You don't need a Q-grader certificate to cup. Three bowls and a kitchen scale will teach you more in an afternoon than a year of casual brewing. The point isn't to score; it's to compare.
What you need
- 3–5 identical bowls of about 200 ml. Glass or ceramic. Diner-style coffee cups work. Don't mix shapes — same vessel for every sample.
- A coarse grinder that gives a consistent French-press-like grind. Hand grinders are fine; blade grinders are not (the inconsistency invalidates the comparison).
- A scale that reads in 0.1 g increments.
- A spoon with a deep round bowl. A regular tablespoon works. "Cupping spoons" exist but aren't required.
- A kettle, ideally one you can hold near boiling.
- A timer.
The recipe, scaled to home
You don't need the full SCA bowl. For home, this works:
- 11 g of coffee per 200 g of water (≈1:18). Round numbers, easy to hit.
- Coarse grind.
- Water just off the boil (~93 °C). If you don't have a thermometer, boil and wait 30 seconds.
- 4-minute steep, undisturbed.
Multiply by however many samples. Cupping 3 coffees → 3 × 11 g = 33 g of coffee, 3 × 200 g = 600 g of water. Manageable from a normal kettle.
Step by step
- Weigh the coffee into each bowl. Same dose, every bowl.
- Smell the dry grounds in each. Note any difference — fresher coffees smell more vivid.
- Pour the water evenly across each bowl, saturating all the grounds. Start the timer when the first bowl gets water.
- Wait 4:00. A crust forms. Don't disturb it.
- Break the crust. Three forward pushes with the spoon, leaning in to inhale. Move bowl by bowl, sniffing between strokes.
- Skim any remaining floating grounds with two spoons (one to lift, one to wipe). Skip this if it's a casual session — it doesn't change the cup much.
- Wait until ~70 °C. Roughly 8 minutes from pour. The brew should be hot but drinkable.
- Slurp. Force the liquid into your mouth as a fine spray. Slurp from each bowl, rinsing your spoon between samples.
- Take notes in two columns — what you taste, and what you like. Don't merge them.
- Re-taste as it cools. Coffee changes character below 50 °C; sweetness emerges, defects show. The best coffees improve as they cool.
Comparing two or more coffees side by side
This is the home-cupping superpower. Same dose, same water, same time. The only variable is the bean. Any difference you taste is real.
Useful exercises:
- Same farm, different processes (washed vs natural Ethiopia). Teaches what processing does.
- Same bean, different roasters. Teaches roast style.
- Same roaster, two roast levels (light vs medium). Teaches what roast does to one coffee.
- A new bag vs a bag you've finished. Teaches what aging does (often more than you think).
When to skip the spoon and just drink
Cupping is for evaluation. If you're choosing what to brew tomorrow, cupping is great. If you're enjoying a Saturday cup, brew it and drink. Don't slurp your morning coffee.