Unboxing SET( SENSORY EDUCATIONAL TRAINING) course

Unboxing SET course

Let me talk about the conclusion first. After the four-day SET course, I has become a fan of COE. Not only because of the value and mission, but also feels good to use the COE cupping form designed by the ACE. From a personal point of view, if I have to recommend a sensory course, then I almost only recommend the set course

Let's talk about him first:

1. Your instructor is the head judge of COE (not only the judge, but also the head judge of the international jury), this is the shortest distance to contact the head judge,

You don't have to go abroad to find the head judge, and during the official competition, the head judge won't have time to reply you all the questions.

2. The teaching material is top-quality coffee. You will drink the latest bidding batches from countries participating in the Cup of Excellence around the world. This is already the top rule of the coffee sensory course.

What better way to learn than drinking top coffee and discussing quality with the head judge.

In the SET class, we almost drank the top 15 of Honduras in 2022, and we also drank Peru, Nicaragua, etc.

Participation in regional PCA collection bidding or COE competition

3. The quality of the peers is extremely high. Because it is a top-level course, the students who will come to the course are quite experienced coffee colleagues. In our course,

There are a considerable proportion of Q GRADER, world competition judges, Q instructor, large coffee enterprise purchases, and SCA coffee certified lecturers (AST)

4. COE has a powerful statistical analysis feedback form. In this form system, it will analyze your scoring range, the score position of the most frequent scoring, and your

Score meets frequency with the jury and more. Two weeks after the end of the course, your teacher will send this feedback form to your letter

box, you can use this feedback form to improve your weaknesses. This is the first time I have encountered such a feedback mechanism.

In the department (CQI/SCA/COE), it should be the only system with such a feedback form.

The above is a good summary of his benefits, but if we want to benefit, we also have to talk about the threshold conditions:

1. All classes are taught in English. This is a course without translation. The city where the SET course is held is not fixed every year. Sometimes it is in Tailand, and sometimes it is

In Seoul, like Taipei where I am, there should be a few years since the last course was held. The same is that the language used in the course is English, and The course is very tight, so there is no opportunity for translation (I guess if translation is added, it may become a ten-day course). Students who come to class must first

Have the basic ability of English listening, and it is best to have enough vocabulary, because the process of discussing coffee is very instant, so If you can communicate with the tutor smoothly, you will get a very good learning effect

2. The proficiency of the cupping form and the concentration of the evaluation (the part of mental strength). Prepare yourself for this class by drinking a lot of coffee and

To use the cupping form for sensory analysis, two rounds of cupping tests per day are basic, and the number and intensity of cupping tests will gradually increase with the course

The daily cupping samples will reach 24 samples/day. According to the number of samples in the COE system (4 cups of coffee/sample), you must conduct 192 cups per day.

For the sensory analysis of a cup of coffee, according to the eight categories of quality tables in the score sheet, you have to make a total of eight quality analyzes for 192 cups of coffee, that is to say, you must Made 1536 evaluations of coffee, which does not include temperature changes, hot and cold quality changes. It will be mentioned later that,The main reason why the SET course has to make such a high-intensity judgment is that the Excellence Cup system is a cupping form for green coffee buyer to use.

The form needs to process a large number of samples in a short time, so if you don’t have enough ability to use the meter, this course will become very difficult.

3. The two most distinctive quality evaluation attributes in the COE table are clean and sweetness, which are also two scoring attributes that are difficult for CQI cuppers to imagine.

Here, I would also suggest that the students participating in this course taste the coffee of the Cup of Excellence competition in advance to understand the special features of these two Cup of Excellence cupping form Attributes. Of course, the purpose of writing this article is also to allow readers to have a better preliminary knowledge in this regard.

What is set course?

The full name of the SET course is SENSORY EDUCATIONAL TRAINING. According to the teacher's introduction, it is the new version of COE Cupper Camp program. The improved version (ver 1.3?) is like the Q grader system is constantly being revised (2022.04 has been updated to the 5.0 system). I think that because of the vigorous development of the coffee industry, the coffee education system must also continue to evolve with the trend of the times. Responses and updates. Take the rapid changes in processing methods in recent years as an example. Many processing methods are challenging the traditional scoring system of cupping form and must respond.

