The room smells of wet grounds and warm wood. Twelve people stand around a long table. Nobody speaks.
On the table sit 24 small cups. Each holds a different lot from a different farm. A young cupper leans in and slurps hard from a spoon. The sound is loud. It sends coffee across the whole tongue.
The ritual
Cupping looks strange but it is exact. Coffee is ground coarse and steeped in water just off the boil. After four minutes, tasters break the crust and smell the rising aroma. They skim the surface and wait for it to cool.
Then they taste. They score on a 100-point scale. Anything above 80 counts as specialty.
Why it matters to the farm
A lot that scores 86 can earn far more than one that scores 83. That gap can pay for a new drying bed or a school fee.
Three points can change a family’s year.
The head judge told me that the hardest lots are the quiet ones. They are clean, sweet and balanced, but they do not shout. A good cupper learns to hear them.
A morning well spent
By noon the table is a mess of spoons and notes. The judges mark the lots they liked best. Farm owners wait outside for the results.
Cupping is slow, social and humbling. It is also the heart of how specialty coffee is priced.
