Knowledge centre
Product segment and individual cup score
A segment describes what a green coffee is meant for. A cup score is a measurement of one individual lot. The two are often confused.
What a segment says
Terms such as Microlot, Specialty Lot or Commercial & Volume describe different product and sourcing segments. To place a lot, we look at origin, lot structure, physical quality, sensory profile, processing and documented quality data, among other things.
What a cup score says
A cup score is the result of a specific cupping of a specific lot. It belongs to that lot, that harvest and that cupping session.
How the SCA assesses today
With the Coffee Value Assessment, the Specialty Coffee Association publishes four building blocks (standards 102 to 105) that separate descriptive from affective assessment. Quality therefore shows in documented attributes rather than in a single threshold.
How we handle it
We state the cup score per lot, on the page of that lot. We assign a segment by documented attributes, not by a fixed score range.
Reading a score correctly
What is evaluated
The classic SCAA form scores fragrance and aroma, flavour, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, sweetness, uniformity, clean cup and overall impression. Sensory faults lead to deductions. It is the quality of the acidity that is scored, not its strength.
What a score does
It gives buyers and roasters a shared language for selection and comparison. A buying decision also depends on the desired flavour profile, physical defects, the process and the current sample. The traceability of a lot counts as well. The score alone does not set a price.
Comparing numbers
Results are comparable when they come from the same protocol under comparable conditions. 85.5 points is not quality in per cent, and a difference of 0.5 points is not a price premium of 0.5 %. Without repeats or panel data there is no statistical certainty. “84+” is a range, not a measured final score.
What belongs to the evidence
Coffee and lot, sample and evaluation date, cupper, protocol version, roast data, individual scores and, where applicable, deductions for faults. Missing individual scores cannot be calculated from a total. Physical defects are checked separately from sensory faults.
Ten or eight attributes
The reports on our samples use two forms. Typica and Grupo MVC show the ten classic attributes, El Tirol, Brisas del Gil, Castillo and Festival eight affective attributes. The eight values are not added up to the total score; individual values and the final result stay in the format of their report.
How the SCA evaluates today
In 2024 the SCA adopted the descriptive and affective assessments of the Coffee Value Assessment as new cupping standards. The CVA has four parts: physical, descriptive, affective and extrinsic assessment, the last covering information such as origin, process and certificates. An older score is therefore not called a CVA result.
In the coffee journey: Station 11 · Cupping and evaluation · Station 08 · Physical laboratory
Historical classification of the classic form
The 2015 SCAA protocol gives this classification of the final score. It applies only to reports on the classic form and is not a label for an individual lot.
| Final score | Classification by the SCAA |
|---|---|
| 90 to 100 | Outstanding |
| 85 to 89.99 | Excellent |
| 80 to 84.99 | Very Good |
| below 80 | Below Specialty Quality |
A high score confirms neither a certification nor the physical specialty grade of a lot.
In short
- Segment = placement by documented attributes. Cup score = measurement of one lot.
- The SCA maintains the Coffee Value Assessment as standards 102 to 105.
- We show the cup score per lot on the lot page.
Sources
Everything this article states rests on the sources below. Where our own catalogue is the source, it says so, and those figures can be counted on the product pages.
- Specialty Coffee Association: Coffee Value Assessment: standards 102 to 105, SCA 102 · 103 · 104 · 105 (2026) sca.coffee
- Specialty Coffee Association: Coffee Standards (2026) sca.coffee
- Specialty Coffee Association: CVA Descriptive and Affective Assessments adopted as cupping standards, SCA News (2024) sca.coffee
- Specialty Coffee Association of America: SCAA Protocols: Cupping Specialty Coffee, revised 16.12.2015, p. 10, copy at coffeecloud.one (2015)