In this article, I cannot explain the difference between SET and cupper camp, because I only participated in the former and I am not an instructor of ＣＯＥ, so There is not enough ground to explain the difference between the two. However, according to the teacher, the SET course seems to be more rigorous than the past version. The cupper camp has been upgraded a lot. Before the class, ACE organized a live broadcast on its social media to introduce the SET course

(you can click the link below Knot)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp3sDgvK2Z5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Let me summarize for you: The purpose of the SET course is to cultivate more cupper who can evaluate coffee with the COE cupping scale. If you want to become an international coe judge, then the SET course is specially designed for you. In the course, We will introduce the mission, history and philosophy of coe, and use the coffee from the Cup of Excellence competition as a teaching material to provide trainees with the ability to use the COE cup test form more skillfully. On the last day of the course, the way of national judging and selection will be simulated, so that trainees can actually experience the competition system and process.

What difference between COE &ACE?

To be frank, I haven't figured out the specific division of work between the two. For example, if you want to check the results of a certain country's auction result today, you can basically find it on both websites. Regarding the information you want, on social media, you will often see the same post or limited-time dynamics, so from the user's perspective, I don't particularly understand the purpose of dividing into two sides.

Regarding this question, I didn't ask the teacher too carefully, because there were too many other more important questions, so I didn't take the time to deal with it. but It can still be put simply, the full name of A.C.E is Alliance for Coffee Excellence, which means Excellent Coffee Alliance in Chinese, which is an organizational unit

According to the introduction on the official website: The Alliance for Coffee Excellence is a non-profit membership organization that brings together the global market to create a more transparent and sustainable

economic future. Institutionally, ACE is a 501c6 industry trade organization dedicated to auctions, membership, and developing markets. with A.C.E.

Different, C.O.E (Cup of Excellence) is a 501c3 charity with a separate board of directors and management documents. maybe we can

It is understood that COE refers to the competitions of various countries, and ace may cover other related categories. From the perspective of users, we can still regard it as the same organization.

Understand COE cupping form

Here comes the main meal of this article. Let’s explain the quality attributes and connotations of the C.O.E Excellence Cup Coffee form: To understand this set of scoring , we must first introduce coe’s unique form design. In the form, there are so-called basic points. For example, cqi will have 30 basic points under the premise of no foreign matter pollution (from

sweetness, consistency and cleancup), in the coffee review system, there is a basic score of 50 points, while in the COE system, coffee of any quality

Coffee has a basic score of 36 points. This basic score is ubiquitous in any scoring system, and its purpose is to make the calculation and the total score closer to intuition, that is, to form

The 100-point system, for consumers, the 100-point scoring table is the easiest way to understand the score. In the three systems, the amount of basic points is related to the evaluation The rigor of the system is irrelevant, and there is no situation where the more basic points the less rigorous, the basic points do not affect the scoring logic

The sample objects also have differences in details, which will not be expanded in this article.

The uniqueness of the coe form begins with its eight major quality attributes, which are:

1. Clean

2. Sweetness

3. Acidity

4. mouthfeel

5. Flavor

6. Aftertaste

7. Balance

8. Overall

The eight attributes have a fixed order. In other words, all coffees must obey the scoring order starting from clean and ending with overall evaluation.

Here is a coe protocol provided by sweetmaria’s

https://library.sweetmarias.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/COE_Cupping_Form-Vintage-old-version.pdf

Among these eight attributes, coe further subdivides him into three categories:

Foundation : the basic foundation. From the perspective of coe, the clean and sweet of coffee are the basic quality.

2. Individual attributes, the acidity and mouthfeel in coffee are independent attributes in the scale and must be discussed independently

3. combined attributes , flavor ,aftertaste and balance are joint attributes in the scale, which need to be considered comprehensively in the evaluation process

There are ten sets of samples in total, and there will be the same samples on both sides of the table

coe adopts the double cup method, so corresponding to both sides of the table

There will be two cups of the same sample. So when you stand in the middle of the table, the same Samples will appear on both sides with two cups on the left and two cups on the right. in coe’s protocol, the same sample must be evaluated at three temperatures

the high temperature (about 12:00 when the water injection starts),

the medium temperature (the water injection startsafter 18:00),

and room temperature (25:00 after water injection starts).

