This revised SCA Water Quality Handbook, featuring the water chart and practical guide sets out to establish a solid scientific framework for a unified and transparent consensus on how we measure, aim and treat water for coffee. The fulcrum of this discussion revolves particularly around the two core parameters of alkalinity and total hardness. In particular, we will explore the suitability of different water treatments by deepening our understanding around total hardness as a crucially important parameter in the proper extraction of coffee.

Drawing on recent published research and experiments conducted by the Coffee Excellence Center at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), this handbook serves to promote a spirited exchange of ideas about the water we use for brewing within the specialty coffee community. An updated practical guide and Glossary of terms also offers the user a toolbox of concepts and methods with the aim of making coffee better in the domestic or commercial environment.

This handbook is ideal for field use when trying to detect defects in green coffee. Book includes the SCA standard for washed arabica specialty coffee as well as standard classification such as sample weights, table of defect equivalents, moisture content, water activity standard, bean size, defect classification, flavor characteristics, and roasted coffee quaker count standard.

Defect descriptions written and revised by: Standards Committee, Specialty Coffee Association Research Center

SCA Handbook Series: The Washed Arabica Green Coffee Defect Guide, Edition 3, 2018

SCA Handbook Series: The Coffee Biology Field Guide, Edition 2.

The Coffee Biology Glossary Handbook is an essential tool to better understanding the language of biology as it pertains to the science behind great coffee. In this 63 page handbook, author Emma Sage provides an in-depth reference guide for all coffee professionals looking to deepen their understanding of the science behind coffee through the terminology used to describe it. Newly added in edition 2: a chapter on plant biology basics as well as an in-depth section on coffee cultivars.

We are incredibly excited to announce the publication of the new Coffee Sensory and Cupping Handbook by Dr. Mario R. Fernández-Alduenda, Technical Officer at the Specialty Coffee Association, and Peter Giuliano, Executive Director of the Coffee Science Foundation and Chief Research Officer of the Specialty Coffee Association.

The handbook brings together 30 years of scientific advancements in the field of sensory science—which seeks to understand human perceptions of smell, taste, and mouthfeel—and combines these with cupping practices developed by the SCA and new advances in flavor language exemplified by the recent revision of the Coffee Tasters’ Flavor Wheel. It is the most complete and well-researched work on this topic to date, and is intended to provide an approachable and practical guide to the complexity of coffee and sensory science, to any and every coffee professional.

“It is no exaggeration to say the specialty coffee industry is founded on the concept of flavor. And since flavor is perceived by the senses of smell and taste, the concept of sensory evaluation, communication, and understanding is critical to the skill set of any coffee professional and is essential to any coffee business.”

The aim of this handbook is to provide a practical resource for the specialty coffee community while contributing to the body of scientific evidence on coffee freshness of roasted coffee.

In the first part of this handbook, we explore relevant studies in the field of coffee science and recent research conducted by the Coffee Excellence Center at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). Their pioneering research sheds further light on identifying physical changes that can be used to quantify freshness. We then move to a complementary set of experimental studies on sensory perception of freshness and subsequent staling in roasted coffee over time. In this illuminating member-driven experiment conducted by the Roasters Guild, we learn about the sensory impacts of packaging and aging coffee.