6.3 Cupping Mechanics, Water & the Cupping Skills Practical

Section 7 of SCA-102, "Brewing and Cupping Mechanics," covers the cupping room. These details appear on the written exam and frame what examiners watch for in the Cupping Skills practical.

Tables and session size

• Tables: for six people, a surface of at least 0.90 m², at a comfortable height. The table is stationary, and cuppers move around it.
• Coffees per session: a typical session holds about 3–6 coffees, and the maximum should be 6. With six coffees and six cuppers, each cupper stands in front of one sample while the others taste elsewhere.
• Combined form: cuppers using the combined descriptive-and-affective form should reduce the number of coffees to allow for the more thorough assessment.

Brewing all coffees together

• Brew all coffees in a session at the same time. Ideally each cupper pours one sample's cups with their own carafe.
• If there are not enough carafes or cuppers, use at least one large carafe for every three coffees.
• Brew all cups of each coffee in sequence, using a spouted carafe and pouring to the rim.

Water for cupping

SCA-102 says cupping water should, whenever possible, fall within the "acceptable range" of its Table 2:

This is the cupping water specification inside the CVA standard. The older 2009 SCAA "Water for Brewing Specialty Coffee" standard is a separate brewing benchmark with different targets; Section 15.2 compares the two.

Cups per sample

• Descriptive: if cupping, 3–5 cups per coffee. More cuppers need more brew, from larger vessels or more cups. If batch brewing, one cup per taster.
• Affective: five cups per coffee per table, so uniformity can be judged consistently.

The sanitary modified protocol

Cuppers may modify the protocol to avoid direct contact between the brew and each cupper's mouth:

1. Each sample gets a designated spoon that stays with that cup.
2. The designated spoon transfers brew into a personal vessel, such as another spoon or a shot glass.
3. The cupper slurps from the personal vessel.

Whichever protocol is used, the spoon is rinsed in hot water every time before it is dipped into a cupping vessel.

The Cupping Skills practical

The SCA says this exam evaluates your conduct during cuppings. It does not cover setup, but you must show a high level of focus and professionalism during the course's cupping activities. The SCA's advice:

• Everyone should review SCA-102 to understand expected practices.
• Newcomers should take an Intro to Cupping workshop and look for public cuppings run by local coffee businesses.
• If you have a cupping lab at work, practice setting up, conducting, and cleaning up sessions.
• Video tutorials can help, but they are no substitute for training from an experienced professional.

A conduct checklist

The SCA does not publish a scoring rubric, so this checklist turns SCA-102 and SCA-104 into observable behaviors:

Personal preparation on cupping days

These are good laboratory habits rather than SCA rules:

• Avoid perfume, scented lotions, and strongly flavored foods or mint before cupping; they affect you and the people around you.
• Arrive rested and hydrated, and eat a plain meal well before the session.
• Bring a reliable spoon, a spittoon cup, and a pen. Use the forms your instructor provides.

Putting it together

A strong Cupping Skills performance looks calm and repeatable: the same slurp, the same rinse, the same route around the table, and no shortcuts when time runs short. Practice until the mechanics are automatic, so that your attention stays on the coffee.

Why these mechanics protect the data

Each SCA-102 rule removes a source of noise from the comparison between coffees:

• Brewing all coffees at once keeps every sample at a similar temperature and stage of extraction when you taste it.
• One carafe per cupper, or at least one large carafe per three coffees, keeps pouring time short so the first and last cups are not far apart.
• Six coffees at most limits fatigue, so the last coffee on the table gets the same attention as the first.
• Identical cups and rim-full pours keep the dose ratio identical, which is what makes uniformity judgments meaningful.
• Rinsing spoons in hot water every time stops one coffee from flavoring the next.

When you understand the reason for each rule, you are less likely to cut corners under time pressure.