Green coffee. Daily Coffee News photo.
The Specialty Coffee Association-supported Coffee Science Foundation (CSF) today announced the launch of a new research project in partnership with the UC Davis Coffee Center focused on green coffee defects.
The announcement comes one month after the SCA and CSF announced a similar research initiative on green coffee defects with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in Switzerland. The subject of green coffee defects is one of the CSF’s strategic research priorities for the year, according to the nonprofit organization.
“We chose to partner with these two institutions independently because their projects are looking at coffees from different origins. The ZHAW research looks at coffees and defects from Colombia, and the Davis research looks at coffees and defects from Brazil and Guatemala,” CSF Executive Director Peter Giuliano told DCN. “Each of these three origins have different environments, processing traditions, etc., which we expect might influence the kinds of physical defects produced. By working with two research groups who are looking at different coffees, we can spread out the evidence a bit and get a better picture.”
Each of the projects is expected to inform development of future green coffee grading standards, as published by the SCA.
“Coffee today is scored by exacting physical defect standards, but there is little understanding of how those standards were actually developed historically. For example, why are five chipped beans judged to be equivalent to one fully black bean? Why not four or six?” said William Ristenpart, director at the UC Davis Coffee Center, said in the announcement of the UC Davis initiative. “We are excited because we think our research will help develop a rigorous and quantitative basis for green coffee defect standards.”
Cupping bowls following a cupping session (not related to research mentioned here). Daily Coffee News photo.
The SCA, which is the largest coffee trade association in the world based in the United States and Europe, has for decades maintained a green coffee classification system — often presented in the form of a poster — which was developed alongside the organization’s legacy cupping form. The former Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) first published its Arabica Green Coffee Defect Handbook in 2004.
According to the SCA, the research project with UC Davis will involve a panel of consumer coffee drinkers to identify impacts of defects in the cup. The work is expected to provide insight into whether the numerical equivalencies historically assigned to defects in green coffee grading correlate with the sensory perceptions of coffee drinkers.
“By understanding the thresholds at which physical defects become detectable in brewed coffee, this research has the potential to refine coffee grading practices, offering more scientifically grounded criteria for assessing green coffee quality,” the SCA said. “The findings may also have broader applications for the coffee industry, extending to other coffee origins and a wider variety of defects.”
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