How-to · cupping

Coffee cupping at home: the SCA method, step by step

Cupping is how roasters and green-coffee buyers taste coffees side by side. Every sample is brewed the same simple way, in identical cups, so the differences you taste come from the beans rather than the brewer. You need a scale, a grinder, a kettle, cups and spoons. Below: the steps from the SCA's current sample-preparation standard, where its numbers differ from the older protocol many guides still quote, a dose calculator for your own cups, and what the new forms ask you to write down.

Updated 2026-11-03 · sources listed at the end · no product recommendations

Old protocol, new standards

For two decades the reference was the cupping protocol and form first published by the Specialty Coffee Association of America in 2004. In 2024 the SCA adopted three standards that together make up the Coffee Value Assessment (CVA) and replace that protocol and form: Standard 102-2024 (sample preparation and tasting mechanics), 103-2024 (descriptive assessment) and 104-2024 (affective assessment). A fourth, Standard 105, covers information beyond the cup, such as certifications and traceability. The SCA says the standards are freely available for industry use.

The older protocol is still posted on the SCA's Protocols & Best Practices page, and Daily Coffee News reported in November 2024 that private, tailored versions of the 2004 form remain in use across the industry. So you will meet both sets of numbers. They are close, and the table shows where they part.

The numbers at a glance

Both documents also set a cupping roast (63 on the Agtron "Gourmet" scale; see coffee roast levels) rested 8–24 hours. A retail bag will not match that spec, so note each coffee's roast level and roast date with your results (see coffee freshness).

The density line matters only if you pour by weight: 150 ml of water at 93 °C weighs about 144 g, not 150 g. Pouring to the rim of a cup whose capacity you measured gives the same result without a scale under the cup.

Cup coffee in nine steps

1. Set up. Line up identical cups, 3–5 per coffee. Have a cup of hot water ready for spoons: SCA 102 asks for spoons to be rinsed in hot water before they touch any brew. To taste blind, have someone code the cups; the cuppers in the SCA study described below tasted recoded samples in a randomized order.
2. Weigh and grind each cup separately. SCA 104 asks for each of the five cups to be ground and brewed on its own, and its score marks down any cup that tastes different from the others. SCA 102 calls for a scale reading to 0.1 g or better; check it with known weights if you are unsure. Grind size: see the grind size chart.
3. Smell the dry grounds. This is fragrance, the first step on both new forms. The older protocol asks for it within 15 minutes of grinding.
4. Pour. Fill each cup to its measured capacity with water at 93 ± 3 °C and start a timer. Temperature detail and altitude: water temperature; tap water outside the ranges above: brewing water recipes.
5. Leave the crust. The grounds form a crust on top. Leave it undisturbed for 3–5 minutes.
6. Break. Stir about three times with the spoon, nose close to the cup, and smell the vapors: this is aroma, assessed right after brewing and while the crust is broken. The older protocol adds: let the foam run down the back of the spoon.
7. Skim. When every crust on the table is broken, skim the floating grounds and oils off with one or two spoons.
8. Taste in rounds. Start at about 70 °C. Take at least three rounds, rinsing the spoon between cups, as the coffee cools below body temperature. The older protocol orders the attributes by temperature: flavor and aftertaste at about 71 °C; acidity, body and balance from 71 to 60 °C; sweetness, uniformity and clean cup below 38 °C; stop at 21 °C.
9. Record and compare. Note descriptors first, then which coffee you prefer, and mark any cup that tastes different from its siblings. A brew log works as a cupping sheet.

What the forms ask you to record

The affective form turns its eight ratings into one score, rounded to the nearest 0.25: all eight at 9 gives 100 and all at 5 gives 79. Each non-uniform cup costs 2 points and each defective cup 4, and the standard recognizes only three sensory defects: potato, moldy and phenolic. On the older form, 80 and above counted as specialty.

At home the descriptive half is the useful one. To find words, the SCA's flavor wheel guide says to start at the center of the wheel and work outward, stopping when the description feels complete; the wheel is built on World Coffee Research's Sensory Lexicon. Brewing terms such as immersion and extraction yield are defined in the glossary.

Where the sources disagree

• Crust time. SCA 102 defines brewing as infusing for about three minutes before the break, but its step list says 3–5 minutes. The older protocol says at least 3 and no more than 5.
• Cup size and tolerance. 200–350 ml and ±0.2 g in SCA 102 against 207–266 ml and ±0.25 g in the older protocol.
• Water. The older protocol sets total dissolved solids; SCA 102 sets calcium hardness, alkalinity and pH instead and gives no TDS figure.
• What a score means. Jorge Berny of World Coffee Research and Mario Fernández-Alduenda of the SCA argue that the 2004 form mixed descriptive and preference judgments, which sensory science advises against. In their study of 8 highly experienced cuppers, repeat scores from the same cupper agreed well, yet one cupper scored inversely to the rest: "fruit" lowered that cupper's scores and raised everyone else's. They argue preference scores have no right or wrong answer, which is why CVA splits the two.

How strong is a cupping bowl?

UC Davis researchers Jiexin Liang, Ka Chun Chan and William Ristenpart modeled full-immersion brewing such as cupping. Equilibrium extraction stayed near 21% across brew ratios from 3 to 25. Between 80 and 99 °C, water temperature changed how fast equilibrium was reached but not the final strength or extraction. Across median particle sizes of 579–1,311 µm, finer grounds gave slightly higher strength, a negligible effect next to the brew ratio. They also found that the standard oven-drying method underestimates extraction, because spent grounds hold liquid coffee. For a home cupping, that means an accurate dose matters more than a kettle a few degrees off. To measure strength, see TDS and refractometers and the brewing control chart.

Home cupping checklist

• Identical cups, capacity measured by weighing the water that fills one
• Scale reading to 0.1 g; beans weighed whole, cup by cup
• Each cup ground separately; dry grounds smelled within 15 minutes
• Water at 93 ± 3 °C, chlorine-free, not distilled or softened
• Timer: break the crust at 3–5 minutes, then skim
• Cup of hot water to rinse spoons between cups
• Tasting from about 70 °C, at least three rounds, stop at room temperature
• Descriptors written before preferences; roast dates noted