Coffee has several overlapping “grades,” which is why two people can both say a Colombian lot is high quality while talking about completely different measurements.
One person means large screen size. Another means few physical defects. Another means a strong sensory evaluation. An exporter may mean the lot meets a contract specification. A specialty roaster may mean it is traceable and compelling enough to buy at a premium.
Those ideas overlap, but they are not interchangeable.
Layer 1: physical green-coffee assessment
Before coffee is roasted, buyers can evaluate the green beans themselves. The Specialty Coffee Association's current Coffee Value Assessment framework includes a Physical Assessment covering attributes such as color, defects, moisture content, and size.
Physical defects can include serious problems such as black, sour, moldy, insect-damaged, broken, immature, or otherwise compromised beans, depending on the grading system being used.
The point is practical: defects in a sample can signal agricultural, processing, storage, or sorting problems and may translate into cup defects.
Layer 2: screen size and preparation
Colombian green coffee is also sold in physical preparations based partly on granulometry, or bean size. Current FNC commercial material lists preparations such as Supremo screen 18, Supremo screen 17, Europa/EP, UGQ, and others with defined screen tolerances.
That is where familiar words like Supremo originate.
Screen size helps create a consistent physical lot. It should never be treated as a direct substitute for sensory quality.
Layer 3: moisture and stability
Green coffee has to be dried and stored in a condition that protects quality. Too much moisture increases storage and microbial risk; overly dry coffee can also lose quality and commercial value.
Professional physical assessment therefore looks at moisture alongside defects and size rather than judging a bag by appearance alone.
On a farm tour, ask how the producer decides coffee is ready to leave the dryer and what instrument or method is used to confirm it.
Layer 4: sensory assessment
Coffee is roasted under controlled conditions and evaluated through cupping or another standardized sensory method. For years, consumers learned the shorthand that 80 points and above = specialty coffee under familiar SCA-style scoring.
That shorthand remains common in the market, but the SCA's current framework is intentionally richer. Coffee Value Assessment separates descriptive, affective, physical, and extrinsic assessments rather than reducing value to a single total score.
What SCA Coffee Value Assessment changes
The current SCA framework describes four complementary assessments:
- Physical: color, defects, moisture, size and related green-coffee characteristics.
- Descriptive: objectively records sensory attributes such as aroma, flavor, texture, and aftertaste.
- Affective: records the evaluator's impression of quality/preference.
- Extrinsic: captures information outside the cup that creates value, including origin, traceability, certifications, and processing information.
That distinction is important because a coffee can be valuable for different reasons. A rare, highly traceable farm lot and a clean, consistent commercial blend are solving different market needs.
Does “85-point coffee” mean everyone will like it?
No. A quality evaluation is not the same as universal preference. You may dislike a very floral, high-acidity coffee that trained evaluators consider exceptional. Another drinker may love a chocolate-heavy coffee that scores lower in a particular evaluation context.
The affective part of modern assessment acknowledges that preference and market are part of value rather than pretending all sensory judgment can be reduced to one objective ladder.
What are primary and secondary defects?
Green-coffee systems distinguish defect types by severity because a full black or sour bean is not equivalent to every minor physical imperfection. Colombian export standards and SCA green grading have their own defined categories and equivalencies.
For a traveler, you do not need to memorize the defect table. You should understand the principle: a representative sample is inspected, defects are counted by standardized rules, and sorting/processing determine how much clean exportable coffee remains.
Why farm yield is not just kilograms of cherries
A farmer can harvest a large weight of fruit and still lose value if the coffee contains underripe cherries, insect damage, processing defects, or a poor proportion of desirable green beans after drying and threshing.
That is why mills talk about yield factors, pasilla, screen distribution, moisture, and defects. The economics of coffee happen after the cherry weight is recorded.
Export quality vs specialty quality
A lot can meet an export specification without being a rare specialty micro-lot. Conversely, a specialty producer may intentionally sell an unusual small-screen variety or experimental process that would be poorly described by a simple “largest bean = highest grade” hierarchy.
Export preparation answers: Does this lot meet the agreed physical/commercial specification?
Specialty evaluation asks broader questions: How clean, distinctive, traceable, desirable, and valuable is it?
How to read a coffee bag intelligently
If a bag gives you only “100% Colombian Supremo,” you mainly know country and a broad physical/trade story.
If it gives you producer, municipality, variety, process, elevation, harvest/lot, roast date, and sensory information, you have a much richer picture. None of those facts alone proves quality, but together they create transparency.
What to look for on a coffee-farm tour
Ask to see green parchment coffee and fully hulled green coffee. Ask the guide to show you defect examples. Look at the sieves/screens if the farm or dry mill has them. Ask how moisture is measured. Ask what percentage of harvested coffee becomes exportable or specialty product.
Then taste the coffee.
That final step matters because grading should never make you forget what the entire system is trying to protect: a clean, expressive, enjoyable cup that somebody wants to buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Colombian coffee “specialty”?
There is no single consumer label that captures everything. Physical condition, sensory quality, traceability, processing, and market evaluation all contribute; the SCA now uses a multi-part Coffee Value Assessment framework.
Is 80 points still the cutoff for specialty coffee?
The 80+ shorthand remains common in coffee commerce and consumer education, but current SCA Coffee Value Assessment is designed to capture value through multiple assessments rather than one total score.
What does screen size measure?
It measures the physical size distribution of green coffee beans using standardized sieves. It is useful for commercial preparation and roast uniformity but does not directly measure flavor.
What are coffee defects?
They are undesirable physical conditions in green coffee, such as black, sour, insect-damaged, broken, immature, or other defects defined by the grading protocol.
What does SCA Coffee Value Assessment evaluate?
Its framework includes physical, descriptive sensory, affective, and extrinsic/informational assessments, providing a broader view of why a coffee has value.