How to Cup Coffee: A Beginner's Cupping Guide

Setting up

Weigh 8.25 grams of coffee per bowl for a 150 millilitre pour, ground slightly coarser than filter. Consistency across bowls matters more than the exact figures - use the same dose and the same water volume for every sample you are comparing.

Heat water to about 93 degrees Celsius. Preheat the bowls with hot water first; a cold bowl silently drops your extraction temperature and changes what you taste.

Bowl size and shape should be identical across the set. So should the grind, the water and the rest time.

Practical

Slurp hard. The point of the slurp is aeration - it spreads the coffee across the tongue and up into the retronasal passage at the same time.

The protocol

Pour the water over the grounds and start a timer. Smell the dry grounds first - that is fragrance - then smell the wet crust at around four minutes, which is aroma. Both count toward your assessment.

At four minutes, break the crust with a spoon and let the foam settle. Slurp a spoonful from the surface, aerating it across your palate. Wait for the coffee to cool a little, then taste again.

Taste at multiple temperatures. Much of the sweetness and acidity is clearest when the coffee is warm, while body and balance become easier to judge as it cools. The coolest stage often reveals defects that heat was masking.

Safety

Cupping water is close to boiling. Place bowls on a stable surface away from table edges, warn people nearby, and use a spoon per cupper rather than sharing.

Describing what you taste

Sweetness is the single most reliable indicator of quality. A coffee with clear sweetness is almost always well processed, well roasted and worth attention.

Acidity is not sourness. Sourness is a defect, sharp and unpleasant. Acidity is the bright, lively quality that makes a coffee taste alive and is generally desirable when balanced by sweetness.

Body describes texture and weight in the mouth, from tea-like through to syrupy. Balance describes whether the attributes work together. Cleanliness describes whether anything muddy or off-putting sits underneath.

A standard cupping table: identical bowls, identical dose, and a spoon for each cupper.

Scoring without fooling yourself

Score each attribute before discussing it with anyone else. Group scoring drifts toward the most confident voice in the room, which defeats the purpose entirely.

Record defects honestly. An inflated score is worse than no score, because it produces confident decisions about coffee that has not earned them.

Keep your sheets. The real value of cupping accumulates over months and years, when you can compare a current lot against a historical record.

Ines Duarte

Q-grader and sensory trainer. Writes about cupping, brew method and tasting vocabulary.

Educational content. Roast Lab publishes reference material only. We do not sell coffee, equipment or accessories, and we do not guarantee any specific roasting result. Coffee roasting involves high temperatures, hot surfaces and combustible chaff - always follow your equipment manufacturer instructions, ensure adequate ventilation, never roast unattended, and keep a suitable fire extinguisher within reach. Caffeine-sensitive individuals should consult a healthcare professional about intake.