The time here is not clearly stipulated, it is just my personal relative reference value

with experience.

So you can simulate and see if the samples on both sides need to evaluate three

temperature, you have to go back and forth six times. Based on the actual cupping time,

Basically an impossible task, even if you are fast enough, I believe your mouth and brain should not be able to keep up. So in practice, the teacher suggested us, you can go back and forth three times, that is to say, if you start from the left

Start the evaluation on one side, then when the temperature is medium, you can change the side to evaluate, until the lowest temperature is reached, go back to the left again.

After you understand the process, we combine the three categories mentioned above with the process

First round:

Evaluate the basic attributes, clean and sweetness when the temperature is high. If you are an experienced cupper, you can write more independent attributes if you have the spare capacity.

Second round:

When the temperature is medium, I will mainly evaluate the independent attributes, that is, the performance of acidity and mouthfeel, but the difference is that in this round, I will slow down and directly evaluate the conbined attributes and the overall Reviews are finished

Third round:

The score calculation of the coe table is very intuitive, so you can roughly know the total score of the coffee by scoring each of your attributes. In the third round of drinking, I will see if my total score is the same as before The samples are consistent, and sometimes there will be scoring deviations, and the scores of high-quality samples are too low, or the opposite situation. At this time, I will use the third round of drinking to fine-tune my one-way attribute score. At the same time, I will also detect some quality trends in the third round, because in many cases, the quality of coffee does not have to be a flat and stable output.

The eight attribute definitions in the table

We understand the three types of quality attributes from the previous article. The evaluation of coe has a structure, which is a bit like a pyramid structure, connecting from basic attributes to independent attributes, and finally evaluating conbined attributes.

Next, we will explain in order:

clean related to clarity, no off flavor, not contaminated

Friends who have taken the Q course are not too unfamiliar with clean(aka clean cup). The most basic consensus on clean in the coffee industry is that there is no negative odor. From the definition of CQI, negative odor is divided into:

1. Phenolic

2. Potato flavor

3. Over-fermentation

4. Mod

These four types of flavors are unanimously considered in the industry as not belonging to the natural taste of coffee. Not only that, these four types of flavors are also considered to be pollution or processing.

Incorrect taste due to faulty blemishes. However, different from the CQI, the clean in the Q cupping table only discusses whether there is a negative smell, while

In the coe form, clean is a score that needs to be quantified.

Therefore, when the coe evaluates the cleanl, in addition to excluding these four negative flavors, it must also evaluate whether the coffee has enough clarity to present the origin of the coffee. It should be noted that if the smell of phenol and potato is found in the cup, it must be reported to the table leader (each cup table will have a leader), and the table leader will come to check with the head judge of the competition , if phenol and potato flavors are found, the sample will be eliminated on the spot and no further scoring is required.

The following is the positive evaluation description we will use on the coe clean attributes:

purity | free from measurable faults | clarity

Negative review description we will use on the coe clean attributes:

- dirty | earthy | moldy | off-fruity

sweetness related to ripeness, affects all other taste attributes

The situation of sweetness is very similar to that of clean. In the q system, sweetness only discusses presence, not quality. In the coe table, sweetness is the basic quality that must be quantified. In the discussion of coe, sweetness It is positively correlated with two production conditions:

1. Harvest ripeness of coffee cherry

(here are the link of coffee cherry color card:

https://image-cdn-flare.qdm.cloud/q6d55d5471842a/image/data//咖啡櫻桃色級卡.png

2.coffee plant health

It is believed that sweetness affects most quality attributes, especially acidity

The following is the positive evaluation description we will use on sweetness:

ripeness | sweet

The following is the negative evaluation description we will use on sweetness:

- green | undeveloped | closed | tart

Acidity feeling on tongue , fruit acidity most desirable, complex or multidimensional is most desired

Under any coffee evaluation system, the quality of the acid is not directly related to the strength of the acid. It can be said that in the evaluation of coffee, the quality of the acid is more important than the strength. High-quality acid is what we pursue more than a very strong acid. What is a high-quality acid? CQI shares similar values with coe:

All good acids have lively, bright notes and are associated with specific ripe fruits (ex: citrus, apple, plum, prunes, peach, berries, etc.)

