Cupping scores explained: the 100-point scale and the CVA

A cupping score sums up one taster's judgment of quality, given under standard conditions. The SCA's 2024 affective standard defines it as "a numerical indicator of a coffee's compound impression of quality for a specific taster." Two things follow:

• It depends on the taster. Scores are comparable only between cuppers who are calibrated, meaning they have tasted together and agree on what the numbers mean.
• It depends on the conditions. A coffee cupped too fresh, roasted badly or brewed with poor water will score differently. That is why the cupping procedure is so tightly specified.

For about two decades the reference was the SCAA cupping protocol (first adopted in 2004; the version quoted here is from 2014). Its form has ten scored attributes:

Attribute	How it is scored
Fragrance/Aroma	6.00 to 9.75 in quarter points
Flavor	6.00 to 9.75
Aftertaste	6.00 to 9.75
Acidity	6.00 to 9.75 (intensity is noted separately)
Body	6.00 to 9.75 (intensity is noted separately)
Balance	6.00 to 9.75
Uniformity	2 points per uniform cup, 5 cups, max 10
Clean Cup	2 points per clean cup, max 10
Sweetness	2 points per sweet cup, max 10
Overall	6.00 to 9.75 ("cupper's points")

The quality scale labels 6.00 "Good", 7.00 "Very Good", 8.00 "Excellent" and 9.00 "Outstanding". The protocol notes that the scale theoretically runs from 0 to 10, but "the lower end of the scale is below specialty grade."

Defects are subtracted at the end. A taint (noticeable but not overwhelming) counts 2 and a fault (overwhelming, or makes the sample unpalatable) counts 4, multiplied by the number of cups affected. A fault in two of five cups costs 8 points.

Suppose a washed coffee is cupped and scored:

• Fragrance/Aroma 7.75, Flavor 7.75, Aftertaste 7.50, Acidity 7.75, Body 7.50, Balance 7.50, Overall 7.75: these add up to 53.50.
• Uniformity 10, Clean Cup 10, Sweetness 10: 30.00.
• Total: 83.50. With no defects, the final score is 83.50.

If one of the five cups had a taint, uniformity and clean cup would each probably lose 2 points for that cup, and the defect would subtract another 2 × 1 = 2, for a final score of 77.50. That shows how heavily one bad cup counts.

The classic protocol's scoring key labels 80 to 84.99 "Very Good", 85 to 89.99 "Excellent" and 90 to 100 "Outstanding", grouped together as specialty, with anything under 80 "below specialty quality". That is the source of the familiar line that "specialty coffee scores 80 or more."

Two cautions:

• The SCA itself has questioned it. Its white paper Towards a Definition of Specialty Coffee lists "specialty coffee is coffee graded above 80 points on a 100 point scale" among definitions that "have generally failed by being too vague to be useful, or too specific to be broadly applicable."
• The number is not absolute. An 86 from one buyer's lab is not the same as an 86 from another unless their cuppers are calibrated together.

Use scores to compare coffees within a cupping, and treat published scores as one taster's opinion.

The SCA's Coffee Value Assessment is a system of four complementary assessments: physical (green coffee grading), descriptive, affective and extrinsic (information such as origin and certifications). Its affective standard, SCA 104-2024, states that it supersedes the 2004 cupping protocol.

The big change is that describing a coffee and liking it are now separate forms:

• Descriptive assessment (SCA 103). Tasters rate the intensity of each section on a 0 to 15 scale and tick descriptors from check-all-that-apply lists, for example up to five aroma descriptors and up to two main tastes. No quality judgment.
• Affective assessment (SCA 104). Tasters rate their impression of quality for eight sections (fragrance, aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, sweetness, mouthfeel and overall) on a 9-point scale, where 5 is "neither high nor low" and 9 is "extremely high impression of quality". They also count non-uniform and defective cups.

The ratings are converted to a score with a linear equation. SCA 104 describes it as producing "a total that equals 100 when all sections score at 9 and equals 79 when all sections score at 5," assuming all cups are uniform and free of defects. The form deducts two points per non-uniform cup and four per defective cup.

Compared with the classic form, body becomes mouthfeel, balance moves into overall, and clean cup is replaced by the count of defective cups.

Many green coffee scores you see come from licensed Q Arabica Graders, a program long run by the Coffee Quality Institute. According to trade press reports in April 2025, the SCA took over management of the Q Grader program from 1 October 2025, with the program to be based on the Coffee Value Assessment. A score's meaning still depends on which form and protocol produced it, so check before you compare.

You don't need the full form to learn from scores. A simple, honest approach:

1. Write words first, then score. Words keep you honest about why a number is high or low.
2. Score relative to the table. Ask "is this better or worse than the others?" before "is this an 84?"
3. Note intensity and quality separately, the way the CVA does.
4. Look at the spread, not the total. If your scores for six coffees all land between 82 and 84, you are not yet separating them.

In the Coffee Tasting app, scores are optional. You can score uniformity, clean cup, balance, sweetness and overall from 6.00 to 10.00 in quarter-point steps, and the app shows the total once all five are scored. It is a personal score for comparing your own tastings, not an official SCA score or CVA result, so don't compare it with published 100-point scores.