Coffee cupping is the new wine tasting

The timeless glamor of a Californian wine tasting has waned in the last five years as young consumers are less interested in wine. In its wake, specialty coffee culture is rising and trendy cupping events are popping up in cafes across California. Groundwork wanted to curate such a tasting experience that was accessible to all levels of coffee drinkers and celebrated the talented and dedicated producers behind each cup.   

On August 9, Darrell Baskin (Wholesale Account Manager & Educator) led a cupping of coffees from the Mexico Cup of Excellence at Groundwork’s North Hollywood cafe. 

The Cup of Excellence lauds the world’s highest-quality coffees.

In annual Cup of Excellence (COE) competitions, hundreds of producers in each coffee-producing country submit their best crop of green coffee to be scored by national and international panels of judges. These judges (frequently including Co-founder & Chief Coffee Guy Jeff Chean!) are Q-graders who, similar to wine sommeliers, are trained to rigorously taste and analyze the quality and sensory attributes of coffee through a standardized “cupping” practice. In each country, the top 10 coffees within three categories (traditional washed, traditional honey & natural, and experimental processes) are celebrated and sold for extremely high prices in an international auction. 

“These auctions have allowed exemplary coffee farmers, whether award-winning or not, to realize a greater financial price for their coffees. Prices from the auctions have been multiple times higher than the traditional method of selling,” Darrell explains. 

Mexico’s competition was held in May and the coffees were auctioned this week. The winning traditional natural fetched over $75 per pound! 

The COE serves to connect producers with buyers willing to pay for truly exceptional crops and the investment put into them. 

“That cash infusion is meant to support the efforts at origin and make sure that producers can better their infrastructure, keep pushing the envelope on coffee quality, and that their community is taken care of,” Darrell says. These improvements are often quite challenging for coffee producers – since market prices for commodity coffee are low while crop and financial risk is high – but vital for the longevity of the specialty coffee industry. 

“The COE is a win-win,” Darrell says. “Whoever's purchasing gets to show off this really amazing coffee and that producer gets highlighted. That’s likely going to lead to even more fruitful relationships for them down the line.” 

Consumers get the third win when these coffees are roasted. To put it in perspective – most coffee sold worldwide is commodity-grade while the majority of “specialty” coffee (those scored 80+ on a 100-point scale by Q-graders) rarely breach 89 points, whereas winning COE coffees exceed 91 points. Such premium coffees are usually reserved as a treat at an ultra-specialty cafe, as they ring up close to $20 per cup!

Senior Sales Manager Robby Ford lent his expertise to the cupping  

The spirit of the Groundwork cupping was to make COE coffee accessible to everyone – from coffee pros to cafe-goers with no cupping experience. 

The COE sent Jeff the top 10 Mexican coffees from each of the three categories and Darrell curated a cupping with the top three in each category. 

“It was a rare opportunity to have that many coffees scoring that high all in the same room, in an accessible format people could share and talk about,” he says. 

These coffees ranged from 89 to 91.13 points (the latter being a natural processed Geisha grown by Gustavo Boltjes Rising that was the Groundwork cuppers’ favorite). Just one point can make a world of difference between coffees at the top of the specialty range.

“The gulf is so large between the complexity, the sweetness, and the stability of coffees,” Darrell says. “It really highlighted just how far the quality can be pushed at those upper scores.”

Darrell educated participants on coffee processing methods, the COE, how to perform a cupping, and the impact that coffee scores have on producers’ pay. For him, part of the fun was the participation of coffee drinkers who hadn’t tested their coffee palate quite this rigorously before. One Groundwork regular who had never done a cupping got to develop her palate in real-time. 

“It was really cool to see her – from having zero knowledge about the COE – come to a place of gratitude to be able to taste the coffees,” Darrell says. 

Participants got to taste the fruits of not only the most innovative fermentation practices but also the intrinsic excellence of carefully grown and processed beans. For example, Roque Sanchez Cruz perfectly executed a simple washed method to earn his coffee 90.63 points. 

 “This coffee displayed a level of complexity and sweetness, alongside a syrupy, satisfying body that I've usually only seen in natural or experimental process coffees,” Darrell says. “Nothing was added or manipulated; it's just the coffee and the people behind it that made it shine.” 

Specialty coffee is gradually paralleling with wine culture.

The average American consumer raises their eyebrows at anything-but-cheap coffee in large part because the industry is nascent compared to wine. The concept of specialty coffee only took hold in the U.S. in the 1970s, whereas Americans have been fervently studying and advancing wine-making since it emerged as a staple industry in California in the 1850s.

“People don't blink at a $20 glass of wine,” Darrell says. “The work that's been done justifies how special that glass is.” 

Most coffee drinkers aren’t privy to the level of care put into coffee cultivation, fermenting, aging, packaging, etc. that parallels wine-making.

“The role that coffee has played in most people's lives gives us this interpretation that it should be cheap,” Darrell says, alluding to the American view of coffee that evolved from war rations, to a diner staple, and to a convenient drive-thru caffeine boost before making it as a premium beverage. But just like wine, the range of coffee quality and price nowadays is staggering.

“There's cheap coffee out there and there's coffees with deep, rich histories, and amazing, unique profiles that are totally worth the extra money,” Darrell says. “A lot of people put tons of blood, sweat, and tears into it. That's what putting on the event is about: to showcase the most important people in coffee, which is those who grow it.” 

Darrell and NoHo baristas look forward to hosting cuppings of Groundwork coffee soon. 

Written by
Melina Devoney
Barista & Coffee Journalist