Specific three organic acids (citric, malic and tartaric) are specifically mentioned in the SET course

In any texture, there must be a pleasant, unsharp balance of sweet and acid

Complex and multi-layered acids are encouraged (if a cup of coffee has many good acids of different qualities at the same time, it will have a high acid score

point)

The following are positive evaluation descriptions that we will use on coe acidity:

The following are negative evaluation descriptions that we will use on coe acidity:

mouthfeel

liquid feels on mouth tissues, the structure of liquid

The scoring concept is the same as that of acidity. mouthfeel is also an evaluation score that emphasizes quality rather than strength . The teacher specifically cited the case of Geisha coffee. Geisha coffee is not very heavy in the coffee body , but Its soft and silky mouthfeel performance allows it to get a high score in the mouthfeel score.

In terms of the concept of taste, the q system and coe use different vocabulary, the Q system uses "body", while the COE uses "mouthfeel".

The teacher specifically mentioned that in the concept of COE mouthfeel, he also pays attention to the performance of the structure of the coffee body itself, not only the sense of weight, but also the appearance of the coffee liquid in the mouth.

Many cuppers are easily confused when it comes to the evaluation of astringency. If they encounter astringency, should they go for clean or mouthfeel?

The teacher did not specifically specify here, because it is difficult for us to give a hypothetical discussion in the vernacular, and the basis for reference is probably this sense of astringency Whether it will affect the sensibility of the taste, if the answer is yes, then go to the clean, otherwise, you can comment on the mouthfeel. Unless the circumstances are serious, do not double

Repeated deductions , do not be punished twice.

The following are the positive evaluation descriptions we will use in the coe mouthfeel:

The following are the negative evaluation descriptions we will use in the coe mouthfeel:

Flavor /aftertaste/Balance

FL: basic character of coffee , easy to recognition or not?

AF: residual flavor

BA: all attributes harmonious , coffee hold over time

Because it is a combined attribute, I will explain it together. The flavor and aftertaste are integrated. Both of them are evaluations given by the common experience of taste and smell. The difference is that the taste is to examine coffee. The expression in the mouth, the ending rhyme refers to the feeling left in the mouth after the coffee is swallowed or spit out. In the vernacular, the difference between the two is whether the coffee is in the mouth or not.

The method of evaluating the flavor finish can refer to the new version of the SCA flavor wheel. The flavors in the upper half of the wheel are positive attributes, and the lower half are negative attributes. balance

The balance can be analyzed based on the harmony of the previous quality attributes. This is a quality attribute that is quite difficult to imagine in general, and it needs to rely on the tasting of cuppers experience. For example, if a coffee emphasizes the taste too much, but lacks the taste or even has a very thin taste quality, then such a coffee balance

will be low.

In addition, if all quality attributes are bad, you will not get a high score in Balance.

If a coffee performs well at high and medium temperatures, but loses its quality at low

temperatures, this is also within the scope of the balance ,and a certain response is required.

The following are the positive evaluation descriptions we will use on the coe flavor/finish:

sweet | cleanly disappearing | pleasantly lingering

The following are the positive evaluation descriptions we will use on the coe flavor/finish:

The following is the positive evaluation description we will use on the coe balance:

The following is the negative evaluation description we will use on the coe balance:

hollow | excessive | aggressive | inconsistent change in character

overall evaluation personal opinion , how does it stack up against other coffee

The overall evaluation is a soul torture for every cupper: Do you like this coffee? This is also a quality attribute that you can relax yourself, but please note: "Any overall evaluation cannot be made out of nothing, and must be related to the previous evaluation." If the previous coffee quality has been given a lot If you have a low score, the sudden high score in the overall evaluation is incomprehensible (you will be called for an interview by the head judge soon). Although the overall evaluation is subjective, it cannot ignore the fact of objective evaluation, nor can it be detached from objective evaluation. The overall evaluation is a bit like a bonus, you can express your personal hobbies a little bit in this form. The teacher gave a case of natural coffee or anaerobic fermentation. If you like this type of coffee very much, you can slightly increase the score in the overall evaluation (remember not to score too high), otherwise if you personally don't like this type of coffee, you can also make a compromise in the overall evaluation.

