What is the Q Grader Test?

A few years ago the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) established a program called the Q Grader, which is a comprehensive professional accreditation for coffee graders and cuppers. This program aims to establish a common language to ease the information exchange among colleagues working in coffee quality control around the world.

Some producers, exporters, importers and roasters have experienced a lack of tools that ease the discussion process around coffee quality issues. For instance, high acidity in some countries might have just positive connotation, however at the end of the value chain some roasters could argue that this same high intensity of acidity are unwelcome for blending purposes.

Based strictly on technical issues, it is important to exchange information on the coffee crop from one continent (producers) to another (consumers). I believe this program has positively contributed to creating common ground rules for technicians that are involved in quality control in producing and importing countries.

I would like to share my experience during my four-day Q Grader test. I had the opportunity to take the Q test last week in Colombia at the Agrado experimental farm located in Armenia, the capital of Quindío state. This farm belongs to the local committee of coffee growers of Quindío that is also an asset of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia. I will write an additional article about this farm and the touristic attraction of this small Quindío state.

For those who are not familiar with this test I invite you to visit the CQI web site that organizes this event throughout the world (www.coffeeinstitute.org). The test is designed to evaluate your capacity to understand, analyze and discuss coffee quality attributes and defects based on a common language. There are 9 different tests components.

The sensory skills test your ability to distinguish three of the four basic tastes (sugar, salt and sour), within this test the candidate must be able to differentiate not only different concentrations of tastes but also identify what type of taste is included in a blend of two or three basic tastes at the same time. The three sections of this test are: Reference sample set, blind identification set and mixture identification set.

The second test measures your ability to match pairs of aromas. As stated in the test overview the aroma skills test is based on “Le Nez du Café” aroma recognition kit developed by Jean Lenoir and distributed by SCAA’s resource center. For each test nine (9) numbered aroma vials and six (6) letter-coded aroma vials are selected from the same aroma group. The goal is to match the six letter-coded aroma vials to the corresponding numbered vial. The candidates must match similar aromas and describe the name of at least three types of aromas. Candidates are placed in a dark room to avoid watching the color and codes of each bottle. The picture shows a training session with colleagues at the Quindío committee coffee lab.

The third test, called the organic acid matching pairs test your ability to distinguish the difference between a normal cup of coffee and one enhance coffee with acetic acid, citric acid, quinic acid or malic acid. It sounds quite challenging but is amazingly easy to perceive the differences between a normal cup of coffee and another with citric acid for instance. The cup of coffee with citric acid significantly increases the acidity, flavor and body compare with the control cup.

The fourth test measures your ability to cup and rate coffee flavor attributes in a consistent manner using SCAA Protocol for Cupping Coffee and the SCAA Cupping Form. For instance, any value given for attributes such as fragrance/aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, and overall impression must have a statistical similarity with any other cupper that is sharing the same session. This is the main point of this whole process because once any coffee cupper consistently rates coffees he/she might be able to eventually build up a common language to discuss differences and similarities among each coffee.

The triangulation examination tests your ability to differentiate coffees among three cups. It with a table with 6 sets of three cups each. Lead instructors ask you to point out which coffee is not similar from the others ones and where this coffee is showing up again at the table. For instance, if two cups out three are from Mexico and the other one is from New Guinea you might need to pick the id code of the New Guinea origin as well as identify where this same coffee is showing up in the rest of the set.

The sixth and seventh exams test your ability to grade green and roasted coffees. Each participant must distinguish between different types of green coffee defects and classify them among two groups. At the end of the exercise each participant must able to grade the coffee in three different categories as follow: Special coffees, Premium coffees and Commercial coffees. In addition, each participant must evaluate 100 grams of roasted coffee in order to identify Quakers beans.


The eighth exam tests your ability to properly taste and evaluate the sensory differences and problems for under roasted, over roasted and baked coffees with a desirable or optimum level of roasting. The Agtron number (the numerical assignment for the hue level of the bean) must be identified as well as the attributes or sensory defects cause by each types of roasting.

The nineth examination tests your general knowledge about coffee issues such as growing, post harvest and trade coffee regulations.

In conclusion, this is a nice opportunity to enhance your knowledge and skills to properly evaluate coffee from green bean up to roasted coffee. The industry would certainly look for standardized methods to simplify the assessment of the coffee along the entire value chain. Consistency and reliability data in the value chain of the specialty coffee side would be not only desirable goal but also a frequent requirement in the near future.


Note: I would like to extend my gratitude to Almacafe Pereira, Coffee Growers committee of Risaralda and Coffee growers committee of Quindío for their help and willingness to provide their facilities to train and undertake the Q Grader test. I would also like to thank you the lead instructors from CQI that helped us during this process. Finally, thanks to the sponsorship of Portland Roasting I was able to complete my training and Q Grader test journey successfully.