2. Roasting of the coffee: For sampling, Q-graders, who are the quality testers in the world of specialty coffee, usually have a small roasting machine that takes about 15 minutes to transform green into roasted coffee. However, the Q-grader must know his trade very well, for the roasting has to be carefully timed while the coffee must be constantly reviewed, so the optimal point for its tasting is reached.
3. Blending and serving: Once the coffee is optimally roasted, Evelio proceeds to blend it with a medium grind, as it is best for samplers to detect the aromas, fragances, flavors and other characteristics of the coffee.
4. Serving: A waiting time of a few yours is recommended before the serving, which is afterwards done in three cups. In the picture below, Evelio was tasting two types of specialty coffees, which is why we see six cups on the table
4. Tasting and scoring: Evelio smells and tastes the three cups, while executing strong sips and then spitting it out in the yellow cups from the picture above. Once he has identified its components and elements, he writes down its characteristics and gives the coffee its final overall score. This time, he gave both of the coffees a score of 86, which means that it can indeed be classified as specialty coffee. In general, if a coffee is awarded a score of 85 points or above by the Q-grader, it is considered a specialty coffee, for which most coffee importers establish it as a requirement before buying the coffee.
Cafe Sarralde 