The following is the positive evaluation description we will use on the coe overall:

complexity | dimension | uniformity | richness | (transformation from hot to cold...)

The following is the negative evaluation description we will use on the coe overall:

simplistic | boring | do not like!

After reading the eight attributes, let’s talk about the scoring logic of coe. Please remember an important principle: the coe cupping table is designed for buyers who purchase high-quality coffee, so this scoring standard must meet several elements :

1. Allows raters to quickly distinguish excellent coffee from mediocre good coffee

2. Have a more delicate scoring mechanism to distinguish the quality of excellent coffee

Well, according to the above principles, let’s look at it scoring logic. The evaluation method used by coe is the jury system. The jury is divided into national evaluation and international evaluation.

Judging, both have 15 jurors for scoring. Among them, the national jury has two rounds of selection. When the average score of coffee reaches 87+, it will be promoted

to the international selection round.

Because it is a jury system, all the scores are averaged by the jury, which reduces the error value of human beings as sensory tools to a certain extent, and also that every coffee can get a more fair evaluation. The core idea of coe is that "no one cupper is better than another cupper, a group of cuppers Evaluations made are more informative than those made by individual cuppers. "

In the previous bidding results, the bidding coffee scores that entered the international final selection often fell between 87-93 points (more than 90 points will have the special award of the President of the place)

each increase of one point means that 15 cuppers have jointly recognized the quality of this coffee, so every point difference, or even every zero-point difference

Both represent a considerable degree of variability.

As mentioned above, coe uses a 100-point scoring mechanism with eight attribute scores plus a basic score of 36 points, so simple calculations let us know that each

highest score for each attribute is 8 points (. {100-36}/8=8)

I am quite impressed by coe's evaluation system. Because I came from learning the Q system, all cuppers know that the score of the Q system is 0.25 as the unit

Up or down, this way of responding to the quality of coffee is more difficult to present on the score. In the coe system, six points are used as the middle value, and the upward

It is a grade of 0.5 points (6.5 points and 7 points), and after more than seven points, there is a grade of 0.25 points (7.25/7.5/7.75/8). However, dropping from six points is a

grade interval. This shows that Coe's scoring system mainly focuses on high-quality coffee. As long as it is less than 5 points, this coffee will quickly reduce the score

There is a drop from other samples.

We can understand it from the following cases:

Sample A

gets 6 points in all eight qualities, and the total score is 84 points, which will stop before the international selection

Sample B

scored 5 points in all eight qualities, and the total score is 76 points. Which means a non speciality coffee

if you want to get a vote for the international selection, you must score 6 points in the two categories and get other on 6.5point

coe has its score defined:

Four points: defect

Five points: commercial grade

Six points: specialty

Seven points: exceptional

Eight points: optimum

It also has its definition on the total score:

<75 defect Coffee

<80 non-speciality

80-84.9 speciality

85-86.9 National award

87-90 COE selection

>90 Presidential Award

summary

The Cup of Excellence is one of the most influential coffee evaluation competitions in the industry. Since its establishment in Brazil in 1999, it has blossomed and surpassed itself in nearly a quarter of a century, not only eliminating coffee production. At the same time, it has brought coffee farmers more popularity and substantial economic benefits. Such influence is enough to make the Cup of Excellence Alliance a leading organization for international coffee evaluation.

I once asked my teacher Alex during the break between classes, if it is a small roaster like me, small scale green coffee buyers , can I become the Cup of Excellence

Jury? Alex told me this way: "When the COE organization considers the international jury, it will focus on two parts. One is to find

One is a good buyer who buys more coffee, and the other is looking for cuppers with adept cupping skills. "I think the SET course is very worth investing in, so that I can improve my cupping ability.